Happy Holidays and Summer Fun!

Its vacation time, folks! The screams of excited children reverberate through the school corridor…Little A (yes, I would like to mention him by this name on the blog going forward) is excited too but doesn't actually understand yet what the chorus of Happy Holidays mean…he and his friends are joining in their moms' revelry who are just as excited for 'their' long overdue holiday. Now for a child who loves going to school, it spells bad news and for a work-from-home mom, it generates mixed feelings. Its nice that kiddo is going to be home but for 2 long months…the thought is a little unnerving!! I faintly remember feeling ecstatic for summer vacations in school days but I'm sure my parents would have been equally unnerved as every vacation we siblings would transform our home into a devils' s workshop.The tables have turned :)

Back in those days, there were very limited things we could do..learn an activity limited to music/dance or swimming; or read Secret Seven or Hardy Boys or may be revel in Archie comics over and over again. But now we have plenty of options. The space is abuzz with the murmur of moms making a beeline for enquiry of every possible summer camp. And I'm no exception. I'm going to enrol Little A for a summer camp too and hope he spends his vacation learning something new and doing constructive things (and in the bargain, get some time off for myself too!)

Little A goes to a Waldorf-inspired school (now what is that is a different story for an entirely different time). Being in an unconventional education environment which stresses a lot on hand work and minimal exposure to technology, turning to nature is the best tip they've given us. Coming to think of it, doesn't it sound like a great idea?!! I mean how many times in a year do we really make those nature trips to familiarise our kids with life beyond the concrete jungle...climbing trees, wading in a pond, collecting shells, handpicking stones, making flower garlands, catching butterflies etc. etc. Living in an urban location like Mumbai certainly poses challenges in terms of proximity and availability of such opportunities but I shall consciously try to explore whichever are possible (trust me, most of them are!)

Reminiscing of last summers when we hauled ourselves to an early morning beach picnic at Juhu beach, remains a very fond memory. The entire experience of waking up and driving off at the crack of the dawn with the picnic basket in tow has stayed with us. First of all, we let Little A explore a beach for the first time and secondly, it was a great photo-op for me (as usual!) He was thrilled...went berserk splashing water, kicking the sand, playing football and refused to budge when we decided to packup. A piece of my heart was guilty for not exposing him to that experience earlier or as often. Anyhow, this summer I plan to do a lot of experiential activities with him which I'm sure to blog and hope they'll make a treasure of memories.