How To Make the Transition to Summertime

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Every year around this time, a subtle shift starts to take place in my house. The sun is rising earlier and setting later, short sleeve shirts become the norm, and fruits and vegetables that are not frozen start to make more frequent appearances. The countdown to the end of the school year begins and plans for the summer take shape. There are a few things that always happen as we transition from school-mode to summer-mode.

Shorts

When I drop my kids off at school and see the children in fleece jackets or heavy hoodies and shorts, it is as if I have seen the first robin of springtime. My kids would wear shorts 365 days a year if they could, but in New England, that is not possible. As soon as we get three or four days in a row of weather over 55, the shorts come out and they refuse to wear pants again.

Summer Shopping Lists Get Longer

When the shorts emerge from the drawer, the first thing I notice is just how short they are. For some reason, I forget that kids grow and the clothes that fit them perfectly last year now look like Barbie outfits. This year is the first that my daughter will be doing much of her summer shopping in the grown-up section and my son sprouted over the winter. Shorts, bathing suits, sunscreen, beach towels, camp bags all need to be purchased, and the list keeps growing.

Hopping Out of Bed in the Morning

A typical school day in our house involves multiple attempts to get kids to wake up, lots of grumbling and complaining (most of it from the parents) and finally – the emergence from their rooms with no excitement for the day ahead. Yet somehow, when they have to wake up at the same time for a day at camp they practically leap from their beds, get dressed without any prompting, and eagerly await the day. The whole morning-time mood in the house changes. This is one transition that makes life a bit easier.

Scramble for Coverage

We got our camp plans squared away a while ago, but there is something else that strikes fear in the hearts of the dual-working parent household – COVERAGE! It would be nice if school ended the Friday before camp begins and if camp went until Labor Day. This is not the case. We usually have a few days in June and at least a week in August when we have to figure out how to occupy the kids. Even with a vacation thrown in, we always end up with some serious debates about who can take what days off and how are we going to bridge these gaps. It always works out, but not without some planning.

Overall, by the time summer rolls around, we are all ready for it. It is nice to look forward to getting ice cream on a whim, after-dinner walks around the neighborhood, and other little things that only seem to take place at this time of year. Even though my husband and I are still going to work, it just seems more relaxed at the end of the day. Summer cannot start fast enough!

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Sara
Sara is a native Long Islander who has managed to shed much of the accent, but cannot get rid of her love of a good New York bagel, the Mets, and a decent pastrami sandwich. She moved to Providence in 2001, with stops along the way living in upstate New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh. Sara has two fantastic, funny kids – a 14-year-old daughter and an 10-year-old son – who attend Providence Public Schools. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Psychology and has her Masters in Social Work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. These degrees have served her well in her career working as a fundraiser (currently as the Chief Development Officer at the Jewish Alliance of Greater RI) and in her home life negotiating détente between her kids. In her copious amounts of spare time, Sara enjoys going to a museum or the theater, reading, listening to 80s music, cooking and piling everyone in the car for a day trip. She also admits to a love of funny and occasionally sophomoric movies and has been known to recite entire scenes from Monty Python or Mel Brooks. She tries to find the humor in all things which is necessary when juggling a household with two kids and a full time job. Her attitude can be summed up by a print she saw at Frog and Toad: When life hands you lemons, try to figure out something to do with those lemons.