PLEASE PASS THE POPSICLES ... AND THE STORYTELLING LEGACY : Tammy Morrison poses the idea that we hand off our cameras and our supplies and have our children tell their summertime story.
A great deal of time and energy is spent in an effort to make my kids summers fun-filled and memorable, here at home as well as elsewhere. In addition to our annual tradition of heading to Cape Cod, they go to many day camps which, over the years have included sailing, dance, canoeing, theatre arts, robotics, baseball, aeronautics, hockey, music and arts, tennis, basketball, volleyball, discovery, explore the sports, and more! Whew. Anything they don't have a chance to learn during the school year they get to learn in the summer. When not at camp, we have barbeques, bike rides, slip 'n' slides, kayak adventures, trips to Sammy's Chip Wagon in Bronte, blowing bubbles and sidewalk chalk contests, water balloon "fights", walks to Butterfly Ice Cream, picnics and trips to the park. There are many afternoons spent lazing away reading books and magazines and watching dams built at the creek. A huge number of freezies are consumed (and wrappers left everywhere!).
None of this is captured anywhere from the perspective of my kids!
As of today, my Canon G10 is now *gasp* in the possession of my children. I've bought them all 2G memory cards and small pocket-sized journals. They have been asked to do the following:
- Take photos of your adventures
- Write "memory joggers" in your journal
- Keep the memory cards and journals in a safe place
- Take photos at least once a week through the summer
In addition, I've asked them all one question:
What are you most looking forward to this summer?
Claire: Working at the Outrigger Canoe camp at Appleby.
Cole: Going to Olympia for training camp with my hockey team.
Chloe: Water! Swimming and studying for the Appleby test (SSAT).
Caden: No school and Cape Cod.
and, once summer is over, I shall follow up that question with: What did you enjoy most about this summer?
At least this way, if my plan of having them make their own pages goes kaput, I can make pages for them - from their perspective, kinda.
What about you? Are you participating in Stories of Summer over at Ali Edwards blog? I'm enjoying her guests and the promise of many more ideas!
