This picture pretty much sums up my childhood. Grand intentions of a stress free, fun family vacation. In the end I doubt any of them were stress free for my parents. Having two parents as teachers, we were given the gift of time in the summer. Time to tour our neighborhood, Tallahassee, and far beyond. We loaded up and drove up the east coast one summer, to California and back during another. We were closer to the Griswolds that the Cleavers, but we made great memories along the way. My parents made a point to take us to museums, national parks, and historic sites (my Dad and I acted out Kennedy's assassination on the grassy knoll when I was going into 5th grade!).
However, summer vacation is proving to cause a huge gap in academic progress for millions of our nation's children. Last night while reading David Von Drehle's article in Time magazine, it is clear that summer enrichment is a must not a luxury for our kids. As a soon to be parent, this concerns me. I hope to create many educationally rich experiences for my children during the summer months. Whether it be visiting the public library, the top of the Capitol, cooking at home, cleaning up an area park, or touring some of the country's landmarks, I hope that you and your family are thinking outside of the classroom walls during these summer days. Make some memories, especially ones that are benefitting your child's academic progress. Let's not throw away the "lazy" days of summer, let's just "liven" them up a bit!
