I cannot believe we’re thinking about back-to-school already. Already! Summer’s barely begun, hasn’t it? Does it feel to you like, just when you get settled in the summer routine, it’s time to figure out the school routine again?
Not that our summer has been slow! We’ve been busy! Since school ended seven weeks ago, we had almost two weeks away — one, almost a week with our extended family at the ocean; the other, time spent at our favorite lake. We’ve had summer job schedules to coordinate: mine and my older boys’. The little boys had two weeks of swimming lessons during two of my busiest work weeks. Figuring out how to get people to and from their jobs and swimming lessons on time required incredibly detailed written-out instructions for my own use (“Leave the house at 12:40 to bring so-and-so to work a few minutes early in order to pick so-and-so up on time”; “Be dressed for work when going to get so-and-so from work at 4:00 so I can leave directly after dropping him off at home”) and panicky texts to my parents (“Could one of you bring nos. 2 and 3 to work at 8:50 and pick them up again at 1:00 so I can bring no. 1 to work at 9:00 and the little ones to swimming at 12:50?”; “Okay if I leave the little guys with you from 11:00-2:30 while I’m at my lunch meeting?”). Driving to and fro, back and forth across town and up and down the Northway, is its own kind of bananas!
In addition to work and swimming lessons, we’ve also done:
• Summer reading: the older boys all have required reading for school with associated written assignments that they’ve been working on all summer. I’m a big fan of summer reading! For the younger kids, I usually start each summer reading Charlotte’s Web out loud, but this summer my nine-year-old asked for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so we had fun working through that and then watching the old Gene Wilder movie version (1971) and the newer (creepier!) Johnny Depp/Tim Burton movie version (2005). I’m going to try to get through one more book before school starts, though I haven’t decided yet which one (maybe Charlotte’s Web after all!).
• Older-boy movie nights: My seventeen-year-old really wanted us to watch the Marvel movies *in order* (he was very serious about them being viewed *in order*) and since there’s about a zillion of them, and it’s summer, we’ve watched one most nights after the little guys have gone to bed. So fun! My husband usually makes popcorn and we turn off the lights (the little boys get their own movie nights!).
• Time with friends: We have already done and have planned more time with friends — for both kids and adults!
• Birthday celebrations: Two of the boys, my mom, my brother, my sister-in-law, both my brothers-in-law, my one and only niece, and myself have birthdays in the summer … and also my newest nephew, who is only three weeks old! We’re so excited to have another baby in the family!
• Non-swimming sports: The boys have played basketball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee alone and with friends, but our biggest summer sport as a family, besides swimming, is running. Many of us will be participating in a 5K this month, and there’s some combination of us running alone or with others nearly every day of the week.
• Video games: During the summer, I try to make sure we stick to our just the weekends/one hour at a time/no more than two turns a day video game rule, though I will often bend for rainy days and when we’re away on vacation. One of the boys got a refurbished Wii for his birthday and everyone’s been enjoying the old-school Wii Sports and making Miis. All of our family and friends are represented in our Mii Plaza, and many movie characters as well!
As much as I love not having the stress of getting everyone up and out the door with all their school papers signed and lunches packed at the crack of dawn, I also love a busy summer. I feel good that we’ve had time to rest, time to have fun, time with family and friends, and time to work. It’s been a good summer.
I don’t hate school starting again, though! Though I don’t love getting up early, I do love the predictability and rhythm of school days. On the most oppressive days of summer heat, I long for the fall, and nothing says fall’s coming like school starting! This school year is a year of milestones for us as well:
• My youngest is off to Kindergarten! For the first time in nineteen years, I won’t have anyone at home during the day from Monday to Friday.
• My second is entering his senior year of high school! I’ve barely recovered from the emotional stress of planning for and sending my oldest off to college, and now we have to do it all over again. I’d thought it might be easier after the first of our kids; so far that’s not the case.
• My fifth is headed to middle school! I will only have two left in elementary school, and the fact that my sixth is now our family’s oldest boy at his school blows my mind.
This is not to diminish the other boys’ new school years! In addition to the senior, sixth grader, fourth grader, and Kindergartener mentioned above, I also have a sophomore and eighth grader, and my oldest is heading into his second year of college. The new school year is such a marker of the passage of time.
There’s nearly four weeks left until school starts — enough time to bring in some more summer paychecks and for another quick trip to see out-of-town family, some more movie nights, more ice cream runs, more swimming at the lake, and to move my oldest back into the dorm. The next time I write, school will be starting! I hope you all have a good end to your summer.
Kate and her husband have seven sons ages 18, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, and 4. Email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
