I started working part-time outside of the house recently, and am just now tackling the concept of a very different summer for my family. My husband is also using most of his vacation time for a trip to Haiti, so we're looking at easy, close-to-home summer plans.
1. I know it's not "fun," per say, but I ordered summer bridge workbooks for each of my kids. Different days of the week find my boys with me, my husband, my parents, or a sitter. A workbook is an easy way for my K-1 boy to keep his skills sharp and consistent. Now we need to figure out who can speak fluent Spanish with him.
2. I sat down and divided the 3 summer months into activity themes. Keep in mind these are small bites of the theme (15-45 minutes), culminating in a fun acticity.
- June: All About Arts. Throughout the month we'll go to the library to browse books, talk about color, texture, media, mood, etc, read stories like Little Blue and Little Yellow, and cap it off by visiting a local art museum or an art fair.
- July: Cave Crazy. We visited a cave last winter and it was so fun that we're going to do more. Our state boasts many caves, so it's an easy fit to read about caves and mineral formations and then take a camping trip to a national park with cave tours.
- August: Blueberries & Baking. We love blueberry picking. We can read Blueberries for Sal, have a picking excursion, and then having a baking lesson for some blueberry cobbler.
3. When my husband is gone over a weekend, I'm going to dress up and take my boys on a nice date downtown. It could go badly, but I don't think it will. They'll feel very special doing this.
4. On one of my days off, we'll ride the trolley downtown. The schedule isn't accurate, the wait is hot, and the brakes are rough. The boys love it.
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5. Have a yard sale. It's tough for kids to get rid of toys, but I'm hoping that by setting each boy up with his own table, he'll be excited to have some spending money.
6. Teach the boys to run a tile saw. No? Well someone needs to finish my master bathroom remodel.
What do your summer plans look like?
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