Summer with a 7-year-old

06/28/2014 16:32

 

I love summer.  I have my kids home all of the time, there’s plenty to do outdoors, and vacations abound.  Summer is hell on my writing, though.  I get absolutely nothing done, but I have a great time playing hooky from work.

 

With my kids being older this summer (7 and 11), I’ve tried to give them a little freedom to choose what we do to fill our days.  Sometimes it’s crafting, cooking, playing games, watching movies, swimming, biking…whatever their little minds can come up with.  It’s always fun, but sometimes it’s fun-ny, especially with a sassy 7-year-old in charge.

 

Movies

I asked my sweet little Lizzie what movie she’d like to see, thinking she’d say something like “Earth to Echo” or “Rio 2”.  Nope. 

She said, “I want to see ‘Captain America’.”

“Why?  I didn’t think you were into superhero movies,” I replied.

She put one hand on her hip and pointed in the air with the other hand.  “Mom, Captain America is HOT.  That’s why I want to go see the movie.”

She had me there.  So, “Captain America” it was.

 

Crafts

Lizzie loves drawing and making crafts.  She was up in her room a couple of weeks ago, working hard on something.  When she emerged, she was carrying this:

Mommy’s heart nearly burst.  There’s no better compliment than your kid thinking that your book is cool.  Even though my heroine is named after her, Lizzie is not allowed to read it just yet.  I know she wants to, because when I’m working on my writing, she likes to sneak up behind me and read over my shoulder.  And when a soon-to-be 2nd grader has a 6th grade reading level, she’s able to sound out a lot of words that she probably shouldn’t.

 

Cooking

I let my kids be “chefs” in the kitchen.  They’re allowed to make any concoction of food that they want, but they have to take a bite of it.  Today, Lizzie decided to make something for me.  It was “Flour-dough bread with oatmeal, cheddar, spices, and pomme-chipettes”.  Yeah.  Lizzie thinks flour can be a garnish, like Parmesan cheese or something.  Oatmeal, too.  And “pommes-chipettes”?  We can thank the TV show “Jessie” for that one.  Pommes-chippettes are basically potato chip crumbs.  Not one of Lizzie's best dishes.

But she arranged it so artfully, how could a mommy say no?

 

I can’t wait to see what she has in store for me tomorrow.

 

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