Community Voices for Health

By: Martianne Stanger 

Summer time. Adventure. Magical moments. 

These things just seem to go together don’t they? 

Add a little inspiration into the mix, and the delight of longer summer days only grows. 

Case in point for our family was the summer of 2014, which I also call our Swiss Family Robinson summer. 

No, our family was not cast away on a desert island that summer. 

Instead, we were simply immersed in the glory of childhood adventures inspired by a classic tale. 

That year, as spring wound down into summer, whenever my family was in ourminivan, we listened to an audiobook version of the classic Swiss Family Robinson tale. Then, at home, we read a children’s version of the story together and provided our children with a library copy of a Swiss Family Robinson graphic novel to pour over.  

Finally, our family watched two different movie versions of the classic story of survival, fun, and adventure.  

Oh, the laughs the children had while we were watching those movies! Oh, the conversations that followed. And, oh the adventures that unfolded afterwards as my children and their friends turned every beach, marshland, and park that we met at into their own Swiss Family Robinson-inspired adventures. 

Building forts, designing defenses, imagining intricate stories of survival. 

It was truly a gloriously fun summer made that much better by literary inspiration. 

If you have younger children and have not visited the tale of the Swiss Family Robinson lately, I encourage you to do so. You never know what adventures it will inspire!