It will be the summer of awesome and fun camps

I’ve been told that the summers at this magazine are pretty brutal, in that we put out two huge issues a month for a five-month stretch. That should be fun, once that period arrives, but my preparations for such time have already begun. I started thusly, “You know, I’ll be working a lot this summer, and I’m not going to let you sit at home and play Minecraft all hours for days at a time or anything like that, so we’ll have to figure out the summer camp situation, since you’ll be at summer camp every week.” The initial reaction was a pause, and mild irritation.

But then I reminded her that at this year’s zoo camp, she’ll be moving up into the next group/grade level. And then I asked her if she wanted to do gymnastics again, and then reminded her about the invention camp at school, and then the golf place. At that point, she was off and running. All those ideas sounded good to her, but what else?

“Well, why don’t we try something outside your comfort zone and maybe broaden your horizons a bit?” Again, hesitation, but by the time the conversation was over, she was tentatively in for drama, sports, art, and maybe a week or so in California with Grandma for a camp or two there. I suggested the wilderness sleep-away camp, but she wasn’t having any of that, and actually almost cried at the thought of being away from us overnight. Maybe architecture? “That’s interesting…” she said. Wow! Really?

So, now we’re all excited about the prospect of summer camps, a full two months before we can even find out about them, which is a drag. But I actually found a summer camp expo in our area in several weeks, so I think we may check that out. She’ll probably be more excited about anything new based on the counselors and information she sees there rather than my description of any of it, so that’s got definite possibilities.
I’m super relieved that she’s so excited. I wish I could go to summer camp again. It sounds like so much fun.