July and August are the two big months of summer. There are activities we can do throughout both of them. We can go to a town pool, we can go to the shore, we have weddings and birthday parties. But, somehow, they feel different in August then July.
July is one long dash of busy. There are reasons to party all summer but there are more in July. That's because graduation parties carry over into July. Most kids are in some form of camp. THAT is the big difference. I don't know about most parents. But I try to get as much as possible done while Zach's in camp. He went to the day camp in town. That meant we went to the town pool sometimes after camp. He is like most kids in another way. He took swim lessons in July. But, won't be taking them in August.
Now August is here. Meaning, Zach is here................ALWAYS!!! He loves being home all of the time the first week. The second week he just wants to back-to-school shop. The rest of August is spent driving me crazy. That's because by then he just wants to go back to school where his friends are. Does that sound familiar?
August might be different this year. Now that we joined the town pool, he'll see some of his friends there. I can't last more then two hours there alone with him. But, if Josh is with us, we might go between three and four hours. A lot of that depends on who's there when we are.
August is an obsession. August and November are the only months I do a blog post on each year. Even then, I think I skipped a year with November. It's an odd month to obsess over. There isn't much that goes on in August. This obsession goes all the way back to when I was Zach's age.
Perhaps I have always been fascinated on how different yet how similar July and August are. We have always had a summer routine. Even though that routine doesn't change much when July fades to August, it feels different. The pace changes. Suddenly, you remember all you planned to do in the summer and didn't get to. Suddenly, there doesn't seem to be enough time before September hits and the fun summer routine changes. Changes into the school year routine. It's funny, even when we weren't in school and didn't have a kid in school. We had a different routine for that time of year.
My August calendar is still full. But now the plans include relaxation in them. Soaking up the remainder of summer. Ironically, while rushing to do the back-to-school shopping and summer homework. Teachers are back in the classroom. Getting ready for new students. How they feel depends on the class from the year before.
Zach's teacher last year had an amazing class. I bet she's excited to see what her new Kindergarteners will be like. Knowing it's such a great class, I suspect the first grade teachers are excited to meet them. Zach's camp was at his school so I snuck a peak into his classroom. He's going to have a desk now!!! But teachers with rough classes last year probably feel a mix of hope for a better year, and dread that it will be more of the same. To them, I hope you have a better year. To the teachers getting those students this year, I hope they matured over the summer. You might be getting different kids.
But that's the back-to-school post. This is the annual August post. It's a time to prepare the classrooms. Then take your own kids to the town pool. You can't do that in September. But it's August, a mix of September and July. The bookmark month. Holding the place between July summer busy and September school year busy.
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