On seeking out in summer what should happen all year

My third guest post chez Joanne Jacobs riffs off of a lovely Jessica Lahey piece (she's such a great writer) about unstructured time for kids in the summer. I think this is a wonderful routine (hahaha) to get into, though I first felt I had to acknowledge that:

• For many reasons, many kids in America do not have the luxury of a having a healthy free-range, unstructured summer.

• With so much emphasis on testing and test prep in K-12 public schools, many structured and less structured activities that should take place during the school year, like in schools as part of the curriculum, don't. Hence, they get pushed to the summer.

 Please read the whole thing.