Friday, June 2, 2006
Page 15
AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)
Wishing for a Wish List
By J’AMY PACHECO
My daughter has been keeping track of time with a paper chain.
This is not as peculiar as it sounds. She made the chain as an easy-to-read indicator of the number of days remaining until the start of her summer vacation.
The idea stemmed from a similar project she completed in kindergarten, when the children used red and green paper chains to count down the days until “Santa Time.” Each day, they broke a link in their chain, then counted the number of days remaining — sort of like a paper advent calendar.
Her current chain is red and yellow. The red links represent days on which she has to go to school, while weekend days are indicated by sunny yellow links. At this point, the chain is frighteningly short.
A few weeks ago, I found myself wishing her summer vacation would come quickly. I could hardly wait to be rid of the nightly “get your homework done” admonitions, and to stop having to look up geometry terms and concepts on the Internet in order to be able to explain them to my budding mathematician.
But now that that the length of the chain has diminished to a handful of links, I find myself wishing I could slow time down.
We begin each summer with what we call a “Summer Fun Wish List.” On it, we list all of the things we hope to do or accomplish while free from school responsibilities. Past lists have included tasks as diverse as going to theme parks and learning to blow bubble gum bubbles.
The problem facing us at the moment is that we haven’t yet made a list. There are, of course, some things I know we’ll put on there — renovate the enormous dollhouse we’ve been thinking about for three summers now and for which we’ve already purchased wallpaper and floor coverings, for example. I just hope we can find the stuff – if we ever get around to the dollhouse.
On the first day of my daughter’s spring break this year, we traveled to San Diego and spent the night on an 1800s era tall ship, role-playing the parts of immigrant sailors. Although the voyage took only a weekend, she reported that starting her break with something big made it seem like it lasted longer than a week.
We decided, therefore, that she should start the summer with something more notable than a day spent eating Chee-tos and watching reruns of “Hannah Montana” on television.
Unfortunately, we have no idea what that something will be, because we don’t yet have a summer fun wish list. We’ve been talking about it for weeks, but have yet to actually put pen to paper to get those wishes started.
To be honest, I can’t believe the wish list is already due. It doesn’t seem possible that an entire school year has flown by. I still remember walking my brand new fourth grader into class on her first day of this school year, starting in a new class at a new school. By now, it feels like “we’ve” been there forever.
Of course, many months have gone by, marked by many events. Holiday performances, field trips, fund-raisers, book fairs, science fairs, projects and pages and pages of homework — it’s been a long, full year.
But it seems too soon for the fifth grade year to be upon us. My daughter is fortunate in that she already knows she’ll keep the same teacher next year, so the transition should be relatively painless.
We just have to get through this summer of the unknown fun first.
There are a few no-brainers; we know we’ll go to Disneyland at least a bazillion times. I’ve recently been longing to visit a movie-themed park, so I imagine we’ll do that as well. I know we’ll squeeze in a brief late summer trip to Las Vegas — not because Baby needs shoes, but because I’ve been invited to teach a class at a convention. But other than that — who knows?
There are some movies coming out we’d like to see, but our city currently has only one movie theater. That makes going to the movies an almost unbearable experience, and I can’t begin to imagine how that would be compounded when school is out.
She’s too young for driving lessons, too stubborn for swimming lessons, and it’s too hot in the desert for tennis lessons.
If we don’t get started soon, I’ll have to stock up on Chee-tos and check the television listings for the next “Hannah Montana” marathon.
A wish list filled with activities sounds like the better option. I just wish we had one…
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company