How you used to spend Summer

I won't ask you to close your eyes (since you're reading) but try this with me....

Remember back to a summer before you had kids....

Now remember further back to a summer before it occurred to you that someday you would no longer be a kid.... 

What was the best thing about that summer? 

Is it something that you could recreate for your kids? 

I would guess that it was something pretty simple and inexpensive. 

My favorite thing about summer as a child was spending time in the woods that bordered my backyard. I spent many hours wading in the creeks that ran through them, and alternating between seeking shade from the tree branches and climbing up in them.

Many of us are raising our families in places where we need to do more to get to the woods than open the back door. In fact some of us usually get in a car before we play outside.

Our daughter is at the age where she still considers dirt and sand food groups, but we have done our best to spend lots of time outside this summer. 

When we do get outdoors, we try to physically take a few steps back, so that she can decide if the shovel is for digging this time or if instead it is a hat. We try to let her experience the texture of the sand squeezed between her fingers even if it means we sometimes wait too long and end up sweeping our fingers through a mouth filled with grit. 

Her summers will be different from how mine were in some ways, but I want to offer her the slowness and space necessary to create those imaginary worlds in which I spent my summers.

What might your children remember as the best thing about this summer?

What will have been the highlight for you? Is it similar to what it used to be?

Use the comments section to leave ideas for other moms to use for the remainder of the summer.