Summer is here! We are finding our stride and I posted this photo on Instagram yesterday and the comments told me I should maybe resurrect the old blog and post about it. Here’s the deal: I love having my kids home. I love spending time with them. I love Summer – days at the pool, relaxed schedules, vacations, later bedtimes. I love it all.
But, I have 4 kids ages 1 – almost 7. That’s a lot of different age groups to cater to. Also, Nell was in school 3 afternoons a week last year rather than mornings, so she was only gone while Peter napped, so as far as Peter knows, he has never had a second of a day where Nell was not a part of it. And Peter and Nell love each other, but as summer was approaching I had the feeling that they’d already had too much togetherness and we were in for a LONG summer if we didn’t make a plan. Add to this the fact that last summer was postpartum mom fog combined with a newborn that couldn’t be out in the sun too much and we had kind of a lame summer. So as 2017 Summer approached, I decided to up my fun mom game. I wanted planned activities we could all enjoy together daily, a tiny bit of learning to keep the summer slide from happening, and lots of fun in the sun, outdoor time, and general summer activity fun.
So, I came up with weekly themes for us and I pinned a million activities for each theme, and we’re running with it.
So far, the kids are loving it. I’ve tried to come up with a craft, a science activity, an active activity, loads of library books and a field trip for every theme. You can see what I’ve found on my “Summer Fun” Pinterest board. Now, not all of this is set in stone — at this point we have an at home summer planned, but if we decide to take a vacation one week, our vacation will become the theme. We will still play and go to the pool and read quietly at home and have a lazy, laid back summer…but with a tiny bit of structure to make our days go smoothly.
We’ve also got a chore system going that is working well and helping us all have some accountability for how we take care of our things and treat our home…maybe I’ll share that when I know it’s working for real.
