Make most of final days of summer

Your days are numbered. And for many, the numbers are in the single digits.

The long, lazy days of summer that seemed in June to stretch in front of us and reach to the horizon are about to butt headlong into the frantic, frenetic days of fall.

School. Homework. Soccer practice.

Don’t think you’re exempt if your kids are still among those who toddle as opposed to those who slog with backpacks. The nights are getting shorter already. Those post-dinner trips to the neighborhood playground will soon become a memory, swallowed up by the gathering darkness.

So what are you going to do about it?

May we humbly suggest that you get out there and make some memories? And because we’re waxing rhapsodic here, we’ll even posit that you can do that without spending a dime.

Before alarms need to be set again or before the boss comes back from vacation, take a little time out to …

•Stare at the clouds. Columnist Anna Quindlen once wrote that “staring at the tedious blue of the summer sky” as a child helped form her as a writer. So take your child, lie on the grass and look upward. Within two minutes, you’ll be delighting each other with found dragons and unicorns, hippopotamuses and giraffes. But don’t be surprised if your child finds more critters in the clouds at first than you do. Your imagination just might need to be exercised a bit.

•Go for a bike ride. But not one of those beautiful but dutiful family rides on a path where single file must be maintained to avoid dogs, walkers and other bikers. Instead let your kids see you go screeching down the hill in the neighborhood, riding with no hands or popping a wheelie. Wear a helmet, but let your child discover that behind the watchful eye of a parent, still lives the mischievous hint of the child inside.

•Share your best summer memory. The time you and your dad got stuck on the top of the Ferris wheel. Or when you caught your first fish and your mom freed it from the hook so you could toss it back into the pond. Or how your whole family gathered on your grandmother’s porch to watch shooting stars.

•Breathe. Deeply and slowly so that your chest expands to fill with the magic of the season. Drink in the season’s air. Let your child see you do this. Maybe even spread your arms wide, take your child’s hand and twirl until you both fall drunk in the best of possible ways to the grass. Laugh.

•Look into your child’s face and smile. You are looking at your masterwork, your greatest responsibility, your legacy. Let him see the unspeakable love that you feel. It’s the very definition of a summer love.