School days at end for another year

School's out!

"Yippee skippy!" the kids are saying.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are left wondering just what all those youngsters will be doing all summer.

There's not a lot going on for youngsters who are couch potatoes. They just sit around with a joystick in their hand and zone in - or, as I say, - Zone out!

My grandsons won't see their joysticks very much this summer.

They will be spending some quality morning hours volunteering in the local animal shelter's youth dog training program for two weeks in June and another two weeks in August. During the afternoons, their time will be split between swimming at the local pool and reading at the community library. Then, maybe a few drop-in days at the Anderson Teen Center.

I suppose the older youth in our communities, those 16 years and upward, will still be able to secure summer jobs with a driver's permit.

However, if teens are not excelling in their academics at school, allowing them to hold even part-time jobs is risky business. When summer is over, they are going to want to continue making money. The focus should be on education, especially when they are struggling to get decent grades.

There are some quality programs for kids to volunteer at or simply attend in the summer months as part of community parks and recreation activity, but it requires a lot of shuttling that some parents have problems with because of job constraints. If there are relatives at loose ends, recruiting them once or twice a week could ease the stress of rushing back and forth.

It does make it tough covering all the bases when both parents are working and, right now, darned glad to have a job.

Ideally, busing the kids to and fro would take a lot of the worry out of the situation, but don't get your hopes up, only specially challenged kids have a year-round bus program.

We didn't have summertime problems when I was a kid. We had the wide open spaces, the lake only about three miles to four miles away. My friends, whose parents worked, had schedules to occupy their mornings and afternoons. And there were always aunts or uncles to fill in shuttling kids to the movies or swimming pools and the parks that were much farther away from our remote community.

Some of my friends' big brothers and sisters looked after their younger siblings. That, of course, meant these older teens should be responsible, which in the most part, they were. Big brothers and sisters looked forward to ratting their younger brothers and sisters out to mom and dad when the younger ones didn't follow the rules.

Cell phones keep parents in touch, alright, but they can't SEE what's going on in the background. So, while you have audio contact much can still be a bit of a mystery.

The best a parent can hope for is that they have instilled in their children the desire to follow the rules and use common sense as their guide.

A good summer project at home helps keep boredom in check.

My guys are painting boards so grandma can complete yard projects. They do a lot of reading and shoot some hoops in the portable basketball unit.

They are constantly rearranging their hang-out room that contains board games, television and video game. However, the games are out of reach and allowed only periodically.

And, no, I don't believe in television in the bedroom.

You've got to admit, it's tough to be a kid these days. It takes some strategic parental planning to keep kids safe from all the ill that is floating around. And, if I did have the internet at home, which will happen sooner or later, I'd have a cajillion blocks on it for those times I'm not there to oversee its use.

In the meantime, I'll make the trips to the swimming pool, the library and the teen center - and yes, I'll sooner or later have to invest in another cell phone just to keep in touch as much as possible.

Rearing children is like the pyramid story concept. In a spot news story you hit hard at the beginning with the vital high points and taper off as the story progresses, filling in less essential information as the story continues. You must get the reader's attention in a news story as the reader may not read the whole thing.

So it is with children, the experts say you must stay on top of them with guidance and discipline when they are young and gradually ease up as they mature and become more responsible so when they finally reach that magic age, can be let go into the world to find their way.

Unfortunately too many people today are writing the inverted pyramid feature stories, letting the children go out of control in their formative years and clamping down as they peak into maturity. Well, the conclusion of this story can peak into a sad or even tragic ending.