Summer’s here and that means planning more one-on-one time with each child and with my wife. Without the same kind of tight schedule, I can spread out for a day to take my five year old to a pint-sized theme park. My eight year old wants to go to more baseball games. And my 12 year old prefers to attend a rock concert or two. We have a couple of local ticket discounters that we signed up for and that really help make concerts, ball games, and plays cheaper. The best, in terms of quality entertainment and price, has been Goldstar.com, which discounts tickets in cities around the country, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and New York, among a bunch of other locales. What kinds of in-town activities are you all doing during the summer? What concerts or ball games have you gone or will you go to?
Except for the time I miraculously won a local dads tournament, I suck at bowling. I usually depend on the bumpers they put up for my four year old to knock down pins. However, I enjoy rolling the black (or marbled green or electric yellow) ball throughout the year, particularly to beat the heat of summer. Now, my pal Scott Frager (who publishes Bowling Industry Magazine) tells me many of the country’s bowling centers have a Kids Bowl Free program till the end of summer. Sign up at the site so your kid can get 2 free games at your local bowling alley. The program also offers a Family Pass that entitles each adult member of the family to bowl 2 games a day for as little as $23.95 for the whole group. Merrily may you roll along.
No matter how hard I try, I often wake up to a rainy day and say, “What the heck am I going to do to keep the kids entertained?” Part of the problem is that I’m often lazy and would rather sit in front of an old movie with my wife, and stick my kids in front of the TV for an endless loop of cartoons. While I have no real problem with age-appropriate TV for occasional extended periods, if it means preserving sanity for my wife and me, I have enough of a responsibility pull to think about more active endeavors. I’ve even written suggestions on this topic, such as eschewing the video games and breaking out the board games (which I’m gonna do), but I’m always looking for new ideas. So, would you readers be so kind as to suggest one favorite bad weather day activity?
Between what really seems to be happening with the economy, the presidential election rhetoric, and the media’s constant sounding of alarm bells, most of us are feeling awful about the economy. This is just one posting on this issue, so it’s likely the tip of my financial iceberg talk. Just yesterday, I heard about a father’s murder-suicide of his entire family and that drove the topic home in the worst way for me because it shows how much money rules our lives.
I do know money’s important, and I realize what I have to say may sound cliche, but this recesssion/depression/funk/whatever you want to call it must not dissuade us from our priorities. We can all weather this storm and, as parents, owe it to our children to keep our senses so that they have us around to be there for them. We may not all be able to afford the same things, but we can give them shelter and food and love — and that is really all they NEED from us. The rest is about our own egos and what we think we should give them.
I will ramble more, in days to come, but please comment on this posting and let’s continue to strengthen our support for one another, online and in person.
An idea I was given years ago about stretching a dollar and teaching kids about the world has a ton of value in our current state of national financial affairs. If you can’t exactly afford to travel around the world, show your kids about various cultures by taking them around to ethnic spots around your town, this summer. Eat at varying restaurants, visit museums dedicated to particular cultures, and hang out in parks where the mix of people is different than you are normally used to. Prepare the family with Web browsing about cultures and be ready to answer lots of questions about the wonderful wide world that may very well be in your city or very nearby.
Friends of ours, Deborah Landau (an amazing, award-winning poet: http://www.anhinga.org/books/book_info.cfm?title=Orchidelirium), her bizarrely funny husband Mark, and two sons make an annual end-of-the-year trip from NYC to visit their West Coast friends, including us. We get to hang out together on New Year’s Eve. Almost nine years ago, we met at a prenatal class and had our first-borns in the same hospital on the same day. They are special people to us and spending New Year’s Eve with them is a wonderful tradition. For other ideas on a family New Year’s, read http://www.familymanonline.com/moms_and_dads.php?id=66.
Journalist Debbe Geiger asked me for some suggestions on what to do with the kids while they’re out on winter break. She specifically requested ideas that wouldn’t break Mom and Dad’s bank. My comments appear in her Newsday article (http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/localguide/kids/ny-lskids1224,0,163658.story?coll=ny-explore-kids-heads). Here are a few of my tips to help you between now and when the kids head back to school.
1. Visit Libraries - Go to the local library and loiter for a few hours. Browse books, read, check a few out. It’s a great way to explore and it costs nothing. Also, visit other libraries in your town or nearby areas. Try libraries with different ethnic themes, historical angles, and university book collections, too.
2. Play Games - Hang out and play old board games. Use this time to teach your kids your favorites. Play card games, Nerf basketball, and make up games, too. You can even try your hand at one of those video games your kids ask you to play with them. It’s a chance for them to teach you something.
3. Visit Museums - You have probably heard this suggestion before, but here’s a twist to it. Visit a museum, then go home and do art projects based on what you and your children saw. Hang the art in a gallery-style exhibit on a wall. It’s a good way to reinforce what they’ve learned and show them you’re proud of their art.
4. Teach Planning and Budgeting - With a little extra time during this break, educate your children on how to plan for outings and budget for them, too. Have them estimate the time it takes to do a road trip and how much a tank of gas will cost. Ask them to plan a dinner, budget for the food, and shop for it. They can cook with you, with you showing them how to measure and time the preparation. In this way, they learn a lot about math and life skills without even realizing it’s educational.
5. Set Goals for the New Year - Let your kids be like you and write down their resolutions or goals for the new year. Ask them to prioritize their aspirations and remind them that, while it’s hard to fulfill all our plans, it’s important to consider what we want and need to do to make our year great.
Whatever you do, enjoy the break and Happy Holidays!
