Last night, I got re-educated in how fun unplanned exploring can be. These end of the school year nights have been so busy that we haven’t had time or energy to plan much in the way fun.
My middle school age son had a meeting at school. My younger sons and I didn’t want to hang out in the meeting, and by the time we drove home it would almost be time to drive back again. So we stayed. We walked around the school. We picked dandelions and blew the seeds. We waded through a huge patch of dandelions and laughed as the seeds fell on our shoes. At the back of the school, the boys asked if they could run a lap on the track. I said yes and off they ran, urging me to follow. I just walked.
They climbed up to the top of the bleachers and admired the view from the top. Then they came back down and decided to go back up again. We walked over to the park beside the school and they climbed on the playground. For some reason, maybe the rain earlier in the day, the slides wouldn’t really slide. As they crept down the slides I teased them that they should slow down, they were going too fast! It felt good to be relaxed and silly.
None of these activities are something we’d normally plan for or do. At nine years old playgrounds have lost much of their appeal. I certainly wouldn’t go out of our way to find dandelions. But I so glad we had that hour of hanging out together, of exploring.
The hour was a great break in the craziness of our week. I will try to remember that and add some unplanned exploring time to our summer. We can just walk around someplace new and see what we can find fun to do.
More On the Go Fun: