The azaleas are beginning to bloom, summer clothes are showing up in stores, and Easter is right around the corner.

It's almost spring, but some working moms aren't thinking about gardening or shopping or dyeing eggs. No, it's time for the annual rush to schedule a summer full of camp activities.

As if it's not hard enough to put together a patchwork of activities for the elementary school crowd, working moms — and if your household's like ours, it's mom who's focused on this — face an even bigger hurdle trying to figure out what to do with teenagers who are too old for traditional day camp but too young to work.

We don't want them sitting around at home sleeping until noon and spending the rest of the day playing video games, watching television and eating junk food.

So what to do?

Volunteerism is one answer.

The Houston Zoo offers Zoo Crew for high school-age kids.

The program has 140 openings each year, and about half the slots are filled by returning Zoo Crew members.

Volunteers must commit to work at least 100 hours from June through August and perform a variety of jobs, from helping with the children's camp to performing skits.

Interested teens must act fast.