The Last Days of Summer

Then the day slowly turns to evening. After the sun has set and the busy summer days have drawn to a close, the insect orchestra begins to sound through the night air, the chirping of crickets and the sandpapery rasp of katydids. How delightful to lie in bed and be lulled to sleep by the calming, steady cheep of the crickets outside one’s open window. Though a lullaby, the cricket call also puts us on notice that change is in the air. August is an in-between time — a time of abundance and of slowing down. Although a panoply of color still paints roadside and garden, the grasses are dying and seed pods are drying. Golden rod appears and an occasional red leaf floats down, precursors of what is to come. We see the landscape being transformed before our eyes.

Change is in the air. The relaxed rhythms of summer begin to ask for something new. With vacations completed, school days soon to begin, and altered child care arrangements necessary, new rhythms and forms are needed. It is soon time to pack away the shorts and swimsuits and see if there are any pants long enough. For the plants aren’t the only things that have grown. The children are tanned, taller with legs longer, stronger.

Now the expansive space of summer is beginning to contract. Days are noticeably shorter, pink poppy flowers have shrunk into hard pods as the rhythm of the seasons flows onward.

The plants around us are embedded in this rhythm of the seasons. There is a time for expansive growth gradually leading into a time of contraction and rest. In our lives as humans, we are also embedded in the rhythms of the season, week and day — work days and weekends, day and night, waking and sleeping, activity and rest. Even in our own bodies we can sense the rhythms of beating heart and expanding and contracting lungs.

For the young child, rhythm is an essential part of healthy growing. Just as the rhythm of day and night, sun and rain, growing and resting contribute to the healthy development of plants, so too do the rhythms of day and night, rest and activity contribute to the healthy growth of children. Life requires rhythm to grow and flourish.

As well as establishing rhythms in the body, rhythm also allows the young child to literally go with the flow as they move through their days. Nobody needs to tell them what comes next, call them from their play to explain the next activity. They know what is next because that is how it was yesterday, the day before, and the days before that. Before lunch you wash your hands, after lunch you take a nap, before bed you brush your teeth, after a story and three songs it is time to blow out the candle. The children are free to enter into their imaginations while trusting that you, the grown-up, will be there for them when they need you.

While providing a rhythm of the day for your child, there is a bonus for you as parents. You no longer need to speak to your child many times throughout the day telling them what you are doing, what you are expecting. They flow along. This is important to note because each time you interrupt your child to explain something, ask them a question, discuss the next event they sadly are pulled out of their world of imagination and have to begin again.

In addition, you can combine this aspect of rhythm with the child's imagination to support cooperation. Parents often wonder what to do when there isn’t cooperation. Hardly a parent workshop goes by without someone asking, "How do I discipline my child? What do I do when my child says, 'No'?"

What if you ask your child to put away the toys, go upstairs, get into pajamas, brush teeth before bed and your child refuses. What might happen if you said instead, "OK, time for the train to take the load to the station. Now the engineer needs to take off his engineer clothes and get ready for his work in the morning. Engineers never go to bed without brushing their teeth!" Pairing rhythm with imagination can often help your child move through transitions that are challenging for both you and your children.

This may seem a far stretch from August where we started. However, autumn with its transitions is on the horizon. When it arrives, we need to be ready to establish new healthy rhythms for our families. Until then fill the remaining warm days outside with fun.

• Make one more trip to the beach
• Go blackberry picking
• At a farm stand get a local, juice-running-down-to-the-elbows peach
• Swim at a nearby lake
• Try on the fall clothes and celebrate with your children how much they have grown
• Take an after-dinner stroll and listen for the crickets
• Go to a farmers' market and enjoy the colors and abundance
• Mark the end of summer with one last trip for ice cream
• Eat corn-on-the-cob and watermelon
• Gather a bouquet of summer flowers

I once had a young child say to me, "The bees are sipping the sweet summer." With your children sip the last sweet days of summer and savor them.