what to do this summer

What I love about summer…no more homework for Alex! Who would have thought that a second grader’s homework would be soooo exhausting? And, lazy evenings on the front porch.

What I hate about summer…”I need someone to play with!” {and as soon as that little friend leaves} “I need someone else to play with!” Whatever happened to entertaining yourself?

I have been making a list since March with summer ideas to keep little hands and minds busy; except today I am so tired after taking both kids to get tires on the mini van, then to Walmart in search of blue Jello cups for vacation Bible school next week, and then giving the dog a bath that I can’t muster the energy to do any of these…so I called one of Alex’s little friends to play!

• Bottle cap photo magnets (print out photos and cut out in a small circle that would fit inside a bottle cap, glue inside and add a magnet on the back; also planning to make larger magnets from the tops of aluminum cans)
• Kids art work on canvas (let them make their own painting on canvas, I found a 3 pack of 11×17 canvas at Walmart, then display on the wall)
• Make a summer cookbook (I have already started this one…I am using Winkflash and planning to make this a photobook/cookbook to give as Christmas presents.)
• Visit Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison, Colorado. (It’s FREE…need I say more?)
• Recycled craft projects (collect recyclable products and let their little brains go to work…they love this! They make journals from creal boxes)
• Home restaurant (kids make the menu, prepare the meal and serve it…but who gets to clean up? Maybe not the best idea I have had…)
• Splash day (get some of Alex’s little friends together to play in the sprinkler and maybe buy another Slip-n-Slide, serve snow cones from our snow cone maker that our neighbor gave us; it’s about 15 years old but it still works great!)
• Bowling (get free student bowling passes from Brunswick bowling, get a few friends together, and let’s bowl!)
• Pick your own fruit at a local farm (http://pickyourown.org/) Every year I say I am going to pick strawberries…maybe this will be our year!
• Library (again, it’s free)
• Nature hike (could take pictures of things you find and make a scrapbook)
• School art books (put all the art you’ve collected from the previous year in a 3-ring binder, let the kids decorate the cover of the folder with stickers, then you can store it away for the future) I have done this every year since Alex was in pre-school.
• Put up a tent (put the camping tent up in the backyard and let the kids play in it all day)
• Ice skating (if you have an ice rink nearby, it’s cool in the rink…perfect for hot days to cool off)
• Shaving cream fun (a few cans of shaving cream from the Dollar Store, put on swimsuit, let them spray themselves outside, hose off when done)

That’s all that is on my list so far…would love more suggestions though. It’s a long summer.