Listen. A little hand covered in popsicle juice and sand is turning the lid on a jar.

Look. Fireflies play flashlight tag.

Feel. The grass under your bare feet is cooling. (Smack! Frenzied mosquitoes seek a bedtime snack.)

Smell. Summer’s incense–the sulfurous metallic scent of sparklers sizzle the night air.

Taste. A charred marshmallow deflates spreading sweetness on the tongue.

Whether you write novels, nonfiction, picture books or poetry for children, seize every sense of the summer season. Research can be pure pleasure. Scoop your piggies (aka toes) into the cool sand beneath the sizzling surface of the beach. Build a bonfire and swap your summer stories with friends. And, if you haven’t had a popsicle in a while (aka decades), you’d best snap to it.

Capture childhood memories of the season

• Summer smells like (weather, food, plants, etc.)
• Favorite summer food taste like
• Summer-specific sounds by day/by night
• Summer sights
• Summer feels like ___________ on my skin/my face/my feet.
• Summer water sensory memories (pool, lake, creek, sprinkler, hose, water park)
• Summer night sounds

What long-forgotten memory paid a visit?

As with every season, not all memories are sweet.

There’s sunburn, bug bites, boredom, and harder still, family squabbles, disappointments, sullen babysitters, food insecurity or loneliness.

Collect deeper summer memories with these simple prompts

• My family and I always went to
• Going on a family vacation made me feel
• My family and I never went on vacation because
• Not going on a family vacation made me feel
• I remember the first time I
• When I didn’t have friends to play with, I would
• I felt scared when
• I dreaded it when
• I used to imagine I
• I couldn’t wait until
• Summer break felt like it was ___ months long
• As the end of summer approached, I felt/worried about/looked forward to

My sweet shortcakes, I hope this post sends your Ferris wheel of memories whirling. AND I also hope-hope-hope you’ll share a summer memory with me!

Fireflies in the Garden

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies, 
And here on earth come emulating flies, 
That though they never equal stars in size, 
(And they were never really stars at heart) 
Achieve at times a very star-like start. 
Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.   ~ Robert Frost