Beating the Dreaded Brain Drain

Ah, summer. As a child, I couldn't wait for it! Sleeping in, endless hours at the pool, playing outside, staying up late, no homework to worry about, no cares at all. As a parent, my views changed once my oldest was in preschool. I wasn't consciously dreading that summer, but all it took was one fellow mom speaking at our local MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group to make me realize that I had an underlying fear: how to entertain my son all summer (while also taking care of his little sister)... I was exhausted just thinking about it.

The topic of that MOPS meeting was basically finding things to do during the summer months. I honestly hadn't put much thought into it before that morning. Then Alice stood up and shared that she liked to incorporate the alphabet into their family summer activities. I remember the example she gave was that a trip to Omaha would naturally become a study of the letter "O." A light bulb went off in my brain and I jotted a single note on my paper: "ABC summer." I spent the next couple of weeks mulling ideas in my head. Then I spent three days straight during Memorial Day weekend laying out our summer of activities on the calendar. My son's preschool was ending that Wednesday, and our first A day would begin immediately thereafter. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to make the most of his final summer before starting grade school.

My goal was to spend two or three days on each letter of the alphabet and cram in as many things that started with those letters as possible. Sounds insane, right? Maybe, but we had a blast and he never once complained of boredom (thank goodness since the phrase, “I’m bored,” is not allowed in our home). Some of my friends and family call me anal (don’t worry, I've been called worse). I loved going into each week knowing what fun things we’d be doing every day. I did learn to be flexible as some outdoor activities were rained out or play dates were canceled due to illnesses, but in general, the summer went as planned. No doubt about it, the planning was a lot of work. As we finished each letter, I made notes on my word program about ideas for the next big ABC summer.

The next spring, though, I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to go all out like that every year. At the time, I had a two-year-old, so I made the decision to keep the big ABC summers for that critical year leading up to kindergarten for each child. But I really still wanted to do something with the alphabet every year.

So, on this blog, I will not only highlight numerous ideas for blowout ABC summers, but also give suggestions for ABC summers that require less planning. There are so many ways one can go with this. I had so much fun coming up with all of these ideas, and I was encouraged by friends to share them with other parents in a book. I'm going to test the waters on this blog first. I'll be posting ideas for each letter first and foremost, and then I will post about other ways to focus an ABC summer. Look for a new post every few days.

I hope I'll be able to help you beat brain drain with fun, educational activities!