I'm pretty psyched now that Summer is here. Yes, it'll be hot, but it's preferable to the May showers (the ones that were supposed to come in April).

Summer means kids are out of school. That means less traffic in the mornings for us grownups. I do understand that it means for some folks that you've got to find a place for those kids to go instead of staying home and tearing up the house all summer.

Harkening back to my personal experience as a kid in the summer, I am absolutely certain that I don't want to leave my own kids at home unsupervised. Let's pretend for a moment that I would actually allow them to rule the roost while Jim and I are at work during the week. I'm not terribly concerned about the morning hours, since my five-year-old daughter would just get up as usual, get some cereal and watch cartoons. My 16-year-old son would sleep until well past "The Price Is Right."

It's afternoon that tends to turn kids into mad scientists. Maybe it's the preservatives in the cereal, but something like toxic neurons start firing in their brains. When parents aren't around to take the regular complaints, "I'm bored!" or "Why can't I?" turns into "What's next on my evil agenda?" and "I wonder what this button does." This sub-point has been sponsored by the parents without a home improvement fund and the summer camp industry at large.

So we have established that you need something for the kids to do during the summer, but luckily, there is no shortage of such a thing. All the community pools and theme parks are now open. There's swimming camp, basketball camp, soccer camp and more. Piano lessons, violin lessons, guitar lessons - and, oh yeah, I nearly forgot space camp! My husband wants to go to space camp every year - um, with the kids, of course.

A favorite family pastime of mine as a preteen was camping. I can almost step into the photographs I've seen in the family album. Breakfast from a cast-iron pan over the fire had the taste of a smoky mountain top. Swimming in shoulder-deep water with tiny fish nibbling my feet was an insight no science teacher could convey. The afternoon trip through the woods was necessary to stalk critters and acquire exotic new bug bites.

After a day of exploring the lack of technology, we might get a sunset dip in the lake before Dad got the fire up to a roar. Somebody would whistle really loud and my older brother, Ricky, and I would head back up the hill to camp. We'd step up just in time to eyeball the pile of hot dogs, "picked fresh" from the ice chest and having made droplets of dew upon making contact with the humid outdoors. Mom would be ready with some Arkansas skewers, a.k.a., wire hangers so we could get right to business. Why is fiery food so awesome?

Another great thing we’d do in the summer is canoeing. This was a tradition that began when I was elevenish, and carried through to high school and beyond. There are so many ways you can brag after floating the river in a canoe. No matter what happens, you’re going to get a nice story about how you overcame the rapids and didn’t lose the snacks, or how you got this horribly cool scar, or how you had no trouble at all and have really honed your skills into what must surely be a professional level by now.

I’m looking forward to getting in a canoe this year on the Saline River. No, I’m really not a great canoer - or canoeist, whatever it’s called. I just think it’s real fun to slide down into the boat, take the oars and make it go as I like. If you could turn your whole body into a foot and sink yourself into a giant ice skate, I guess that’s what it would be like. Okay, no figure eights, but then, ice rinks don’t have water that flows one-way. Let’s just make it simple and go with what I said. Yeah… ice foot canoeing.

There are so many other things about summer that bring out the kid in people. There’s one last thing I'll mention that I bet 98.37% of Americans have done in the beating sun of the hottest months. Chase the ice cream truck. That’s right, you hear the off-key tinkling tune to “Pop Goes the Weasel” and your eyebrows go up. Then you get a big stupid grin and your brain goes into CSI mode. You scurry around the house to try to solve the puzzle of where the loose change is before the truck cruises past your house.

Little kids, big kids and adults, lean close and read this with fervor now. There is no reason on God’s sort of green earth to ever grow out of this feeling. Don’t resist it. Don’t dismiss it when you are tired and think you might not have enough change. In fact, keep a little money stash by the door for just such a time when you may hear that little half-cocked song a block or so away. "Doo-dor doo-dor doo-doodly-dor…" That’s summer time calling you. You must quickly answer.