SUMMER BEDTIME

Alaska's Midnight Sun, by Deb Vanasse. In Alaska, kids can go to bed as late as 11 p.m. and still have light outside their window! This sweet poetic book, illustrated by award-winner Jeremiah Trammell, showcases the many pleasures of this unique time as a little girl dances, fishes, plays games, watches moose and fox, and communes with family and nature.  She manages to stay awake past midnight, before finally winding down and falling asleep.

Have you ever read the poem BED IN SUMMER by Robert Louis Stevenson? It captures perfectly the frustration I remember feeling as a young child in the summer when, while lying in bed, I could still see light outside my window and hear the older neighborhood kids playing games like "Kick the Can".

BED IN SUMMER
In Winter I get up at night

And dress by yellow candle light.

In Summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see

The birds still hopping on the tree,

Or hear the grown-up people's feet

Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,

When all the sky is clear and blue,

And I should like so much to play,

To have to go to bed by day?

When I was older, I was finally allowed to stay out until dark and have fun. We caught fireflies (we called them "lightning bugs" - more about that in tomorrow's post) and played the fun hybrid game of tag and hide-and-go-seek, "Kick the Can" -- the bigger the can the louder the "CLANG", when it was kicked.  (Another fun nighttime game is "Flashlight Tag" - CLICK HERE to learn more.)

Goodnight!