Yesterday was the last day of school so today was officially the first day of summer vacation. I'm SO glad to be done with the school year and have my kids to myself a lot more. They're growing up so fast and I just don't feel like I get enough of them during the school year!
We got up late, had a special breakfast, lounged around in our PJ's a bit, then got going on setting up our Loosli Learning Adventures Summer Camp. We brainstormed all the fun activities and field trips everyone is excited about doing together. We went over all the things the kids need to do each day and printed out their charts for tracking their "must-do" completion (must-do's include reading for 30 minutes, doing a quick page of writing - journaling or using the list of writing prompts we've got, doing a couple quick household chores, getting exercise outside for at least 30 minutes, praticing/working towards one of their summer goals...the must-dos take like an hour and a half each day, leaving them tons of time for relaxing, playing with friends, and doing fun activities and field trips together). Tomorrow we'll start working on their summer goals (learn about summer goals in a podcast I did with the twins a couple years ago here).
We've been doing this family summer camp thing every summer for 7 years now. We've figured out some systems that really work and it has been great for us to have some structure as well as a lot of fun.
If this sounds like something that might work for your family, check out the post I did several years ago: Do-it-Yourself Summer Camp. I originally wrote the post mostly to keep track of what was working well for our family (I didn't want to forget important details between summers!). But wow, that post became one of the most popular posts of all time on Power of Moms - it's been read by over a million moms now.
If you read the post and want help getting your family summer camp set up, check out our Summer Camp Kit that has all the instructions, tracking charts, brainstorming sheets, etc. that will help make it extra easy. And as one of my blog readers, I invite you to use the coupon code "SUMMERFUN" to get 20% off and get the kit for just $24.
Hope this info is helpful as you think through what will work well for your family this summer!
Hoorah for doing this again! It's got to be a bit stressful but it's so great for the kids and their "students"! Good luck!
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ReplyDeleteThis is totally unrelated but just would like you to know I happened to chance upon your post "Big things are made out of little things" in "Motherhood Realized" while I was preparing my lesson "True Greatness' for Relief Society and thought this is so appropriate to share with in the class. Love it! Thank you Saren! Btw love "Motherhood realized"! What an amazing insightful book!
ReplyDeleteThis is totally unrelated but just would like you to know I happened to chance upon your post "Big things are made out of little things" in "Motherhood Realized" while I was preparing my lesson "True Greatness' for Relief Society and thought this is so appropriate to share with in the class. Love it! Thank you Saren! Btw love "Motherhood realized"! What an amazing insightful book!
ReplyDeleteI know kids need structure - but my goodness! I'm tired just reading your post of all the "must do's", goals, etc for every day?!?! Summer vacation isn't that long...when is their time to just relax and "be"? Even their trip to Bear Lake, although fun, is timed and scheduled down to the hour. I'm sorry, I just don't get why you have to do this.
ReplyDeleteMaria:
ReplyDeleteI think that having about 2 hours worth of structured time during their 16 or so waking hours is not too much to ask of children. Their "must do's" take about 2 hours, tops, and are things that every child should be doing during the summer - reading, doing a little journal writing, getting some physical exercise, and spending about 15 minutes working towards one of the simple goals they've set for themselves (like learning a new piano song or getting better at doing back flips on the trampoline). Plus we ask that they spend a few minutes doing a couple quick chores around the house (usually takes about 15 minutes). They have tons of time to relax and enjoy time with friends.
I'm pretty confused as to why you think Bear Lake is timed and scheduled down to the hour. For the 4 days of our actual family reunion when all 47 of us are there, we have a couple fun scheduled activities each day and enjoy meals together but most of the reunion involves relaxing chats down by the lake while the kids play in the sand mixed with some tennis matches and some waterskiing. During the non-reunion part of the time we're at Bear Lake (almost a month), the "schedule" for the kids involves playing in the water and sand, reading books, catching lizards, and just talking and hanging out with cousins and aunts and uncles. The kids have more unstructured relaxing free time at Bear Lake in a month than most kids get in a year!