Back to School Nutrition: What Did Your Children Eat This Summer?

     Summer is a mixed bag for parents; isn’t it?  There may be some relief from school projects and after hours activities, but the gaps are often just filled with more “stuff”… more places to be and more miles to drive.  Even vacations are not field trips; there is no one else, but us to make our kids behave!

     For me growing up, I think my parents placed me in every camp with a Native American name: – Winnataska, Sumatauga, Chehaw, and the list goes on.  These were serious overnight camps where my buddies would often get homesick and leave, and I would want to add more weeks!  Though I almost got sent home a couple of times, for things like slipping off to take a boat down a creek all day, I survived the discipline for another day.

     Though it may appear so, my mom and dad were not looking to get me out of the house for a month! They were parents who knew how to feed boys, what you might call nutrition for the soul. Parents throughout time have been given the responsibility to feed their kids, and it seems we are certainly attentive to that today, but mostly with the nutrition that comes from food.  However, a person lives on more than calories, and children must have sustenance that enriches the mind and heart, not just the stomach.

     Typically summer is the time that food comes more from home than teachers, though the responsibility for its supply never truly leaves the parent.  It may not be a camp or a vacation, but boys and girls need unstructured time to explore, create, find adventure, build a fort, or read an unrequired book.  Though parents can provide these opportunities, God created children to easily do these things themselves if we let them.

     Until I learned to drive, I explored my world on a bicycle.  There were boundaries, but something like, “be home at 3!” Not, “don’t leave our subdivision!” Some say the world was safer then.  I don’t buy that.  While riding that bike, I was offered candy by shady adults, threatened by tough guys, ignored in traffic…. but was fed in the meantime by freedom to explore the world and gain insights not found in a textbook.

     So now the summer break, if it was that for your family, is over.  However, it is not too late to rethink your child’s diet for the school year.  Is there any margin built in?  Will he have any time outside of school just to chill?  Or, does the schedule look more like force-fed activities that are a delusion of good parenting?  More is actually learned from climbing a tree than by organized activity.

 In schools with restrictive environments, many boys especially do not thrive. Even if the summer of 2013 did not feed their needs, then adjust for next year.   But, don’t plan too much.  Let them play!

With children, sometime the best thing about a plan is not to have one.   

Bobby Scott, headmaster of Perimeter School in Johns Creek, Georgia, and director of the ChildLight Schools Association, has over 30 years of educational experience.   He is a co-author of When Children Love to Learn (Crossway Books), a Charlotte Mason education book for school educators. Bobby has been the headmaster of Perimeter School in Johns Creek, GA (a 500+ student school of grades K-8) for 26 years. Since 2004, he has annually led teacher training teams to the Punchmi Christian Academy in Karanse, Tanzania, East Africa, as well as been an adjunct instructor at the Joshua Teacher Training College, also in Tanzania. He holds a Master of Education in Counseling and a Master of Education in School Administration. He and his wife, Valerie, have a son and two daughters.