PickyKidPix and I had a good laugh when we reflected on the summer camp choices that her siblings made. I let each of them pick one inconvenient (and overpriced) week of day camp.
- Grasshopper and Sensei picked Hot Glass Blowing.
- PickyKidPix picked a week of soccer camp run by FC Barcelona, our favorite professional soccer team.
- My son picked a week of Minecraft computer camp.
They all loved their special week of camp but what made us laugh was the thought that one kid’s heaven is truly their sibling’s hell.
This would be the worst camp schedule EVER according to my kids:
Send Grasshopper and Sensei to the FC Barcelona Camp. Even though she plays soccer, she would have hated soccer all day long because of extremely intense kids.
Send PickyKidPix to Minecraft camp. She practically had a meltdown when she was forced to attend Family Showcase Day at Minecraft Camp. The masses of computers by extremely intense computer-y kids freaked her out. She asked to leave immediately but it was raining heavily so I forced her to stay. Yes, she would have hated this camp. She is the only kid I have that doesn’t play computer games.
Send my son to art camp. My son might actually like Hot Glass Blowing camp so we might have to switch him into Grasshopper and Sensei’s Chalk Pastel drawing class instead. His issue would be that the male-to-female class ratio. Not too many boys in that class.
And I guess my son wouldn’t have minded FC Barcelona soccer camp either since he’s planning on working on his bicycle kicks! According to this paper, we took home at the end of the school year, these are his 2nd grade hopes and dreams!
My husband and I are laughing when we read in his 2nd grade hopes and dreams that he plans to go to Boston College because it is ten minutes from our house. We hope he will venture farther away when he goes away for college.
And we look forward to witnessing his awesome bicycle kick goals as well! What are your kids dreaming of doing when they grow up?
We treasure his certificate from his Minecraft camp instructor Blank (yes, that is really his nickname). He wrote this about my son:
You are the most helpful person I think I’ve ever had in any class. You were constantly aiding your neighbors with whatever problem they had, and you made short work of their mental road blocks. The sheer enthusiasm and positivity you brought to the classroom were definitely invaluable, and that shows nowhere more so than your team’s map; your high standards and innovative way of thinking were clearly an asset to your entire group. All week you were a fantastic student, an even better camper, and we will definitely miss you at camp.
Each child got a similar write up which Blank read to them at the Family Showcase day before presenting the certificate.
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Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
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Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
It looks like he had a choice before BC, but erased it. I wonder what it was?!
I love these hopes and dreams sheet activities. Dylan’s 2nd (?) grade class did this kind of thing and bound it in a book. It’s awesome.
Hi Dee,
I’ll have to ask him! I didn’t even notice that!! I love these Hopes and Dreams too! I’m using my blog as a kind of scrapbook to make sure I don’t lose these papers. I have a bin for each child of their special papers under my bed too, but it’s a mess!
That note about your son is a credit to you, Mia. How funny how each of them would have coped with each other’s dream. That’s a bit like me and my siblings. Each course we chose at university would have been more beneficial to another child – hindsight and all that. I can see a fun picture book in those notes 😉
Hi Catherine,
I think you have a picture book inside you waiting to come out! It is funny how one kid’s dream week is their sibling’s nightmare. PickyKidPix and I have the same wicked sense of humor so we always bring this up to each other for a good chuckle!
It’s funny too how siblings are more different than alike, it seems. Did university work out for all your siblings, despite a slight mismatch? I’d love to hear more about that!! (Perhaps in your picture book!!!)
What a great note home to receive!
Thanks MaryAnne,
I love it when teachers assign these papers! If I were really together, I’d scrapbook it for each child. But I am not!
I love his visions for the future, and the diploma in his hand! And that is quite an endorsement for Blank and the Minecraft ideology! Nice. I also love the “inconvenient and overpriced” option for each kid. We called those weeks the; “week your grandparents financed this summer!”
Hi Catherine,
Yes, week your grandparents financed is a great description! It’s fun that they do have very special memories of each of their week at camp and it is the one thing they talk the most about from their summer camp experience.
Your son had an amazing experience and clearly had a terrific instructor that got to know him so well. I’d be thrilled to receive such a note about my child.
Smarty dreams of having her own business. She has a very detailed plan on how she wants to run it and compensate her employees, but very vague idea about what she will be producing except that it will be “inventions” and “machines” 🙂
Hi Natalie,
I love it! Inventions and Machines sounds wonderful to me! We actually did a summer camp week last year called Club Invention where kids elementary school age (boy AND girls) made inventions of all types. I have a post on it here: http://www.pragmaticmom.com/2012/08/camp-invention/
I wonder if this is available in your area. Smarty might really love that and it was a very reasonably priced week of camp!
I love these “When I grow up” notes and plan to store my kids’ when they reach that age. You never know; he just might be what he set out to be, and how awesome it’d be to see that certificate from so long ago 🙂
Hi Nina,
It would be ironic and wonderful for it to come true! First, though, he needs to learn to do a bicycle kick! LOL! My kids were practicing in the back yard but I don’t think he’s got it down yet! But I am looking forward to watching him score with his awesome bicyce kicks!!
This answer is really very touching because I think that it is very good for a kid to have such ambitious dreams because when they have them, kids are trying twice harder to achieve their goals and as a result they become even more successful in life even if their dreams didn`t come true.
Thanks Maria!
Your kid is really sweet and ambitious. I wish him all the very best for his footballing career!!
Thank you so much Kaustav and for taking the time to stop by and leave a comment!
It is fun having conversations like this with kids. Sounds like something we might talk about in the car. I would probably like the BC idea, think of all the money you could save on room and board. That was an awesome comment from his camp instructor too.
It is crazy to think we are nearing the end of September already. I am getting freaked out at how fast it is going. Lately my daughter wants to be both a marine biologist and a fashion designer and my son wants to be a sculptor and a ninja. He is still young : )
Hi Ann,
I just love what kids contemplate what they want to be when they grow up. There’s a career finding yourself book that my friend Lynn just told me about and it actually says to find that thing that makes you truly happy in your career, it helps to remember what you wanted to be when you were little. And to ask your parents if they can remember. So it’s documented here and I’ll tell your kids if they (or you) forget.
Daughter: marine biologist (and you live in the perfect spot) and fashion designer
Son: sculptor and ninja
Both of your kids like creative endeavors just like you!! Science can be creative too. As for the ninja, that sounds extremely fun!
Mia, I love this! This is your parenting and love at work. I love the way your son expressed himself with the visual of the cap and gown. He could have drawn anything,, yet he sees himself as an educated individual who can pursue and accomplish anything he wants. And hurray for educators, all those that help our children grow, for taking the time to write a letter so nurturing. I wish him everything the world has to offer!
Thank you so much Eileen! Both for taking the time to leave me such a kind comment and for your insight. You are right. I didn’t realize that he could have drawn anything (not to mention that he even realizes that graduation involves a cap and gown!). I’m not sure how he learned about that but since he’s never seen a graduation (beside preschool and 5th grade; neither have gowns), it must have been his teacher talking about it.
It will be fun to see if any of these 2nd grade dreams are close to his dreams and hopes when he gets older.
My husband said that our son crossed off UCLA and replaced it with Boston College. I just heard him giving our son a hard time. My husband graduated from UCLA and I went to grad school there LOL!