10 Tips for a Creating an Old Fashioned Summer in a Fast Paced World

It’s summertime and the living should be a little easier.  Have you downshifted your rhythm into a slower pace? When you think of summers from your childhood what comes to mind?  Catching minnows at the local pond?  Licking an ice cream cone with your dad? Maybe it was lemonade with neighbors on the back porch or chasing fireflies before a cool dip in the silent pond?

Take time out this summer for activities reminiscent of days gone by and create some new summer rituals with your kids. It is possible to weave old-fashioned summer joys into your fast-paced modern life--it just takes some thought and planning. 

Slow down and listen to the song of summer that’s waiting for you to turn up the volume. The child in you will squeal with glee and the child who lives with you will squeal right along.  You’ll also be creating some summer memories for your child to call upon years from now.

Sprinkle some of the following ideas into your balmy summer days:

1. Dedicate a day as “Strawberry Day.” The week before your juicy day, grab a big canvas bag and head out to the children’s section at your local library for books with a strawberry theme. A few to get your started:

The First Strawberries : A Cherokee Story by Joseph Bruhac, Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Strawberries  by Maj Lindman, Grey Lady & the Strawberry Snatcher by Molly Bang,  Big Hungry Bear:Little Mouse and the Red Ripe Strawberry by Audrey Wood.   

Peek into the adult section for some strawberry recipe books.  Try: Cooking With Strawberries by Virginia Clark or Strawberry Shortcake:A Recipe Collection Using the Strawberry, Naturally, in All of Its Forms by Susan A. McCreary.

Now you’re ready to go strawberry picking. Check your local paper for farms that have a “Pick Your Own.”  Lather on sunscreen and don your favorite straw hats.  When you’ve filled your baskets, on your designated “Strawberry Day,” rush home to bake some pound cake or make some jam.  What a strawberry feast you’ll have. You might just launch an annual Strawberry Day tradition in your family.

2. Let your kids loose in the kitchen to invent their own concoctions. Maybe they could create a portable summer menu using fruit on a stick, sandwiches, crackers and peanut butter--then pack it all up for an evening picnic dinner.  Your picnic can be in a local park, or your own backyard.  One mother waits all year for summertime cooking with her kids: “I take two weeks off each summer to relax with my four children.  We plan summer feasts in the cold winter months.  We don’t go away on a fancy vacation but we pretend we’re at the shore with our lobster bakes and in a Parisian cafe sipping iced tea.  My kids are young but they know how to peel ginger and giggle over kitchen adventures.”

3. How about high tea this afternoon?  Tea doesn’t have to be taken indoors and the guests don’t have to be real people. Do your kids know who began the tradition of afternoon tea?  It was Duchess Anna Bedford who just couldn’t wait until dinner to eat.

4. Any chance you have a young journalist living in your house?  Encourage her to turn off the television and grab a notebook--your neighborhood needs a neighborhood newspaper.  Maybe she has a few pals living nearby who could help. She might start with a pet listing so neighbors become familiar with the cocker spaniels, golden retrievers, and mutts living near by.  Is there something of historical note in your neighborhood?  Your child might interview home owners to find out about the lore associated with their homes or the ghosts that live in their attics. Support your child’s efforts by typing, copying, or distributing the first edition.

5. Set up a game table on your porch, deck, or under a shady tree--a simple card table will do. Buy a large plastic, waterproof bin with a snug top to store puzzles, games, and a deck of cards.  Pick up some big outdoor candles to provide flickering light.  Maybe your house will become known as the “place to stop for a good game of chess or checkers.”

6. Head over to a local pond or lake at sunset (imagine it’s Walden Pond) and read some of Thoreau’s writings. Children really are able to understand many of his simple yet wise thoughts.  A great place to begin is this thought from Thoreau’s journal dated June 22, 1852, “Is not the rainbow a faint vision of God’s face?  How glorious should be the life of man passed under this arch! What more remarkable phenomenon than a rainbow, yet how little it is remarked!”

Return to the pond, each with a journal, and write your own esoteric thoughts. You may not catch a rainbow, but could your kids describe life under Thoreau’s “rainbow arch?”

7. Don’t take butterflies for granted--any creature that smells stuff with their feet is pretty cool. Gardens, meadows, fields, and woods are great places for spotting these beautiful nectar feeders. Is there milkweed growing in a vacant lot near your home?  If so, it’s a sure bet your kids will find some Monarchs. Read up on butterflies, North America’s Favorite Butterflies by Patti and Milt Putnam is just the right size for little hands.  Bring a sketch pad to draw the varieties you see, mourning cloak, American painted lady, gray hairstreak, great spangled fritillary. 

8. Select one state a week and focus your reading, games, songs, words on that state. Scholastic's The Kids' Book of the 50 Great States and Harry N. Abrams' detailed Art of the State series should prove helpful.  If this week is Mississippi week, how about cooking up some shrimp scampi and learning about gators or kudzu?  Or, maybe researching the state of things after hurricane Katrina and where help is still needed.

9. Don’t forget the magical summer ritual of freezing fruit juice into Popsicles.  Add a little surprise by dropping a tiny piece of fruit into the bottom of one of the  paper cups before freezing.  Who will be the lucky recipient of the fruit pop?  That person is then responsible for selecting the ingredients for the next batch of Popsicles.

10. Turn summer “chores” into joyful rituals.  One mother of two told me: “Talking to my flowers in the morning is my solution to the ‘gotta water the garden’ chore. I greet them as I would a cherished group of friends. ‘Good morning girls, how did you sleep?’   Then I’ve nurtured myself, my friends the flowers, and I’ve had some quiet time before the kids awake.”  Nurture yourself this summer and create your own rituals for slowing down.

Mimi Doe is the author of five books for families including “Busy but Balanced” (St. Martin’s Press).  She has a Master’s Degree from Harvard, has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show, and was called a “parenting guru” by Ladies Home Journal.  Catch Mimi’s parenting segments on the Hallmark Channel’s New Morning TV.

Copyright 2006 Mimi Doe. All rights reserved.