What to do with kids on break

As a kid, I adored summer. I adored having nothing to do. Having the days stretch out endlessly before me. And even on days when the heat and the boredom got to be too much - even on a day that was merely, okay, not bad, not particularly good - just fine - I was glad to go to sleep that night and think of the possibilities of the next day.

These days, parents - and most especially parents who work - struggle to fill their kids summer days. It goes against their grain to think of their kids just whiling time away. And maybe there is a point to piano lessons, tae kwon do and kumon - but not every single hour of every single day needs to be filled to the brim. What parents don't realise, is the more they fill their children's summer days, the more their children will come to them on a day that you left empty on purpose and say the words you dread to hear -"Mom, we're bored."

So what are you going to do? Here's what K aged 9 and C aged 8 have been doing...

• Reading. After reading them the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book out loud - hoping to spend pleasant evenings reading them till we all finished the book together as, I am probably one of the last remaining adults who hasn't read JK Rowling. Guess what? I still am. When I got home from work two days later, they had each finished the book!
• Music. K and C can sing Beatles hits. They enjoy karaoke. And quite recently, we introduced them to Broadway soundtracks. First one song. Than another. Then they listen to the entire show and try to figure out the story, till they know the songs by heart. They started with Wicked. They like Fiddler on the Roof...and are now infatuated by Grease. Next up: Into the Woods.
  
• Technology. With some very basic knowledge K picked up from school on how to use Powerpoint, she taught her brother. Now they sit and make Powerpoint presentions together - mostly about the things they've been doing.
  
• Cooking. They found a recipe for a witches' spell in a book they have. They called me at work to ask me to bring home ..."...these four items...Mom, okay? Bring home, these four items" so they could whip up a magic potion made from fizzy lemonade, sherbet powder and food colouring.

There will be more great discoveries, I'm certain. And while formal lessons and extra curricular activities are all well and good, it's also good to leave some time open - truly open. This ought not time in which they can veg out in front of the TV or play video games, but free time. Real time. Because in real time, they can do..real things.

The way to go...

Here's the way you're supposed to do it. You're supposed to know yourself. And when you know yourself, you will discover what you want. And by the way, it's not enough to know what you don't want - because anyone knows that. You need to know what it is you want to do and what you want out of life. But also...what is it that you want to bring to life, to the people you love, and to the world at large.

And it may be that you have to start from absolute scratch. It may well be that you have to start getting to know yourself all over again.

Plans

It's always can't-go-to-sleep exciting to plot the hows and how-tos of a big plan. Plans are empowering and all personal projects are buouyed beautifully by an energy that seems as vast as the sky. And it is nice how everything else in life at once seems d0-able, manageable, and strangely enough, irresistible... in light of all that you imagine - no, that you plan will come to pass in the not all that faraway future.

Non-sequitur: my kasin J's gift of The Rhythm of Life by Matthew Kelly is surprisingly engaging. It's even made me go out and buy a copy to send home to L and M (why nath?) That's the thing about J. Packaged in rose-coloured sweetness that may seem to strangers like pure sap is an unmistakably steely, glinting coolness.

20 days

There's the flurry of preparing for a holiday - packing, shopping for pasalubong, and of course, clearing away work so that a block of time is created in which you can freely holiday. There's the holiday itself, which is always goes faster and seems shorter than you thought it would be. And finally there's the holiday aftermath - the mulling over of the things that you did and the things that you should have done as well as the new perspective that every trip home gives you. The holiday afermath also involves finally, grappling with the pile of work that accumulated in the time that you were away. All three stages which, in this particular case took the better part of 2o days, can impede even the things you consider important.

Like blogging for instance.

Realisation: It's a wondeful thing to take a trip home - but it's just as wonderful to come back...home.