Just before the end of the school year, a coworker suggested we print custom summer workbooks to give out to our students. Working in the communications department of a school district, I posed a few follow-up questions to weigh the costs and benefits, asking- “how many people do you think would use them?” 

He explained his children’s summer routine of waking up and having workbook time at the kitchen table before reading and then playing. In a later meeting, several other coworkers, all educators, confirmed their children did summer work too. There I was, feeling like a terrible parent. My kids’ summer routine consists of tearing apart the house, lots of swimming, Lego building, traveling, and no structure. I didn’t get the workbook memo. We were supposed to be doing workbooks this whole time?! My son is entering sixth grade, we missed six YEARS of workbooks!

But this week on our vacation to Yellowstone National Park, I realized maybe I was a workbook mom all along.

Every time we visit a National Park, the boys do their Junior Ranger workbooks and earn the Junior Ranger badge for that park. They just earned two more this week for Yellowstone and Grand Teton, where they explored active geysers and hot springs, swam in a lake carved by glaciers, and spotted bears, bison, and other wildlife in their natural habitat. This amazing free program sparks curiosity in our kids and allows them to put what they’re experiencing into context, with activities about history, conservation and the natural world. On one of our hikes, Little Bro chatted nonstop about bison and bears, citing how much weight a bison could move, what bears ate during different seasons, how long they hibernated, and more.

So yeah, I guess I am a workbook mom. It’s not a kitchen table. It’s a little wilder than that, and there’s still no structure. But I think they learned a lot this summer just the same.