Five Ways Our Kids Have Already Made Us Proud This Summer
In our house, summer is a time for ramping up creativity, fighting the demons of learning loss, and pre-ticking boxes for college applications. It’s only July but we are already achieving.
The kids have:
1. Won Accolades
The last day of the school year saw smiles all around. The younger one brought home a foam football which it turned out had been bestowed on him in recognition of his status as 8th Best Behaved in first grade.
Our ten-year-old also stood out from the multi-sports camp crowd by winning the gold medal for Lining Up. His Olympic debut will be marked by extreme correctness of starting-line positioning, we are sure of that.
2. Become Risk-Takers
STEM camp was not for wimps. Growth mindset was non-optional. Risks were taken, in spades. And our ten-year-old burnt himself with the hot glue gun for 8 out of the 10 days of camp. One day, he burnt himself with it at 12 noon and then again at 12:20. No one at that camp took more risks than him.
3. Morally Developed
Summer isn’t just about intellectual growth. Here, we put character development almost equally at the heart of the activities we plan.
And although I’d say the boys were already quite Honest, this summer I’d say they have become even more Honest.
Witness: I was telling a mom at the park about our great summer, and my ten-year-old intervened to defend Honesty. He informed her that in fact, we were not having a great summer as only yesterday I’d cried and said that summer was “nightmarish” and “too long.”
4. Made Improving Friendships
The boys won’t take part in Russian Math or Writing Camp, arguing that those are cruel ways to spend a holiday and also socially damaging. BUT, they balance out this ill-guided refusal of opportunity by making really smart friends.
The seven-year-old’s buddy, selected for a playdate, arrived armed with a 500 sheet origami pack. He demonstrated to us with dizzying speed the construction of the Box That Morphs Into a Cute Monster, the Mother’s Day Love Heart and the Simple Crane.
Origami Boy commended my son as being the only one of his circle of acquaintances who hadn’t cried tears of inadequacy as he tried to follow the folding.
5. Made Great Choices
Summer is about independence, too. Our ten-year-old is on that delicate cusp between the innocence of childhood and the blossoming of adolescence. We were very proud when he refused the Coke offered by his friend’s mom; declaring “my parents don’t let me rot my teeth”.
Of course, feelings are complex, and it was regrettable that he then took hold of an advanced-level Nerf weapon and shot everyone else’s Coke down, flooding the floor with a torrent of the much-craved but bravely refused soda.
So fifth and second-grade teachers, be warned — August 19th, 8:19 am, will be the start of a summer-inspired onslaught of ahead-of-grade-level achievement and Profile of a Graduate style focus on leadership and positivity.
And those parents weeping tears of joy and heading for a lie-down in a very dark room and perhaps some daytime drinking — they are definitely NOT us.
