The fall will be a pivotal one in our house: all four of the “big” kids will go to school. I remember planning to give our hypothetical kids lazy summers and no scheduling. The thing is, the actual kids like having stuff to do. My perfect summer days were me and a book; the kids want an adventure. And I want them to be ready for the end of summer eventually. So against all of my pre-parenting grand ideas, this will be the first big camp summer.

Here’s where I have to confess how fun it is to pick camps. These organizations are so creative! I’m equal parts excited to let the kids dive in on projects I will never permit in the house (STEM week with slime anyone?) and to know that they’ll feel super cool getting to do fun stuff on their own. They’ll still get lazy days at the pool, but also art in the great outdoors, chemistry in French, and physics on big machines. We’re all going to spend sometime in the North woods. And the closer we get, the more excited I am for them.