Here, it is the wet and windy season. In the Pacific Northwest, this season extends from October until June. By March or April, this has the effect of making us pine for summer, those few glorious months when we see the sun. Summer inspires frenetic activity, running from place to place enjoying all of those things that just don’t happen when it’s chilly and pouring.
It’s tempting to go crazy with summertime activity. The old routines are gone, and summer is a blank slate. Right now, the summer camp schedules are coming out. I’m excited. I may be more excited than my daughter. There’s animal rescue camp, and ocean explorers camp, and there are the camps at the place where I work. And of course, she’s also interested in Lego, and math, and…. The list goes on, and it’s so very simple to fill up summer.
But why fill up summer with a buzz of activity, running from one camp to another? Homeschoolers learn at home for so many reasons. One of these reasons is to free up space. Having the space and time for your children to explore is a blessing and an opportunity. Why leave this behind in the summer? While summer might seem like a blank slate ready to be filled with activities, good, old-fashioned productive boredom is also an excellent activity for summer days. Boredom leads your kids to discover the bugs that live in your yard. Boredom leads to the inspiration to learn how to crochet, or the desire to start a lemonade stand or a babysitting business. Boredom leads to dreaming, and in our culture today, we have so little time for dreaming.
As you plan your summer this year, schedule some boredom. Plan for whole boring days, a week if possible. Plan for stretches of time when nothing scheduled is happening, so that the most important things can happen: play, and plotting, and dreaming.
Image courtesy of Cylonka.