I shared last week’s column with some of my friends to get their feedback and I was pleasantly surprised at what I learned. Adults really must work at having fun and educational things planned to do with their children and some families really are getting good at improvising.
It amazes me that the very people we love the most often get our least attention, resources and time. With rising gasoline costs and expensive airline tickets, many of our family members and friends are finding themselves staying home for the balance of the summer and making do with cost efficiency entertainment and outings. Along with the four ideas I listed last week, here are six others that might give families ideas for summer adventures and wonderful memories.
I mentioned turning off the TV for an entire evening, and even though that will strike some as a novel idea, it is a good one. It is frightening how important the television and video games have become in some families. Every room has its own TV and every child has one or more game machines to play day and night. Sitting and watching TV is entertaining, and sometimes educational, but it doesn’t foster quality together time and interaction. I know of at least five families who have planned what they term “family night” once each week when there are usually no guests or outsiders in the home. The concept is growing. Some families choose to play board games, others cook together and share the meal with each member leading the team for one night. The leader chooses the menu, helps to buy the groceries, sets the table and cooks what can be done practically.
Other families choose somewhere in the local community to go together. A friend’s family went to the local water park last week and took a planned picnic dinner to share after the kids tired of playing in the various fountains and water toys. Every member of the family went on this adventure and enjoyed themselves, including the pre-teens and teens.
Here’s an idea that all may not have the opportunity of participating in because of where you live. Two years ago I covered the story in Beaumont of an inner city group growing a simple fruit and vegetable garden on a small plot of land on a busy street. The kids decided to share the bounty with senior citizens who lived in the neighborhood. According to the sponsor of the project, the kids had such fun and the adults who received the fruit and vegetables were thrilled to be included. The kids took real pride in their work and kept the entire area free of weeds, watered and harvested as needed. I went over and took several photographs of the kids with their cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, onions, beans, squash and a watermelon or two.
While they worked to grow the garden, they learned a lot about life. The kids also shared team building skills, responsibility and the beauty of sharing.
If you’ve never taken the time to take your daughter or your son fishing, now is the time to do it. Purchase an inexpensive rod and reel, some bait and pack a cooler with chilled drinks and head to the nearest stream, lake, bayou or the Gulf shore to have the fun of a lifetime. It is not about the number or kind of fish you catch. It is not even about keeping the ones you catch. It is about the wonderful excitement of fishing together. It is an adventure pitting the fisherman against the fish, not to mention the crabs, eels and other unusual things you will land in the Gulf waters. Here at our house, we practice the “kiss and release” rule for most fish, but there are a few that make for good eating if you have someone willing to clean and fillet them for the table.
My husband, Ted, and I took Callie Grace, my nine-year-old granddaughter who lives in Groves, and Steven, who lives in Orlinda, Tenn. fishing in our boat on the Intracoastal Canal last Saturday. We had such fun with our picnic and cold drinks from the cooler on board. Callie wanted to catch fish, but she did not have an extreme amount of patience at first. She thought that as soon as you dropped the line in the water, a fish should bite the bait and let you catch it.
When she did catch her first fish, it was a fighting gafttop that did not want to be caught. It fought, twisted and turned all the way to the side of the boat. Callie was doing the best she could to contain her excitement, but she finally said, “PaPa Ted, hurry and take this fish off my line. He is walking all over the water.” We all had a good laugh at Callie’s description of the fish’s behavior. She was proud of her fishing skills and couldn’t wait to tell everyone at church what she’d done.
The kids will never forget the summer adventures and neither will the adults involved.
One thing that is more difficult for families to accomplish in the busy summer months is simply eating meals together. How many homes use the dining room or kitchen table to store everything from incoming mail, catalogs, hats and sports equipment, raincoats and umbrellas, flower pots to books and tapes? One family I happened to visit recently said that they had not eaten a meal together as a family sitting at the kitchen table in months. I thought that was a sad fact.
Mealtimes are good times to share the day’s activities, who’s doing what and when, things learned and dreams to reach. I fondly recall meals around my grandmother’s kitchen table when everyone took the time to catch up on each other’s lives. Big decisions were made around those pieces of wood and great investments were made in the lives of those gathered around for a meal. Take time to cook and eat together, even if it is only one meal a day.
As much as quality group family time is needed in the day and age in which we live, special one-on-one time is also needed with each person. Plan those valuable moments to share with one child at a time when at all possible. If you are having several grandchildren visit during the summer, try to plan the visits so that each child has a day or two of alone time with the grandparents. You learn secrets, fears, goals and dreams of each child and can have a very special time to store for your own memories.
Make those summer investments very carefully for good long-term results.
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