Cruel Summer

Whenever summer comes in, I panic.  

I panic for summer programs.  

You must find that extremely laughable but hear me out.  A summer vacation stretches out for weeks.  What can you possibly do to entertain your kids in that so many weeks???  You can't expect us to travel.  Oh please, I can't even travel to my grandmother's house without carefully counting financial damages for transportation and meals.  I have a beach trip planned, but that's just an overnight stint (again, you can't expect me to plan for a week at the beach because of financial constraints as well as the lack of logic for such a plan --I mean, really, won't the kids eventually get bored of the same sun, sand and water in under 4 days?)

So that's where summer programs come in.  I was lucky enough to have my kids join their schools' summer programs last year.  They had an art exhibit of their works and the kids felt fulfilled about that.  This was followed up by our beach trip, and dotted by mall and park trips that don't usually beg us to spend more than a parking fee.

You must be gagging at my cheapness now.   I can retaliate and debate on budget and indulgence ...but that would require a separate blog entry.  I'll get to that.

Back to summer programs, this year cannot be another art show.  I want my sons to look forward to every summer program they get into.  I want them to be absolutely thrilled for summer to come because it means they get to experience something new and different each time.

Kenji is easier to please.  Any summer camp that would challenge his physical strength and speed would earn stars from him.  We're thinking of putting him into karate this year.  Or maybe some mad Survivor Camp --yeah!

Miro is a tougher nut to crack.  He's always asked me to take him to science camp, invention camp, a summer program that would teach him robotics (YES, ROBOTICS!).  All these, we know, do not happen in this country.

You see the source of my panic now?  It's not that I have to do everything my children say.  It's just that I want summer to always be ultra-special for them.  It's the break right after a hard life in school, and the break right before you get back to the hard life of school.  They deserve this!

Anyway...back to my research.  There 's got to be something out there.  Hey, I have a month more to panic, and I'll make full anxiety of it.