Summer Plans 2014

Today was the last day of school Yippee!

As my children get older, they expect less planning from me during the summer. I do, however, need to keep them creative, active, and away from the dreaded screen.

The boys will be attending one week-long day camp this year with a science theme. My oldest son is now too old for VBS and the church we usually go to for VBS no longer uses the curriculum that we love. :(

We will vacation for a week in August and the boys usually spend two nights on a father son camping trip.

Here are some ideas (at least for my kids) for outdoor/sunny day activities:
- play 4 square
- make stepping stones
- slip and slide
- croquet
- play "hot lava"
- badminton
- paint rocks. I found a great book at the library with inspiration called Painting on Rocks for Kids.
- water balloons
- street hockey
- hide and seek
- wash the car
- painting
- fly a kite
- run through the sprinkler
- climb a tree
- frisbee
- lawn Twister. Good photos here.
- sidewalk chalk
- make and throw sponge water bombs.
- water gun fights
- play with bouncy balls

Here are some ideas for indoor/rainy day activities:
- stop motion animation
- practice typing (my younger son)
- write letters to grand parents
- play board games
- make things with clay
- drawing
- bake cookies
- write a story
- do a chore for Mommy
- make tie dye shirts
- C currently loves to make finger puppets out of paper. His inspiration is the Origami Yoda books.
- of course, reading.

Outings I hope to do this summer:
- Jetty Island
- Mini golf - Willows Run in Redmond
- Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
- Gasworks Park
- Woodland Park Zoo - they have cheetahs this summer!
- Bellevue Botanical Garden - they have a new suspension bridge.
- Beaches
- Parks especially those with zip lines.
- Parks with water spray. Willis Tucker is great.
- Hikes
- Berry picking is a tradition in our family.
- Festivals and Fairs.

I might try to have one day a week that we do an outing and the rest are free days. I also hope to invite the boys' friends over for "play dates" even if my oldest doesn't like that term anymore. :)


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More than nine dollars worth of fun.

We've had a few very hot days, for the Pacific Northwest. We're going to get more. I bought the boys a new slip and slide for about 9 dollars.

Today, we tested it out on our sloped backyard. My husband was skeptical, worried they might slam into the fence. I wanted to see if we could make lemonade from the lemon that is our sloped area. J added a tarp at the end of the slide, as well as a big ball to protect them if they did get too close the fence. The tarp was a great idea. It helped create a water barrier and kept them from getting covered in grass clippings.

They had a blast. Who needs Great Wolf Lodge? :)

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Summer Activities - 2013 Edition

My friend Colette has been urging me to write this post. 

My boys finished school on Friday. I hope to keep to some regular routine this summer. In the morning, I'd like them to read for 20 minutes and do some basic chores as well. I also do the Summer Bridge books to prevent summer slide.

Back in 2011, I wrote about having 3 jars of ideas for summer. Blue is for rainy day ideas, yellow is sunny day ideas, and orange is outings.

Rainy Day activities:

• board games
• "PE class" - I'm going to get my boys to tell me what exercises they do at school for PE and we'll do them together.
• make a music video together.
• make pretzels
• make cookies/muffins
• fondue night as a family
• do chores 
• invite a friend over, however, this seems to be more fun on a sunny day.
• write a letter to a grandparent.
• drawing
• dominoes
• hotter and colder - hide something and then say whether the person is hotter or colder in finding it.
• card games

Sunny Day activities:

• slip and slide - I think we need a new one. :)
• fly kites
• lemonade stand
• badminton - we found very cheap racquets at Target in the $3 section.
• make stepping stones
• sidewalk chalk
• water gun fight
• wash the car
• red light green light
• street hockey
• blow bubbles
• play hot lava
• red rover

Outings:

• Tacoma Zoo
• splash park like Willis Tucker
• mini golf
• batting cage - there is one in Everett
• beach - so many to choose from!
• the Seattle Great Wheel
• Jetty Island
• Lynnwood Pool
• Seattle Zoo
• berry picking
• explore a new park.
• go to a high school and play soccer and/or practice baseball with a wiffle ball. We recently went to Lynnwood High school and Mountlake Terrace High school.
• Meadowdale Beach - this is a big hike.

Parks:

• Flag Park
• Brier Park
• Bothell Landing
• Everett park with merry go round near boeing
• Lynnwood Park near Meadowdale with zip line
• Edmonds City Park
• Bobcat Park
• Seward Park - south Seattle
• St. Edward state park
• Volunteer park in Seattle - has a water tower to climb
• Logan Park
• many more!

Excerpts from my 2011 list can be found here.

I read this blog post about surviving summer and found some ideas I'm going to adopt.

Here's another good blog post I just found - Frugal Summer Fun in the Northwest.

If you need more ideas, I have a Pinterest board of summer fun ideas.

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Summer activity #1

School's out for summer! It is a good thing and a challenge. The challenge is keeping my kids active and avoiding hearing that dreaded "I'm bored!" I'm compiling a list of things we want to do, things to keep their brains occupied (to avoid the summer slide in math), and places to visit that are fairly close by. Of course, we'll go on a family vacation and attend a vacation Bible school. There may also be swim lessons but what about the rest of the time? Well, a mom has to get creative, especially since day camps are expensive!

Activity #1 - Painting Rocks

My youngest did this yesterday since he was already out of school and looking for things to do.

Cost? Free! Well, if you don't count the paint, that is. Washing the rocks can also be part of the fun. I've included a painting tip in my photo. Use a cheap ice cube tray (think dollar store) for holding paint.Pin It