End of Summer: Easing and Honoring the Transition

The end of the summer season means a lot of things for a lot of people. Bit by bit (hopefully here soon!) the nights get crisper and the days grow just a little shorter. Water park and pool visits make way for county fairs and Autumn harvest picking. For many, it means back-to-school. For some, it means going back to work. For the first two years of my son's life, I was preparing to go back to teaching outside of the home and this year, I am gearing up for our own little home-school adventure together. I had initially planned to run our Mommy & Me Camp right into the onset of "school" starting, but it felt awkwardly seamless and overfilled. I needed some down time and I feel we all need some end of summer fun in its purest unplanned form: like just past bedtime runs in the park and spontaneous Sunday day trips and extra visits to favorite museums and play areas.  Unplanning is a gift I see the value in giving yourself over and over again, in appropriate doses, as needed. I'm a super planner--I LOVE to plan. Planning our curriculum of themes and learning topics for the school year ahead was a breeze for me. Implementing can sometimes be another story. It can be hard to let go of plans--even those written intentionally in pencil--without feeling a sense of guilt or failure. And that said, I see the importance of teaching my son all the letters of the alphabet--when Plan A doesn't flow, you go to B, and there are 24 more letters after that!
So these last weeks of summer, I washed off our schedule on the chalk wall, took the calendar off the hooks below it, returned the theme related books from my son's book shelf and basket and stocked them full of his all time favorites. We are planning a little and playing a lot. We move a little more slowly and linger a little longer because that is how I best remember the summers of my own youth. And since "school" is something my two year old really has yet to have any concept of and home-school is new to us both, I wanted him to have a tangible part in getting geared up and excited for that adventure soon to come.
"Back-to-school" is a phrase that can elicit a number of emotions: excitement, separation anxiety, wistfulness, nervousness, joy and many more. Whether I was the student, the teacher, the mom separating from her son, or any combination of those, I've tried to use play and creativity to honor those feelings and ease transitions. When I taught outside of the home, my son and I each had a key ring with laminated family photos on it to carry and peek at during times we missed one another. Many of my students have found something like this helpful as well, and it can discretely be kept in a lunch box, bag or cubby. Making or purchasing matching family bracelets can also be a fun way to carry something close to you during the day that brings feelings of familiarity and comfort. Helping to personalize and organize school materials can bring a feeling of home and personal ownership to a classroom. Although my transition this year is toward making my home into a classroom rather than the reverse, the projects we've worked on this week can easily be transferred the other way around as we gear up for all that the back-to-school season entails.

Best of luck, happy playing, and enjoy these final thirst quenching slow sips of summertime serenity!

We are using a paper chain countdown to the start of our home-school. Each day, we will pull away one chain as we count down the days of the next two weeks. Because Pete the Cat is a school time favorite and my feline BFF, he's there, too!

Crafting in front of my son is no longer a spectator sport for him. He now has creative ideas of his own! He needed a couple paper chain links for his "hand."

He also needed his own Pete the Cat to color and carry around like a paper doll. So yes, many of my projects take twice as long and are now twice as fun!

Our chalk wall is no longer home to our camp schedule, but now home to a countdown poem! We use countdowns in this house for holidays, family trips, birthdays and all kinds of exciting milestones. We've done a variety of methods and it's a fun way to honor feelings of excitement and difficulty waiting for something.

I have a collection of recycled tote bags my husband rescued from going to the dump where he works (no, I didn't quite say he went dumpster diving, but when you're married to a preschool teacher...). They make great gifts for family members, students and now great Mommy & Me school bags for us! I love apple season and with Rosh Hashanah and Autumn around the bend, it is a theme I always explore at the beginning of school years. It seemed a fitting medium to use for our school bags. Fabric painting with toddlers can be a little frightening--smock up!

And to avoid paint covered apples being mouthed and eaten, I offered a snack of sliced ones to be enjoyed before and after our project. (Please see only the bowl of sliced apples and not the adjacent bowl of sugary snack cereals).