The flowers are blooming................
The kids are out of school............
It must be summer!
Can I admit that I am a little frightened? I do love having them home and getting to sleep in without rushing everyone out the door. And we have a lot of activities planned this summer. But I'm still racked with anxiety. How many days do I have before I start hearing "Mom I'm bored, there's nothing to do!"
One idea I came up with is to keep them from too much computer, video games, and television, I'm going to give them each some play "TV and Video Game" dollars which count for 1 hour of each activity. They can spend up to two a day, not counting if we as a family sit down to watch a movie together. At the end of the month, if they have any left, they'll get a piece of Bubilicious Bubble Gum or some other candy for each one they have remaining. Hopefully that will challenge them to find other activites to do such as read, ride bikes, draw, paint, use their imaginations, etc.
What are you planning this summer with your kids? Do you have them enrolled in lots of activites or are you spending the summer traveling? Or are you blessed with highly motivated kids who entertain themselves? Please leave a comment and let me know.
6 comments:
I love the idea about the dollar an hour for media time. We have just been all go this summer. This weekend I think that we will sit down and PLAN what we are going to be doing for the next two months.
Did I mention that I LOVE this idea?
The dollar thing is a great idea! We are visiting family in Texas right now, and then right when we get back we'll have family at our house for 2 weeks. I'm afraid after all that, and all the excitement that we will have just completed they will be bored. I'll have to be creative to keep them happy and entertained.
A few years ago, another ward mom came dressed in "mourning" (a big black hat with a black scarf covering her face) on the last day of school. She gave me a "Mom's emergency kit" which was a bag full of candy bars and various other tools. It included a summer calendar that she'd prepared, and every day had a fun thing planned - go to the lake, go for a walk in the nature area, go to the library.
That and your dollar idea are the two best summer ideas I've heard of.
Yeah, me and my highly motivated children will just be busy busy busy...lol! Yeah right! Trying to get them to do their jobs this morning so we could go to the sprinkler park was torture! Finally I just assured Brooke and Grant that if all else fails, Alex, Jon and I would sit in the car while they played.
Love the picture of the kids snacking...is that Kyah in the middle? She has changed so much this year -- I was shocked when I saw the pictures RaNell sent!
Dang....I want to be like you when I grow up!!
Ok, I also have four kids. I suppose I should get started on that whole 'gowing up' thang.
What a good idea with the tv dollars! A few summers ago I picked up a bunch of free appliance boxes from a local furniture store and let the kids make forts out of them in the backyard. They got hours of fun out of them. We just had to repeatedly move them on so the automatic sprinklers wouldn't get them wet!
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