New backpacks are on the hooks ("Mine is orange and blue and has a dinosaur!!!!" - spoken like he won 17 million dollars), preschool schedule on the calendar.....its real....summer is ending.
I wanted the kids - every day - to either
build something
have a significant conversation with someone from our community
or get wet
It seems that we need no excuses in this house to get wet and/or naked. So that happened nearly every day.
Conversations.....librarians, Sunday School teachers, friends who were over for supper, neighbors. Dear friends and strangers, thank you for taking the time to look my children in the eye and talk to them like real people. You don't know it, but the job you did in those minutes is life-changing.
Building Something was like the surprise basketball starter that comes out of nowhere and leads the team to the state championship. Much more often and easier than we ever thought. And oh my did I ever dig deep to tolerate it. It involved messes, tremendous amounts of tape, more messes, paint, more tape, sand, and a few more messes. But it also seemed to bring them the greatest joy. We rarely guided it, and the stuff they made was so random and strange and perfect...
These three seem a worthy goal for all of life - not just summer. If they can look people in the eye, value their relationships, learn from others, create something from nothing, and splash and have fun without care, is there really anything they can't do?!