Are you ready for summer?? I am so not ready. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. I blame the Kindergartener. The Kindergarten class has fun activities all year that keeps us parents very busy and the school year flies.
I know one thing, I DON'T want this summer turning into a couch full of slugs playing video games and watching videos. Summer swim team keeps us pretty busy at the beginning of the summer, but if I'm not careful late July and August gets way too lazy. I need to have some ideas ready to keep us going.
I have started a list of about 25 things I want to try and do this summer. I think we will have a family night and brainstorm for at least 25 more ideas as a family. Then, I think I will put it all up on the wall as a giant checklist. I like this one (shown above) that eighteen25 did. Check out their tutorial here. The tutorial includes the free printables! You simply use a frame, and use permanent marker on the glass (it comes off later with Windex). I love it, though I think mine will be a little more plain, or it won't get finished, ahh, time, my biggest enemy.
I also want to come up with an inexpensive, easy snack bin. Here are two sample ideas from Real Simple. I'll have to tweak it a bit for my kids but I like this idea a lot.
Once I get it all done I will post it here. Good luck getting your list together. What other things do you do to prepare for summer?
I love the idea of a snack bin! I like how everything is ready to eat and all in one place - what a good idea!!! I saw an idea that I want to do before summer starts but we'll see if that happens! Here it is: http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/2010/06/bored-board.html
ReplyDeleteOf course it wouldn't have to be that permanent. I really like the concept though. I can just see it now: the kids say "I'm bored!" and I say back "Go to the board!"
Our summer is crazy and my kids get up EARLY and sneak down to the theater to watch TV. By the time I get up (8:30??) they've been watching it for several hours. I always try to incorporate some kind of learning into the summer, which is a huge challenge for little minds who don't want to be used anymore. My plan this year is to make a list of thought provoking or brainpower activities that they can choose from each day. They only HAVE to do one activity a day, but I hope they have so much fun learning that they'll pick a few. Some items from my list are: Learning board games, online learning games, science projects, nature hunts, etc. I also plan to have a few day trips where I can sneak a bit of learning in without them knowing it. We also do the library reading challenge. AND I'll be rewarding the kids with extra fun for cooperating with my summer learning plan.
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