Keeping It Simple

A few months ago, I received a pamphlet from a nearby school. It was for a Toddler Summer Camp.

I had been thinking about this particular school for my two-year-old so I thought this might be a viable option. She could go to their two week summer camp and we could "test the waters" for this school. I looked at the curriculum (well, as much of a curriculum as a two year old can have anyway!) and it seemed pretty cool.

Then, I looked at the price. It's a two-week (10 day) camp from 9 to 11:45 a.m. and it's $600! Really?? $600 for 10 days?? And not even three hours a day?

Believe it or not, I actually considered it.

I asked a few moms and they told me this was not an unreasonable price for a DC summer camp. I figured if she absolutely hated the camp then we would disqualify the school as option immediately.  

The school bombarded me with emails on a weekly basis about how the summer camp was filling up and I needed to make the $100 deposit quickly in order to guarantee a spot. This was in February!

I picked up the application and started filling it out. I pulled out my checkbook and was about to write the deposit check when I stopped.

I thought to myself, "Self...your daughter is two. This is not an application to Princeton, this is an application for a summer camp! When she is 30 years old, she will never even remember she went to this camp. Why are you spending your hard earned money on this?!"

And so, I put the pen down and decided this was not an option for us.

I recognize I have an active toddler, but I also don't want to be the mother who overbooks her child every day and pushes her to take up dozens of activities she's not even interested in.  

My mother enrolled me in everything from gymnastics to tap to African dance and even typing. Yes, I took typing lessons. And you know what? I can type like nobody's business! BUT, I didn't want to take typing!

I was always busy and all these activities kept me out of trouble but they weren't necessarily activities I wanted to participate in or even excelled at. So, I've decided that I'm more than happy to enroll my daughter in soccer or karate when the time is right and IF she wants to take them.

This summer, the schedule will be kept a little on the tame side. She loves music and yoga so we found a fantastic and FREE (yippee!) weekly toddler class at our local library. They have a free toddler class virtually every day of the week and she loves to hang out in the kid's room of the library afterward. She gets some exercise, culture and even picks up a few books all in one place.

The time will come when the little princess will want to wear ballerina slippers or soccer cleats but, for now, I just want her to enjoy being a two year old. Is that so bad?