This first week of our son Theo’s summer break, I am trying to figure out what my priorities are. I want to start the summer off well with good behavior (on my part too!) and days that are a healthy balance of mental and physical activity and simple fun. In this first week, we haven’t sent Theo to camp, as we have learned from previous years that if summer break starts with just the fun stuff, it’s very hard to get Theo to do any of the not-so-fun stuff. Limiting his screen time is particularly challenging, since his memories are fresh of Spring Break when I was sick and helpless and he was able to spend much of his time on one screen or another. He learned the equation, “home time = screen time.” So to prevent a repeat of the “screen vacation,” I have to work hard (since my husband David works full time), organizing playdates and a schedule of non-screen time activities. So far, on Day #3 of summer vacation it’s going pretty well. Today he spent almost an hour on math and he is sitting reading a book (admittedly a graphic novel, but that’s fine with me) as I type this. He has also spent some time with a friend and has done some puzzles. So I’m feeling proud of myself.

But, this has meant that I have not been able to get much of my work done, and have not been able to come up with an ingenious idea for a Giveaway. However, because we should all enjoy and savor our small victories, especially when it comes to parenting, I am cutting myself some slack. On my way to the grocery store this evening, I stopped at our local Little Free Library and dropped off a copy of Theo’s Bone: Quest for the Spark book, in honor and celebration of the fact that this academic year, Theo really started to read for pleasure for the first time, and the Bone graphic novels were part of this development. And right now in this moment in time, he actually looks happy and engaged sitting curled up on the couch with his nose in the pages of a book.