Kids seem to relish summer as a time to explore, read, play, or just daydream. What comes to mind when you recall summers as a carefree youngster? Some of summer’s simple pleasures (through kids’ eyes) are highlighted below. Share them with your group to evoke memories of the season about to come to an end. Enhance your reminiscing session with some old props, like a wooden picnic basket, comic books, baseball cards, or a fishing rod.
REMEMBER . . .
- Catching “lightning” bugs and putting them in an old Mason jar
- Playing pick-up baseball games in a rough field and using wood for bases
- Trading “bubblegum” cards (baseball cards)
- Going barefoot for most of the summer – through dirt, mud, water, and sand
- Learning to whistle a favorite tune
- Tasting hand-churned ice cream
- Reading comics by flashlight and trading them with friends
- Looking through mail-order catalogs for school clothes
- Playing Hide and Go Seek and Kick the Can until dark
- Braiding a cousin’s hair into pigtails
- Digging for fishin’ worms in a damp garden or under logs for late afternoon fishing at the local creek
- Stargazing on a warm summer night and counting the millions of stars in the sky
- Going for a swim in a favorite “hole” and being old enough to use the rope swing
- Picking blueberries, blackberries, and huckleberries for Grandma’s special berry pie
- Earning a few pennies taking pop bottles to the local store and buying penny candy
- Spitting watermelon seeds in the front yard with a best buddy
- Feasting on fried chicken at a church picnic
- Enjoying a Saturday matinee with singing cowboys at the local theatre
- Reading a Nancy Drew mystery book on the porch swing and sipping homemade lemonade
- Playing Cowboys and Indians with cap guns
KIDS’ SUMMER TRIVIA QUIZ
- What do boys use “night crawlers” for? Fishing (fishing worms)
- Which children’s playground game involves hops and jumps in squares?What is the large main tent of a traveling circus called? Hopscotch
- What’s the name of the popular kids’ sweet drink made from flavored powder? Kool-Aid or Tang
- Complete the first verse of the popular old camp song “Oh! Susanna”: “I come from Alabama with a … Banjo on my knee”
- What circus show was promoted as “The Greatest Show on Earth”? Barnum and Bailey’s Circus
- If you took your family on a trip to Steeplechase Park at Coney Island, which state did you visit? New York
- If you trade “bubblegum” cards, what are you exchanging? Baseball cards
- What was the name of the ice cream bar on a stick, sold from a white truck with bells? Good Humor
- What’s the name of the county fair treat that looks like blue or pink clouds on a stick? Cotton candy
- Which comic book hero was called “The Man of Steel”? Superman
- Which child-actress, who sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop,” was portrayed in a celebrity doll in the 1930s? Shirley Temple
“SUMMER GOOD-BYES” written by Sue Hansen. © 2010 ElderSong Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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