Summer Magic

In sixth grade, my school district was considering a "year-round" or "balanced calendar" format where school breaks would happen in short bursts of 2-3 weeks every 6 weeks or so instead of one long summer. I can't remember how it all turned out, but I do remember one student asking my homeroom teacher his opinion on the matter and he wasn't terribly fond of the idea. He named a few pros and cons, then said, "But I've always believed in the "magic" of summer. There's something about it."

That made me wonder. What magic? Summer always made sense to me as a kid, but I couldn't think of one reason a teacher would find it any sort of advantage to kids.

In the moment, I thought he might mean the magic of kids physically growing up over 3 months. Then they could sit still better and learn more.

In college, I thought the magic must be the lazing about and getting bored bits that lead to untethered, spontaneous fun.

Today, though, with my kids the ages they are, this summer has felt a little magical. For the first time. Robert and Alice, in particular, have had the freedom/time/energy to explore their curiosity, test their independence, and try all sorts of new things in ways we didn't have the freedom/time/energy to try during the school year. That is what the "magic" of summer is for me this year.

Robert's dark cloud of grouchiness has lifted. Alice is bubbling over with ideas for stuff she wants to try. I love seeing them like this.

They excitedly pull me outside to show me three different kinds of mold that have grown on Matthew's soggy, abandoned graham crackers:

We theorize about why one cracker seems to have grown so many more colonies than the other.

They collect dozens of cabbage worms from the garden and make them their pets, releasing each one as it pupates and emerges as a fully-formed butterfly:

We get to observe and explore together. We make hypotheses and test them. It's the best thing ever! I love it. Love it, love it, love it.

I fall behind on my work...laundry, meals, landscaping, dishes...*sigh*...but I get to see how excited Robert is about measuring his baby trees' growth every week. He has an oak and a maple tree. The oak has not grown taller in a month, but the maple has shot up 2 whole inches!

Alice loves (I mean really, truly LOVES) the "home helper" work she has been doing this summer. She's completely embraced the nurturing/teacher thing. Kid Camp is totally her element.

I didn't get to see their energy and curiosity so much during the school year. I've missed it :)