I found myself cursing summer camps this morning.
My two-year-old is newly out of diapers and our attempt to get out the door on time was met with a sudden "Mama - pee!"
As I squatted by the toilet, I regretted our need to rush off somewhere, and I started questioning exactly why I had enrolled my sons in these various summer classes.
With one son in a morning class and another in an afternoon session, we have been spending lots of time in the car this week.
Yelling, "Hurry up! Let's go" is not exactly my vision of a relaxing summer.
I do think it is great for children to learn new skills, yet sometimes these days, formalized learning seems over rated.
Drawing at home with a sketchbook or playing with clay at the kitchen table can be just as wonderful as doing it in a community centre.
Often, it is even better because it is self-initiated and done with passion.
I once had a university professor who asked all of us to think of a powerful, life-altering moment of learning.
Then he said to us, "Now raise your hand if this experience happened in a classroom."
I looked around the lecture hall at the 200-plus students and only one or two hands were raised.
Now, I am a teacher, and I don't tell this story to denigrate the wonderful work my teaching colleagues do, or to belittle the many fabulous summer classes going on right now.
There is a time and a place for formal instruction. Rather, I mention it to remind us all that learning happens everywhere.
If we want our children to flourish, we need to make sure the classroom learning is balanced with space for all the other great ways to learn.
Volunteering, gardening, playing outside, learning to initiate their own activities and to cope with boredom; there is much to be learned from unstructured and non-academic activities, too.
All three of my boys, even my two-year-old, would happily watch TV all day if I let them.
They complain when I say no to screen time, but then they go and read, or start making a fort out of sheets in the basement.
They are fine with days at home, but I sometimes feel guilty for just letting them play.
There is a growing pressure to ensure my children "keep up" and some days I panic and think I'd better put them in after school tutoring or more extra-curricular lessons.
But as much as I want my sons to be successful, it is not always easy to predict where the motivation, skills and relationships that lead to success will come from.
When I was in university, I had a dear friend who wanted to take a semester off to volunteer with Youth Challenge, a program that sent young people overseas for several months.
This friend, let's call him Robert, came from a family that was very focused on academic success and his parents were horrified by the thought of him taking time off from his studies.
They had high hopes for this bright young man and wanted him to put all his energy into studying so he could be as successful as possible.
They even threatened to disown him if he went volunteering, but when he insisted, they grudgingly allowed him to go.
Robert was assigned to volunteer in Belize, and he ended up working with a team of scientists tagging tropical fish.
This team happened to be from Harvard University.
The researchers were so impressed with Robert's work they invited him back the following summer.
He then went back the summer after that as a paid research assistant.
One of the professors suggested Robert apply to Harvard, and with the professor's glowing recommendation and Robert's top marks, he ended up getting a full scholarship to do his PhD at Harvard.
Needless to say, his parents were happy, and taking some time off formal study ended up being very helpful to his long term success.
I, too, took time off university to go volunteer abroad, and when I returned, my letter grades improved as I now deeply appreciated the opportunity to study.
So this summer I am going to resist the urge to over-schedule and let my sons have some time off.
And as we camp, cook, read, enjoy playgrounds and even revel in boredom, I can trust that learning will continue.
