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"I don't have anymore learning left in my brain," my nine year old said to me as the school year came to an end.
She was ready to sleep late, drink lemonade, do cannon balls into the pool, catch fireflies and play foursquare with her neighborhood friends.
I remember that exhilaration I felt as a child on the last day of school as the endless summer lay before me full of possibilities and new adventures. I daydreamed about lounging by the pool, reading a stack of books from the library, and yes, playing outside with my friends under the street lights long after my regular school year bedtime.
For children, summer is a time of re-energizing, and it is also a time when their creativity is able to flourish because they are not surrounded by all the noise of their normally busy lives.
As an adult, I still love summer, but it doesn't inspire the same excitement in me it did as a child. For us, work continues, beds still need to be made, dishwashers need to be unloaded, clothes folded. Adults rarely get a chance to get away from the noise, even when the temperatures reach ninety degrees and the sun sets after 9:00.
But this summer, maybe, just maybe, I'll spend a little more time listening to the cacophony of cicadas in my backyard, eat a few popsicles, and read at least a few books from the library...After all, we could all use a little summer breeze in our lives, couldn't we?
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