Summer of free play

This summer I conducted a little social experiment. Other than vacations, I scheduled myself and the ball of fire to do nothing! That's right, not one camp, class, sport or volunteer activity. Zero scheduling. 

Things did not go quite as planned.

First some back ground. Since my son was four we have partook in some form of extra activity. Soccer, swimming, lego classes, art classes, volunteering for Harvesters, vision therapy, tutoring and Sylvan. All had their time and purpose to enrich, engage or advance skills. But it also resulted in very little time at home in the evenings, soccer tournaments all weekend on Mother's Day weekend and many late night crying sessions because there was still cleaning, laundry and chores to be done. (Yes, that was me.) 

Everyone of those activities had value. I'm glad we did them. Eventually we will do them all again in some form. But not this summer. 

I was reading a great article recently on overbooked Americans. The author boldly suggested that being "busy" was being a "lazy" person. How is that possible? Busy seems the antonym of lazy. He suggested that it was lazy in the fact that you spent no time developing yourself, meditating, spending time in silence, reading, relaxing. Basically you were on autopilot so often that your brain was becoming lazy. 

This spoke to me. It was exactly the feeling that predicated the summer of free play. We had days and days of summer to do nothing but run in the sprinker (me) or wade in the creek (ball of fire.) 

Now, where we went awry is that we are one of the FEW families on the planet who don't schedule. Many attempts at pool days with friends or sleep overs were thwarted by baseball, swim team, birthday parties or soccer camp. More often than not, it was me and the BOF rambling around the yard or watching movies. Often he would play outside alone, imagining some quest that ended in an epic battle with dragons. 

But I stuck to my guns. No scheduling. He vacationed with me, his dad and spent his customary week on the farm with my parents. He had a schedule, it was just very loose and generous. 

This week I asked him if he had a good summer, as school is looming just a mere three weeks away. He looked at me, smiled and said "Mom, it was one of the best summers yet!"

Maybe this social experiement can be called a success after all.