3 minute read
Editor’s Note
The time to register your child for summer camp is much sooner than you think.
PARENTS OF MARIN — what are your children doing? Or shall I say, exactly what will they be doing the week of July 10 through 14? I just heard there’s a spot open at the Richardson Audubon Center day camp. Some kid dropped out, didn’t pay the deposit, or something, but the point is: there’s an opening. While summer is traditionally a time for beach vacations and lazy days, the reality is many adults still have weekday obligations. For me as a mom of young ones, the month of March often meant I needed to make quick decisions and pay deposits for dates way too far in the future. I’m a Libra; I can’t decide on lunch, let alone commit to registering my kids for camp months in advance. I learned the hard way. After a blissfully adorable preschool graduation — yes, there is a ceremony for completing the rigors of preschool — reality set in. What memo did I miss? Why were all the camps filled? That first year, I optimistically hired a local tween to watch my two girls. The three of them would be safe in my house: plenty of healthy snacks and games — what could go wrong? “I accept the consequences,” my toddler mumbled into the phone, choked up with tears. “What?” I asked, holding my breath. “What happened?” Next I heard footsteps and an anxious voice. “Who are you talking to? Why are you in the closet?” And then, “Hello Mrs. Towle, everything is OK, Natalie was just climbing ... well, she fell, but she’s fine. But the shelf broke and I’m trying to fix it.” It turns out, after assessing the weakness in her likely distracted minder, my 4-year-old decided to scale the kitchen cabinets in search of the coveted chocolate chips, the only refined sugar in the house. Eventually I learned to follow the lead of my friends. Lisa had the gymnastics camps wired and her kids will forever have sculpted muscles as a result. Susan, an early adapter of coding classes, is now figuring out how to pay for her daughter’s Ivy League education, while another friend, Dyer, clued me in to the Stinson Beach Junior Lifeguard program, a free summer-long course offered by the GGNRA. Her strapping son Dea will return this year from college in Scotland to take a post in one of the lifeguard stands for the summer. Camps are not only a great way to explore new interests; they can inspire a lifelong passion. That happened for my oldest daughter, Grace. At 7 she was finally old enough to attend Miwok Stables summer camp, and by 14 she was a counselor, although for some reason we continued to pay a weekly fee. She’s still a passionate equestrian at 18; riding has opened many doors for her and it looks like she will stay with it in college. Browsing through the summer camp guide we include in this month’s issue, I saw some familiar names: Steve and Kate’s, the Marine Mammal Center and the Bay Area Discovery Museum, where Grace insisted on being a squawking eagle in a play about ocean creatures. I look at a coveted tiny painting of a tree every morning, created by Natalie at Masterworks art camp. Somewhere, I have all the T-shirts that came home with each camp (free advertising). I was planning to make a quilt out of them for the kids to take to college.
I may have complained about the hassle of committing at the time, or about the expense, but with that stage of life in the rearview mirror, I am so grateful for those creative educators and businesses’ dedicated efforts to keep summers fun. Now I just need to find a summer camp for grown-ups.
Mimi Towle, Executive Editor
