What's Your Favorite Summertime Play?

Did you hear that? The collective "aah" signaling that school has ended for the year? Parents and their offspring are breathing a great sigh of relief as tests and reports and assignments are put on hiatus for the next 12 weeks. The long, lazy days of summer have officially arrived.

You remember being a kid in the summer, don't you? The freedom to roam about the neighborhood playing with friends and exploring to your heart's desire? Do you remember the joy of spending an entire day just playing? 

Dictionary dot com defines the verb play as; " engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose." Now to many parents (myself included) the idea that children should just waste their time playing all day is unnerving. We think children need to be actively engaged in serious learning. They should be reading or working on flash cards or taking a music lesson or engaged in some sort of enrichment activity. We're convinced that a child left with nothing to do but stare into the clouds and daydream is falling behind the rest of the pack.

Play is necessary and healthy for children and scientists now believe that some daydreaming fosters creativity. We all need to soak up some sun, stretch our legs and run, jump rope or swim in the neighborhood pool. We need to explore our artistic sides by playing with sidewalk chalk or painting rocks found in the backyard. We need to play sandlot baseball (do kids even do this anymore?) We all, but especially children, need time each day for play. The sad reality is the modern school day allows virtually no time for play.

With a blank summer calendar before us, I thought it would be fun to share ideas for encouraging good-old-fashioned play. Reach back into your memory bank and list in the comments below a fun summer activity of your childhood or your own child's favorite summertime play. Let's see how many creative ideas we can brainstorm and then try out in the next few months.

Are you ready? I'll start.

Catching lightning bugs in a jar. For an uncoordinated child like me this was not only fun but challenging! Most of the fun was just staying out past dark racing my sisters around the yard. We'd try to catch as many bugs as possible in our empty peanut butter jars before the mosquitoes chased us inside. We'd then put our jars next to our beds and watch the glow as we drifted off to sleep.

Now that I'm an adult I rarely see fireflies. But when I do, I fondly remember the fun I had as a child and the freedom to experience something unique to a beautiful night of summer vacation from school.

Now it's your turn. I'm looking forward to reading your responses!