How I am preparing for summer

For about a month now, I have been preparing for the day that school ends and summer break officially begins, so this is a list of how I am preparing for summer.

1. Pinterest “I’m bored jar” project.

I made a list of age appropriate chores and fun activities, and wrote them on extra-large colored craft sticks. I found a pretty flowered plastic container on clearance at Target, and they fit inside it perfectly. One thing I personally have to realize is that not all of the activities can be done without my help.

2. Pinterest “Summer Bucket List” project

I made a list of places we want to go and things we want to do this summer. I asked the kids if they had any ideas of things they wanted to do for the summer, and added those to the list, so that way I hopefully will not forget about the ideas they have and want to do. Also, I know that I will probably add to this list over the summer as ideas are developed by my kids.

3. Summer Survival {mini} Challenge

At the spur of the moment, I decided to participate in the Hello Mornings summer mini challenge. What I am excited about is The Confident Mom’s Summer Survival Calendar because the calendar alone gives me a unique idea of something to do for every day this summer. So on days that we have need something to do other than the bucket list, we already have a link to something fun. I purchased the survival calendar plus the 10 strategies for your best summer ever audio guide (comes with a pdf file to take notes while you listen). I learned some tips from the audio guide that I hope to use too.

4. Learning Goals

I have some goals I want to accomplish with the kids this summer. One, I want to teach Annabelle and maybe Elijah the books of the Bible.

I would like to begin to teach them the keyboard and how to type. A friend of mine noted that they don’t actually learn that in school anymore, and kids today use the computer at an early age. This is a skill I think would be nice to have and to use. Annabelle puts together a neighborhood newspaper each month, and if she knew the keyboard, she could type it herself. I’ve been looking for online tools for help with this.

Annabelle also says she wants to learn to knit, so we will tentatively try to do that. I was in 3rd grade when I learned and I have kept it as a skill.

Elijah will work on handwriting and reading.

Lisabeth will work on learning her alphabet.

We will sorta have a summer schooling routine to keep up our school skills mostly following the summer bridge activity books.

5. Free Activities

We’ll participate in the summer family movies and the summer reading program at the library. I like to check Birmingham Mommy for the movie schedule – it has all the outdoor and indoor movies in one place listed by date. I take their calendar and write down on mine the movies that look promising for our family. One thing we’ve never tried but may be fun is the Home Depot family projects on Saturdays. I’m trying to think of fun things for boys to do.

This is a paid activity I may try to do: Birmingham Children’s Theatre summer series.

6. Playdates and Sleepovers

We want to be more intentional with our friends this summer.