During all the seasons of the year…homemaking is fun. I love hot chocolate, snow, snuggling up by the fire, and all the fun foods that come with wintertime. But I’m ready for a break from all of that because I LOVE sunshine!!!!! We’re preparing for a great summer together.
Summertime is my very favorite. I love the time off from schooling, the fun projects, the camps, the garden, the family reunions, the swimming, the cook-outs…and the sunshine!! (Someone certainly likes her Vitamin D, doesn’t she?)
Our family is wrapping up our school year – as in, we’re down to just a few remaining unfinished subjects, and I’m starting to have boys wander around the house looking for something to do to fill the time. I love this time of year (because the sun is shining!) as we find ourselves with extra time to do the fun projects we’ve not had time to do with a full school schedule.
It is so much fun to see our boys being creative in their downtime. I’m seeing fun Lego projects appear and new videos created. I’m hearing new songs on the piano, our synthesizer, and our music software. I’m seeing games being played that haven’t been pulled off the shelves in months. I’m watching activity outside, loving that the boys can finally run around in the yard again (and mess up the grass that is trying to grow).
I’m also already starting to hear the words, “Mom, I don’t have anything to do.” Yep, the dreaded sentence.
I never like to follow that sentence up with, “Well, you can go fold laundry” because somehow I feel that my children would then forever and always run far from me when they’re looking for something to do, thus resulting in much wasted time in the long run. My goal is to come up with ideas for fun projects and activities that will keep them busy and productive. The laundry? Oh yes, they can definitely fold that in their spare time – you know, after they’ve cleaned out the dishwasher and gone outside to bury the compost. ;)
Our boys are ages 9-16 right now, so gone are the days of blowing bubbles and splashing around in a kiddie pool. Your list of ways to keep your kids busy might differ from mine, based on the ages and interests of your kids. But here are a few ideas I have for my kids to keep them busy during the next few months…
Great summer fun ideas
- Play card and board games
- Create more music and videos
- Play games outside
- Learn more card tricks
- Learn more cooking/kitchen skills
- Get together with friends and cousins
- Help Dad with home improvement projects
- Read books (maybe offer a summer reading challenge?)
- Clean out bedroom, boxing up toys they no longer play with
- Work through a science experiment book
- Clean out the basement (who knows what treasures will be discovered!)
- Learn to make homemade ice cream
- Swim often and improve water skills (while getting Vitamin D – woot!)
I’d love to hear what ideas you have for making it a great summer with your family. What do your kids like to do, or what would you like them to learn this summer?
One of my jobs is as a part-time school nurse, so I do have more time off in the summer (I only work 1 or 2 days/week). I definitely look forward to spending quality time with my boys :) I have a list of things I want to accomplish around the house (de-cluttering, deep cleaning, etc), but also on the list is fun! We have a swimming pool- lots of time will be spent there. My boys LOVE to wrestle on the trampoline too! We’ve got a mission trip to Guatemala planned for early June and several camping trips- I love summer :)
Our son had his driver’s license at 16, so that opened up a lot of options right there! Lots of freedom to go to his friend’s houses or hang out at the park, go to the beach, go on hikes etc. (with the added benefit of not having to drive him to all these places!) Win! Win!
My two are also big guys so the things that they tend to do are, well, larger scope projects. One loves the idea of hunting so signing up for a hunter safety course, spending time hiking and looking at habitats, practicing with his bow, etc. are going to be summer projects. The other one is a builder kid so helping younger kids build a trebuchet for our statewide 4-H trebuchet building challenge, finally programming his Raspberry Pi on hot sticky days, and creating remarkably sturdy garden supports for me are some of the summer projects on his list.
I love this topic! Definitely looking forward to reading the replies :-) We are moving in a few weeks, so will have plenty of unpacking and new house projects to work on! We also love to swim in the summer and do kids bowl free. In the past, we have done the library’s summer reading program. They haven’t been very good over the last couple years and with some of my guys getting older we will probably skip it and do a home challenge this year that everyone can enjoy. We do work on a few academic things during the summer, I love your idea about working through the science experiment book! Those are a few of my thoughts right now…. still working on our summer plans though!