Summer- What Now?

Tweet

Last week the boys both had their last days of school, and so summer officially started on Friday.  In the past week, we've fit in a trip to Disneyland (well, just for me - my dad's birthday gift), a trip to Legoland, a Dodger game for Father's Day, and a day at Irvine Regional Park (awesome place) with friends.  All of that just happened to fall within a 1 week period, and so today is our first day home for summer vacation.

So far, so good - but I know how these days can get long.  When the boys are around each other 24/7, they can get cranky and start to irritate each other.  We just worked together on making a jar full of summer activities for when they get bored, and each boy wrote 10 things to contribute.  Jaden's were all activities like "Go to Toys 'R Us and buy a Lego set" (which did not get included since that will be quite pricey), as well as "Go to Legoland," among others. This boy prefers expensive activities.  Micah's activities included playing baseball, which he would do all day long, as well as riding scooters and taking trips down to 7-11. These boys always prefer outdoor activities, although they don't really want to go anywhere usually. They love to just play outside at home.  Indoor activities are a different story, since they are not excited about reading, doing puzzles, or playing games. Maybe that's one of the big differences between having boys vs. girls?  I don't know.  All I know is that mommy wants to play inside, but the boys want to play outside.

I'm also trying to channel their collective energy into planning a yard sale.  Today I had them go through their books and toys and choose things they don't want. That activity made a huge mess and only lasted about 1 hour.

So, it's 12:45pm on the first official day of summer at home, and I'm all out of ideas.  WHAT AM I GOING TO DO??   The jar full of ideas sounds great, but when they pull one out, they say "We don't want to do that!"  So, I'm passing it along since maybe it will work well for your kids ;)

One idea I had was to accomplish three things per week:
- Swimming (we'll have to find places to do that)
-An Educational Field Trip
-A Play Date

If I can do those things on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, then we can spend time at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We'll also throw some fun things in there too.

That's the plan right now, but I find my greatest issue is just thinking of enough activities for them to do while they're at home that will occupy them all day.  Please leave a comment with some of your ideas, what has worked for your kids, and maybe we can all help each other out! :)