Camp Nana and Pop

This summer we’re spending a month at my parents’ house in Boston. I’ve enrolled the children in a wonderful summer camp called: Nana and Pop’s House. This summer camp allows me the freedom to see old friends, write, and drink pina coladas, while at the same time providing my parents “quality time” with the children. The kids have it pretty good too.

Nana and Pop Summer Camp includes the regular summer activities like puzzle making, board games with made-up rules, walking, swimming and bike riding, but they also provide some grandparent-specific choices:

Gardening

Thank goodness gardening is offered at Camp Nana and Pop! Otherwise, these children would never learn this skill. I have no green thumbs. I have manicured, acrylic-tipped fingernails on my thumbs and an attentional deficiency that prevents me from remembering to water the plants. Ever. Frankly, we should all be thankful I remember to feed the kids.

At Nana and Pop’s Summer Camp, gardening is happening all the time. Their little fingernails are full of dirt and they are often carrying around worms and other horrible things you might find out there. They pick their own beans and tomatoes for dinner and fill vases with flowers they’ve grown themselves. (FYI, you can buy beans, tomatoes AND flowers at the grocery store, but to each his own.)

Home Ec

Nana and Pop’s Summer Camp features a wonderful home economics program. The children learn cooking – especially challah, pizza, and every imaginable kind of dessert. They experiment with knitting and sewing – both picking out patterns and fabrics for Nana to create their custom back-to-school wardrobes as well as trying their own needle and thread creations: an American Girl Doll sleeping bag, a quilt for Project Linus. At camp they have also perfected their laundry-folding technique as well as sweeping-dustpan coordination. Pop offers specialty courses in garage organization and barbeque grill maintenance and recipes.

Hebrew School Accelerated Program and Bar Mitzvah Training

My mother is the education director at the temple where I used to belong. She Skypes with my children every week when they are at home in South Dakota to practice Hebrew and learn prayers. We celebrate holidays together by lighting candles or opening presents over the internet with webcams. At summer camp, all of that changes. The girls are sitting on the back porch chanting Adon Olam with my delighted mom, while Sam types a paper with my dad to fulfill a requirement for his Bar Mitzvah service, which will be next June (and NOT over Skype…). They are not whining and complaining, nor do they fake stomachaches to get out of going to Hebrew School, as I did. In fact, they even look forward to it. Perhaps it is the prizes…perhaps it’s just that everything is more fun with Nana and Pop.

Field Trips

So far this summer, the children have already taken in a Chihuly exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, swam in the ocean at Black Point Beach, spent a weekend in New York City, toured the Mayflower II, saw Plymouth Rock, went to Fenway Park and hung out on the Cape for an afternoon. Coming up in the next few weeks are trips to the Museum of Science, the Swan Boats featured in Make Way For Ducklings, and the New England Aquarium. Of course I always offer to chaperone these events…

Recycling

At Nana and Pop’s Camp, being environmentally responsible is stressed. The children rinse and sort bottles and cans, plastics and paper. They play recycle bin basketball. If you can get it in from the doorway, without stepping into the garage, it’s three points. They write names on wooden napkin rings so that cloth napkins can be reused by the same owner. They also recycle bits and pieces by creating sculptures and make-believe scenes out of everything they find.

First Aid

So far this summer, Camp Nana and Pop has only had one major injury: Hannah had to be seen in urgent care because a scrape on her arm got infected. Nana and Pop’s Summer Camp, though, is ready for any such problem! Their first aid supply closet rivals the shelves of the local Walgreens and they are experts in wrapping, bandaiding and kissing it better.

Annoying Activities

Being camp directors can’t be all fun and games. The children have developed a camp activity of their own: driving their grandparents bonkers. This activity includes deleting computer files, leaving shoes right where they will be tripped on, finding ways to make everything make noise, eating everything in sight, changing TV channels and playing the piano during important phone conversations. This is why Nana and Pop’s Summer Camp is only 4 weeks long.

We used to live 8 minutes away from my parents’ home. For a while, (after the sale of our house and before the move), we lived IN their home. Living 2,000 miles away has been a major adjustment for all of us, but we are lucky. We have Skype, airplanes, and summers. And we have Nana and Pop’s Summer Camp. Everyone should be that lucky.

Comments

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I will have to get Garret on the waiting list :)

Posted by: Lindsay | 06/27/2011 at 01:27 PM

Jody, when are you all descending upon the Museum of Science? You know I work there, right? Let me know and I'll see what I can do to get you at least some discounts!

Posted by: Karen Powers | 06/25/2011 at 09:29 AM