Things change in summer. Bedtime hours vary. Schedules are more random. More books are read in a week than during a month of the school year. Even with our early rising for summer swim team, we don’t keep such an eye on bedtime because of the knowledge that a midday siesta is definitely a possibility. Life in general feels a little more spacious even when we are doing lots of things and seeing lots of people.
I think it’s partly the long hours of daylight that give us this spacious feeling. Or maybe it’s that we’re more in control of our unscheduled time because it doesn’t hold so much homework or so many meetings or fundraising obligations.
Maybe though it’s just an illusion. Which is fine with me, because illusion is part of reality anyway. And this illusion should serve me once school starts back again in fall and I can take on this same spacious feeling.
I’m curious how others feel in the summer. I’m wondering whether this feeling is sort of universal or whether its a fabrication of my own mindset. Is it just that I relax more in these days? Or is there actually more time and space allotted? How does your summer feel? Does your family operate differently in the summer than during the school year?
Curiously yours,
Bernadette
4 Comments to 'Summertime rules'
June 29, 2010
This is a new summer for me. This is my first with both girls being homeschooled and things just feel different. I don’t feel like I have to squeeze everything into 8 weeks like I have in the past. We are doing some lessons over the summer so our new way of life can be more relaxed.
For now we sleep late, swim in the dark, read books together, work on our blogs and laugh. I don’t feel like it will all end in August like I used to. If it is warm in September we can still swim. If it gets cold in October, we can curl up and read by the fire. If we want to take a trip this summer that is great, but if we don’t get to it because we are too busy swimming, we can do it this fall or winter.
I love this feeling of freedom. It makes me appreciate each day a little more and the ability to have extended amounts of time with my girls is a blessing.
June 29, 2010
Sounds lovely Jessica. Going with the flow all year long! Enjoy.
July 5, 2010
Definitely my experience, too. I think that no homework and fewer commitments (for all of us) actually creates this feeling of spaciousness, so to carry this feeling into the rest of the year we’d have to reduce our extracurricular activities by a lot. Something I’ve often considered but have not achieved (yet?).
July 16, 2010
Hi Bernadette,
The twins are not in school yet and being four I still think they need a regular bedtime. I will say that evening can be extended by about 30 minutes over here. That doesn’t sound like much but I think the kids get a kick out of staying up a little later. On a side note: we went on vacation last month to see grammie/papa and the kids stayed up late about 3 nights. On two of those nights they caught fire flies!!!! They talked about those things forever.
Shannon
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