As my 12-year-old constantly reminds me, there are only three more weeks of school left until summer vacation.
This is my literal reaction every time she tells me. On the one hand, I love my kids and I hate homework, so summer is great. On the other hand, I still have to work full-time while they’re home. With me. All. Day. Long.
So in the spirit of self-preservation, I’ve been collecting some ideas for easy, low-or-no-overhead summer activities that I can have ready and waiting for that first inevitable 7 a.m. whine of “Mommy, I’m bored.” And because I know many of my fellow mamas are about to be in the same boat, I’m going to share a few from this post goldmine of 100 fun family activities, and then add a few of my own:
- Fly a kite.
- Run in the yard. Kickball, wiffleball, Frisbee, and the tag will keep you moving.
- Visit a local farmers market. And feast on the fruits and veggies of the season.
- Create art with beach items. Check out these seashell crafts.
- Have breakfast in bed. Take turns being the server and the served.
- Play with clay. Then bake your creations to make them permanent.
- Make play dough creations. Then rip them up and do it again.
- Make paper airplanes. See whose goes the farthest.
- Join a summer reading club. Parents can list all their books read over the summer too, but I doubt you’ll get a prize.
- Keep a sketch diary.
- Write in a journal. At the end of the summer share selections with each other about the highlights of the season.
- Teach the kids to skip stones.
Ah, stone skipping. My granddaddy used to take us for long walks on summer Sundays and we’d stop and work on our stone-skipping skills for hours. I never quite got the hang of it, but those are still some of my favorite memories.
Some other plans I have for the summer are to assign my kids days to make dinner. I know it sounds insane and ambitious, but I’m not talking four-course-meals here; when it’s the 5-year-old’s turn, I fully expect that we’ll be eating dubiously crafted PB&Js. But we’ll eat them nonetheless. And here’s the kicker: the older kids are an in charge of supervising and assisting when it’s the younger ones’ turn to cook.
This is twofold brilliance: 1, it frees up my afternoons to focus on work while keeping the kids busy, and 2, it helps foster independence and hopefully lead to more dinnertime initiative year-round. I know it will take a few weeks of much mom intervention to get this plan off the ground, but summer is long, y’all. That’s a price I’m willing to pay.
I’m also going to invest in some card game classics (SkipBo, anyone?), puzzles, craft supplies, and most importantly, I’m getting us a library card.