And the living is easy...

What makes a good summer good?

Pearl, Carrie, and Marcia are enjoying a summer with no real agenda. They have a daily routine, and they plan outings almost every day, but they are relatively free.

Marcia's dad sent us an article about children and summertime that resonated with our experiences this month.  Mitch Albom writes about the current idea of summer as a time for kids to "get ahead."  He explains that "for my generation, that meant a shift into slow motion, long, languid days nursing a Coca-Cola, or rolling cornmeal on fishing hooks, or seeing who had a sprinkler to run through, or taking another bicycle ride around the same five blocks." Albom remembers childhood friendships that he developed in his youth and says that these are relationships that don't really happen later in life because we're all in such a hurry.

Neither Marcia nor I have any family members in the Houston area.  We recently returned from a week with family in Arkansas.  Marcia, Pearl, and Carrie are planning a trip to Oregon in August.  Pearl and Carrie have cousins their ages in both Arkansas and in Oregon.  We are hoping that these summer visits--over time--will widen the family circle for Carrie and Pearl in a meaningful way.

Comments

[salcam]

My sister and her family just moved back to Houston from Ohio, and Callan is already in deep thrall to his cousins. They are a lot older (12 and 10) but the bonds are still there, and wonderful to watch. While they were in Ohio my sister would send photo books of the boys to Callan so he would be able to "keep in touch" - you might think of ways to keep the cousins in "communication" between visits.

[Liza]

I spent a week or two with my cousins who lived in South Carolina every summer from when I was around 5 until 15 or so.

While we weren't especially close at the time or in late adolescence, as we grew up, those cousins and I grew closer. My younger sister didn't have the same annual trips, and feels like she has nothing to say to those cousins. So I think it's worth it, whatever results you see -- or don't -- while the kids are all growing up.

I think the otherwise unstructured summers sound wonderful.