I remember when the end of the school year meant winding down from everything.

Sports were done for the year. I think they bolted the gym doors where we played volleyball just in case someone accidentally showed up the week following the first day of summer holidays. If you persisted, you might see the gym had been transformed into a theatre stage, a Farmer’s Market or a lawn bowling green…or all of the above.

If you showed up for gymnastics, it was not the group you had been practicing with all year. This “new” batch of kids dressed in the same brightly coloured t-shirts was chanting camp-songs while challenging the brave one in the group to attempt a cartwheel.

Today, the summer is meant for intense “off season” training for your child’s winter sport and though there is some understanding among parents this is not the competitive season, the kids still practice/rehearse or prepare the same number of hours, they can now just work on their routines and technique during what used to be considered, school hours.

I know parents who say, “My kids take the summer off” while other parents laugh, “Well their kids will be back to base one, because they’ll never remember how to play if they don’t live, sleep and eat t-ball.”

I actually overheard a parent once say, “Kid’s muscles have no memory so they won’t remember how to get back into the swing of things.”

What does that even mean? Do my muscles have a memory? I know my computer memory needs some upgrading, maybe my muscles do too?

I’m somewhere in the middle.

I like keeping my kids active/busy in the summer so I don’t have to be. Watching them play in sports and activities they enjoy makes them happy (and oh so tired) and gives me time to play cribbage on my ipad while drinking tea in the stands.

I also like the idea of trying something new in the summer. If my kids swim all year, maybe the summer should be dedicated to learning something totally unrelated to swimming….like open water life saving.

Okay, so that’s sort of the same thing, as is the “competitive catch-up” program at the local pool they will soon be registered in.

Oh, they also wanted to play soccer this year and I needed to let Chloe (age 4) be the first child her age to cost us thousands of dollars in recreational sports, with no muscle memory to show for it.

Then Ellie asked last night if in addition to soccer, summer swimming, open water life saving, she could also join the triathlon program. The good news about that one is, it will require not just a registration fee but also a better bike than the one Greg’s Grandma won from a Candian Tire raffle over 20 years ago.

And what about camp? Have we completely forgotten about camp? If your kid plays hockey, they are likely registered for “Summer Hockey,” “Road Hockey,” “Three-On-Three Hockey,” “Competitive Shinny,” and of course, “Hockey Camp,” both at home and away.

We may need to start school in October.

I think my kids might want to build a sand castle.