We are already in August. Summer is passing fast.

How are you making memories this summer? 

I went on camping with my family last week. How lucky I was! 

I feel lucky because I know how hard it is to get together as a family at this age. Most of us have a daytime job, personal work and personal life. Although the fact that we don’t have children in our family might have had an effect, everyone making time for more than a week at the same time is not an easy thing. 

Therefore, I was grateful for this opportunity from the beginning of the prep time and the gratitude was at the centre of this camping throughout the whole nine days. 

There was one thing that I tried to remember every possible moment of my time there. 

“I want to be mindful. I want to be present. All the time. I want everybody to feel that I’m present.”

I’m looking back at the time now and very glad to be able to say that I remembered my intention and goal and therefore, I had a great unregretful time with my family. (I’m so proud here😊 because it doesn’t happen always.)

I believe there are some insights that can be helpful for you, so I want to share them here today. 

I tried to step back and look at the situation from a distance, any time I could. 

As I was sitting on a beach and looking at different things, I thought, “It’s a beautiful sunny day. The sky is beautiful and the warm wind makes this beach scene even more beautiful. My family is enjoying this relaxing (just one) hour at the beach in their own way and I love seeing them in peace.” 

It could be just “Wow, it’s a beautiful day and beautiful beach”, but I asked myself this question. 

“Do you think you are gonna remember this scene? How am I gonna remember it?”

And this quote came to my mind. “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” – Charlie Chaplin 

It doesn’t perfectly describe my situation (🤪) but I think I just want to say that it’s good to step back and look from a distance sometimes. 

When I didn’t love a situation, I asked myself “What are the good things here?”

When you are with other humans, the chance is you have disagreement. Not all the time but sometimes. 

Thinking about what the good things are in the situation can help you stay in a good mood. We don’t want to be in a bad mood or annoyed mood during vacation, right? The normal-day-me might not visit the famous sticky bun place but the vacation-time-me did and made another small fun memory. 

(Hey, you can listen to the podcast episode 60 of Teacher Gela Podcast, if you want to hear all the details. Hehe.) 

There were quite a few things that I didn’t pack and suffered from it but if I get to choose the best thing that I packed is books. My husband laughed when he heard that I brought two books with me – because our schedule was full everyday – but I was glad that I had a book to read when we were given an unplanned free time. If you are not good with not-being-productive like me, take one or two books with you to camping. 

I think the best time for connection at camping is the meal time and campfire time. 

Rather than that adults prepare every meal by themselves, you can give small tasks to children and make them feel belonged and connected. For example, you can put a bunch of mini cucumbers in a big bowl with water and ask your child to wash them. When you finish cooking the main dishes, you can bring the cucumbers, chop them and put them on a plate. 

I want to suggest to elongate the campfire time at night. You can have an early dinner and start the campfire early. 

The campfire at night was one of my best time at camping. It allowed our family to talk about various things like the music that my mom used to love, what my sister’s puppy thought about campfire and how much my brother-in-law invested in my sister’s present. Small little things that we don’t really get to have time to talk about normally. 

There are two things that you need to bring to make this campfire time long and fun for children. Things to make s’mores and the Mystical Fire (a magic powder that changes the colour of fire). These two things will give lots of laughter and talks. 

I was a little bit worried about my first long camping at the beginning but happy that I made good memories with good mindset.:) Just going on a camping with family can be a good experience but I wanted to have a real meaningful time and that’s why I tried to be conscious and present all the time. I hope my insights can be helpful for you and help you have a quality time as a family this summer. 

This is the resource that I made for you and your child.

These are gonna be in your inbox this Thursday (August 15, 2024) if you are on the Everyday Funday email list. (How to join? Go to the bottom of this page!)

Listen to my story in my voice (probably with more emotions😁)

Mindful Moment (video lesson)

Happy learning and quality time!

Teacher Gela