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Ready for summer break
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___Call me crazy, but I’m actually ready for school to be out.
___ No more packed lunches, no more running from one thing to the next, no more last minute "I forgot to tell you, the teacher said to bring a copy of (fill in the blank) to school today." Or, "Hey, Mom, that permission slip needs to be filled out and the money handed in today." All
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ALISON WINGFIELD
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this as we’re walking out the door,of course. And no more parent volunteer for field trips and various and sundry other activities at school.
___ I’m ready to be off the school schedule and on a lazy-day- not-have-to-be- anywhere-at-a-certain-time summer schedule. How I’m going to get any work done with two wild things at home all day is beyond me, but I still want them home.
___ Although we have a few things scheduled, such as Vacation Bible School, a morning art camp and swimming lessons, I don’t like to have the whole summer filled up with activities away from home. Kids need some down time just to be themselves. And I need that time too.
___ Just as we all have our ideals, every summer I have visions of all the fun things we can do together. Maybe I’ll finally get those baby books finished, or catch up on the photo albums. Maybe we can have an "educational" day of the week and visit all sorts of places, and take short weekend hops to different sites around the state.
___ Maybe.
___ But inevitably, as the heat turns up and the summer rolls on, I can’t take going outside and the boys just want to lounge in a pool. (This is Texas, after all.)
___ Only two more weeks before school is out. I can’t wait. And in about three, maybe four weeks, I’ll be asking the inevitable question, "When does school start again?"
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___There’s a lot to be said for keeping the kids occupied in school five days a week--not to mention the benefits of learning, of course. But a family can only take so many months of homework, research, reports, special projects, Science Fairs, field trips and PTA events.
___ By mid-May, Momand Dad need a break from the
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MARK WINGFIELD
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school schedule nearly as much as the kids.
___ And the teachers--I don’t know how they go on. It must be the sheer hope of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I marvel that they’re able to keep the peace at all among roomfuls of rowdy kids with spring fever.
___ The approach of summer break reminds me of the great rhythm of life you experience when you’re somehow attached to an academic schedule. Like the farmer tied to the changing seasons, when you’re tied to a school schedule you find security in the predictable cycle of events.
___ Alison and I spent about 13 years of our married life outside an academic schedule, from the time we stopped our own schooling until the time our boys started school. Life in those years was good and fine, but it lacked the sense of natural rhythm we had grown to depend upon.
___ There’s a lesson here about the importance of spiritual learning as well. There’s value in establishing a pattern of worship, Bible study and prayer. And there’s a wholeness we find in observing the spiritual seasons of the year as well.
___ To everything, there is a season.
Mark Wingfield is managing editor of the Standard. Alison Wingfield is a freelance writer. The Wingfields moved to Texas from Louisville, Ky., where Mark had been editor of the Western Recorder, in which this column appeared weekly.
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