There are 28 days left of school for my preschool-aged son. I know this because the bus driver has posted a countdown sheet by her place in the bus (well, her daughter made it for her). Thankfully, this year, I’m a little more prepared for the arrival of summer and what to do with an active 4-year-old.Last summer I was not prepared. Seriously. On the day school ended, I picked up my son and thought, "Now what do we do for 10 weeks?" I thought we’d hang out at home a lot and play in the sprinklers in the backyard. That didn’t end up happening. We were running all over: The zoo, museums, plans with friends, a week up north, and yes, a bit of time in the sprinklers. But this year, it’s the first summer since he’s been born that I’m working fulltime. So weeks ago I started chatting with friends, last week the parks and rec schedule came out and today I got the church camp schedule. Thankfully, I also only work 4 days a week so we’ll still have that day to just hang - though there are some activity classes he would like that I may enroll him in so my daughter and I can do mom/tot classes at the same time. It’s a tough decision - do I schedule out every day (not too hard to do since he’ll be in daycare and/or church camp on the days I work, except for the week vacation we hope to take) and also plan on classes on my day off for two hours so I can do something one-on-one with his sister? Or do I leave that day open with no classes and just wing it - taking the kids together to museums and friends or just hang at home. I’m afraid my daughter will miss out on that one-on-one class my son and I got to do when he was that age. But I’m also worried my son will miss out on just "hang time" with friends since that’s the only day he’s not in daycare.
