The last days of summer

I may have over-scheduled the kids this summer; they have been in summer camps every week since we got home from Ireland, six weeks in a row. I have certainly welcomed the quiet time and the work time, but it has made our days a little busy, trying to get to places on time just like during the school year. Note to self: yes to camps right after family vacation (for parental recovery purposes), but do leave a free week in there somewhere for the children to recharge a bit.

Henry's favorite camp this summer was Camp Shand, the YMCA camp up in Lebanon County where he spent all day in the woods. He's got what I fondly call "Uncle Tim Symdrome" (named after the way Uncle Tim would recount his adventures at Boy Scout camp): Henry will first tell you every negative thing about his experiences, recounting each fall, bump, injustice, mistake, and disappointment. Then, after awhile, the good things start coming out. "Mom! We got to take out a canoe by ourselves and paddle around the island twice! We got stuck in the shallows and had to get ourselves out!" The first day of Camp Shand his "Trading Post" money hadn't come through, so there were no Doritos at the end of the day: disaster. The second day a branch he was leaning on broke and he tumbled and bumped his head: also disaster. But I guess it improved after that, because he says it was his favorite. It's also one of the easiest for Mommy: I put him on a school bus at the local Y, about four blocks from our house, at 8 am, and he comes home at 5 pm, having been fed a hot lunch (generally of the chicken nugget variety, but still). Excellent! Maybe he'll be ready to sleep over there next summer.

Agatha's favorite camp was Farm Camp. Friends had raved about this place last year, but I thought, "how great can it be? they can pull weeds and plant seeds at home." Well, it is pretty great. Agatha loves taking care of the animals, which include pigs, goats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and donkeys. They spend the entire day outside; a garage has been converted to their "classroom" but it is open to the elements on one side. The farm is a quarter mile off the road, so the children can run freely barefoot all day long without having to be monitored or having to fear vehicles. There's a shallow creek to play in, a bamboo forest to hide in, and a slip-n-slide on a steep hill for the end of the day. The woman who runs it is a former Waldorf teacher, which means there is a lot of singing, observing nature, and allowing the children to do dangerous climbing. [The kids also did a week of camp at the Waldorf school (their favorite camp last year), which they fondly refer to as "the camp where they let you take off your shoes and climb trees."] Plus, the camp ladies cook the children a hot lunch from fresh, local food, often food they harvest and tend themselves-- and the children eat it! Potatoes, carrots, quinoa salad, homemade salsa... and melon, granola, and berries for snacks. Yesterday they came home with wooden bluebird houses they screwed together themselves. Agatha loves farm camp so much, she's having her birthday party there next weekend.

I had a frustrating summer of working on my interminable article on Emma Hamilton, the Bacchante, and Naples. I thought I'd finished it, decided it wasn't quite ready, completely reorganized it, and... it still isn't quite ready. I'm not sure if I've improved it or just made it different. It's also incredibly long, which means that the stakes are high and only a few places will take it, and... I've decided to take a break from it. Summer is ending, and I need to switch to a new project. I was unable to wrestle the bacchante into submission this summer, but I'm going to try to sneak up on her from behind in a couple of weeks. Wish me luck!

Speaking of which, in two weeks it will be a very big day: on August 28, Agatha turns five, and all of us have our first day of school, including Aggie's first day of kindergarten. I'm looking forward to having next week home with the kids to make the final preparations. Welcome, fall, and welcome to this new phase of our lives.