Summer is here

It was my son’s last day of school yesterday before he starts his 76 days of summer vacation!!!!!! I remember how excited we were at the fag-end of the academic year with two long months of summer holidays ahead of us! But as a parent, I’m afraid I don’t share the same sentiment, at least not with the same intensity. Although I’m excited to see him excited, I don’t see the point of schools being closed for two whole months! I mean seriously, isn’t a month’s break enough? Or worse still, smaller classes have over two and half months of vacation! How do you engage a five year old during that time when it’s business as usual at work for us? That said, I wonder if our parents thought the same way too….weren’t they just as happy as we were…..or were they really good actors? Anyway, one of the best things about childhood is to be able to have unabashed fun during summer vacations…….something you’ll never be able to have when you grow up…for various reasons. So you may try to squeeze in some vacation time with your little one, or enroll him into a summer camp or pack him off to grandma’s house, but he deserves to enjoy his summer just as we enjoyed in ours!

With sunny days ahead, I read “Summer” by Leela Kirloskar and Arvind Passi and illustrated by Amit Adhikari, part of the Read India series from Pratham Publications. Seated under the blazing sun, a puppy complains to his friend, the yellow chick of how hot the weather has become when his friend explains that it is summertime and summer is indeed hot. The yellow chick then goes on to explain what is summer – she points out to a couple boys seen sitting on mango tree savouring sweet and juicy mangoes; then they spot three ducklings swimming in a pond into which the puppy jumps in to find the water nice and cool. Summer is also a time to bite into watery water melons and when the puppy digs into a slice of water melon, flies swarm around him and instead they decide to taste the mangoes in the orchard when they get chased away by the watchman. So summer is the time for mangoes, watermelons, flies and watchmen! Not much of a story, but the book does tell you ……what to expect in summer or what your little one expects you to do for him this summer! Happy Holidays!