The Change Of Seasons | Summer Rhythms

Playdoh in a variety of colors and the fun tools to manipulate it kept my kids busy for hours. Also sidewalk chalk, let them cover the whole driveway! Do you have a sandbox? (more for Anna of course). Enjoy your summer Ali!

Hi Ali,

Our family has created a "bucket list" for summer, too. I put each item on notecards and hung them on a bulletin board in my kitchen.

An idea for teaching kids to ride without training wheels was to take off the pedals and the training wheels and just practice balancing. (Someone told me they found the idea on the internet, but I've never tried it.

A trip to a science supply store might be fun for Simon.

Also, one way that I try to keep kids reading during the summer is to use a bingo sheet for each month and each square has a different topic/author/reading idea. When the sheet is completed, the students get a prize.

Thanks for sharing your ideas and inspiring us even more!

Our summer vacation just started here in northwest Washington. My daughter's last day of preschool was just last week. Our kids are young (5 1/2, 2 1/2, and 8 months), so we are definitely realistic about what we can do this summer. We found a day camp through our city's rec dept that our oldest will be going to one week plus VBS another week. It will be fun for her to have her own special "big girl" things to do. Mostly I think we'll do lots of trips to the park, blow lots of bubbles, spend lots of time splashing in our water table, and read lots of books (all the kids - baby included - are signed up with to participate in our library's summer reading program; they aren't just for "big" kids!). Picnics, even just in the living room, are always a big hit at my house. Just like at your house, less TV and more life! One cool that my kids are too young for (or at least with a baby in tow isn't really practical) is $1 movies every Tuesday at Regal. Would be a fun little something each week or just occasionally depending on what's playing. Would make that special movie time even more of a treat. Here's the link to check out: http://www.regmovies.com/summermovieexpress/default.aspx

I just posted a summer list the other day... http://scrappingmomof3.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-activities-for-kids.html

Hope you have a great summer with the kids!

No kids, but plenty of children in my life. I snagged some of the Scribbles books by Taro Gomi from the reduced bin at my local big box bookstore. (http://www.amazon.com/Taro-Gomi/e/B000APENNA/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1309297606&sr=1-2) I love that they encourage art and creatvity with short instructions like, 'Design t-shirts for these people.' These may be a good alternative to workbooks for some children.

On bad weather days (rain), my kids and I in advance create a list of interesting places to visit that are indoors. So when the weather turns bad we go to plan B.

my daughter is almost 21 now and living in Florida (we are in iowa) but one thing that kept us having lots of fun (even when she was in middle school) was a tent! we bought one at walmart and set it up in the back yard. we would take my laptop out there and watch movies, do crafts, eat our lunch etc. we had one big enough for a air mattress and lots of pillows and blankets. she would beg to sleep out there almost every night. it's great fun for the daytime and in the evenings. everything is more fun if you're in a tent!

Our favorite summer grill meal is cedar plank salmon. Buy a cedar plank at grocery/Lowes/Home Depot...soak 30 minutes in water...place salmon skin side down on the plank...kosher salt& pepper on top. Throw the whole thing on the grill and close the lid. Cook until it reaches a level of doneness that make you happy. Serve with lemon slices. So delicious and really hard to mess up! I added chores to my bored bucket...like pull weeds, put away laundry, and read to your siblings. Have a good summer!

Love the list that you have so far Ali! My girls' definitely have a list of things that they want to do this summer which always ends up being swimming, swimming, and more swimming:)

But we also will have days where we build tents out of sheets as well as do a lot of painting when boredom sets in so I like to have different items on hand besides the typical paint brushes.

So we'll do Marble Painting, Paint Rocks, Paint small Pots from Michaels (and plant little seeds in them). I like to also buy cheap household stuff from the $1 store, like sponges with different textures, rollers, etc. I also have small tubs where they can have some sort of water play outdoors. Even my 15 yr.old will still get in on the action. I think she just likes that sensory part of play.

I sometimes purchase art supplies from Discount School Supply. They have some very cool stuff. Here's a link - http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?category=29&src=categorynavigation1.

What great goals--I LOVE the idea of eating lunch outside. We are in a tiny apartment right now with no direct outside access and I always open our windows in the morning while I drink my coffee and dream of the day when I can sip my coffee outside! I also want to get outside more with my son this summer. Have you tried a push bike for Simon? They are basically a two-wheeled 'big kid' bike with no petals (they just use their feet on the ground). They are supposed to teach the concept of balance to make the transition of balancing on bike with no training wheels much easier. It gives the kid a sense of control while they are learning to balance. I worked in a Montessori school for several years and we had a few for the kids on the playground and it really helped them be able to get that concept of balance without the scariness of having their feet off the ground and not being in control. Enjoy your summer!

I so love the idea of the kids 'playing library' - does my librarian's heart good to think of this happening!

A book that is VERY useful in mastering the BBQ is The BBQ Bible by Stephen Raichlen. There is not a bad recipe in the bunch. His other books are wonderful as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Barbecue-Bible-Steven-Raichlen/dp/0761149430/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309306070&sr=8-1

Luv the post. We also put together a wish list of what the kids what like to do/see this summer. A new, FUN, list we created was a "U SHOULD TRY THIS, LIST". this list is made by each kid for the other members in our family of the things they'd like for them to try or experience.
Seems like the kids really feel like mommy need to learn how to swim without holding her nose, and learn to Snorkle, so we can visit the local reef.
And we all want to see Daddy climb the oak tree in front of the house.
-Cute to see what the kids feel we need to try, and a nice piece to add to the summer scrapbook.

So happy to see this post Ali, I was going to ask you tomorrow how the no tv rule has been doing. My challenge is what the kids can do first thing when they wake up since usually they watch tv. They aren't that awake yet and it's early so their has been quite a few cranky mornings lately. What do your kids do first thing in the morning?????

I love seeing your ideas and the other comments. This summer I'm changing things and going to make it last longer too and get outside more. We have already added baseball in the evenings and school related work in the afternoons. The big change I'm making is getting the kids in the kitchen with me and teaching them more about cooking. I just did a big post about this yesterday on my blog. I love that we have all day to ourselves and no time limits and commitments. The only other challenged area is having my 2 teen age girls go along with these ideas. They love their cell phones a little too much right now...thanks for sharing this Ali and love the photo of them on the couch.

I would love any help from the readers and you Ali on how to make the mornings easier for us. It seems to be getting tougher and takes a couple hours until they want feel motivated to do something fun. They aren't tired just being lazy. Thanks

I forgot to add that I signed my girls up for the Just Kidding Around 2 class over at BPS and they love it. It's about recording their summer in a Smash Journal, so that keeps them a little busy too. I think it's still open if anyone else wants to join in, it can be ages from 5 to teenagers and even some moms are doing it.

As I sit here reading this I long for summer (I'm in New Zealand) and I have the fire going as its a bit cooler today for my liking, and I want summer even more now after reading your fun list of things to do...This year for xmas I have gotten the kids lots of out door stuff from santa, like a tramp with nets, a outdoor set with tennis, soccer and stuff like that, they love outdoors and I love your list will write some things down for when summer does arrive here again :)

Hi Ali! I saw that you mentioned that you wanted to help Simon learn how to ride his bike. Here's something my dad with my sister when she was learning: He took off her pedals and lowered her seat so that her feet early touched the ground. He let her ride around for a while, just kind of pushing her self with her feet. It gave her that sense of balance and pretty soon she was able to do it with the pedals back on. It also gave her more control because she could easily and quickly stop with her feet. It may or may not be something that works for Simon, but just thought I'd pass it along.

I found the "go do something" phrase doesn't work. I have a little tin bucket that I started a few summers ago, cut some squares of cardstock and wrote indivdual things to do on them. It's the "I'm bored" bucket. It's worked really well for my girls. We need to add a few different things now that they are older.
I should make one for myself ;) so I get off the computer/phone.

We also have a reward system to earn screen time so they don't spend 14 hours a day on the tv/computer. It also gets them cleaning up and helping out too.

Ali, great list. My boys (ages 9, 8 & 5) made a list of things we would like to do this summer. Things like go to library, pick strawberries, make bread, letter-boxing, making ice cream, etc. We have been having fun crossing off the items on our list. We also have our "bored" items - swing, legos, workbooks, reading, drawing, bubbles, chalk, play with cars.

Have a great summer!

Hello Ali! It's so funny you posted this as I had this same thought process several weeks ago. I've made a book from paper lunch sacks and decorated it out and called it 94 Days of Summer. I make sure to have at least 1 thing to document everyday. My husband and I just got back from watching the sunset over the reservoir. I wake up everyday wondering what will go into my book for that day. It drives me to get outside of the mundane and make memories. I know it won't happen everyday and in that instance I have a list of 11 questions to answer and I call it Me Today. I look at this as practice for Project Life next year. I hope you have as much fun making the most of your summer as I have so far.