10 Things We Plan to Do This Summer

Over the next bit before we kick back into full school mode, I am a wee bit determined to keep the kids occupied with something other than the tv {can I get an amen?}. When the weather starts heating up, we are sure to hear the ‘it’s too warm to play outside’ line and I plan to be prepared with a few things to do together.

1. Pick FIVE things on our Pinterest boards to actually do. I know that I am not alone in having massive amounts of things pinned on my gagillion Pinterest boards that look super fun…and then forget about them, right? The kids and I are going through the boards together and each picking one thing to do this summer. It can be as simple as painting our nails something fun {well, maybe not for the boys}, or building a water balloon launcher that we’ve been talking about for ages.

And this bulletin board idea from Find Joy in the Journey? Ummmm…genius!! Especially because we can also plan out some fun activities and add pictures from my Instagram feed. Oh yes – this is FIRST on my list to do!

2. Serve in our local community. With the Adventures in Odyssey ‘Summer of Service Challenge’ in full swing, we’ve made a list of things that we can do to help others in our community and beyond. Some projects are for family members that are older, and others include simple projects locally.

3. Read out loud {or listen to audio books}. A lot. With limiting tv, we are going to start a ‘quiet hour’ again in our house – a time when everyone needs to just sit and be still. Coloring is ok, but down time is something that we all need more of! We’re working on a list of books to read during the hot days, and I completely forgot about some audio books that I downloaded from Lamplighter Theatre a few months ago, so those are getting loaded on the iPod for us to listen to together.

4. Play with our sets from LEGO Education. We’ve been having fun since February with a few different kits from LEGO Education {Simple Machines and WeDo} and when you are playing with LEGO® bricks…well, it’s definitely a fun day, right?

The LEGO® kits have also been wonderful to have on hand when we are reading, because the kids can build while they are listening and recreate scenes from the stories {or make their own!}.

5. Have fun at Vacation Bible School. The kids are very excited that next week is the local VBS – and I may be a bit giddy too {grins}. While the kids are having fun and learning, it will give me a few hours to get planning for the upcoming year with a bit of quiet time {sometimes I forget what that is like!}.

6. Learn about the Constitution as a family. It may sound a little nerdy, but we found a book all about the Constitution that was written by a 14 year old, Our Constitution Rocks!

This was a book that we picked up at our homeschool convention and thought it would be a great thing to study as a family {and I’m guessing the adults may learn a few things too}. 

7. Visit the library. A lot. Air conditioning and lots of books to choose from. Need I say more? We also have to work on those Reading Challenge Charts, so the kids have bags to fill and reading to do!

8. Head to our local children’s museum. After a season of not going to the children’s museum, we went ahead and bought a one year membership.

don’t ask…because really, I don’t know…

The kids have really missed it, and I forgot about the theater area and the plethora of art supplies that they have – and the mess that is no longer in my house when the kids are working on projects there {cough}. The money I’m saving on random art supplies may just help us break even on the membership cost {grins}.

9. Swim, swim, and swim some more. Can you say exercise? The kids are a part of one of the local swim teams and while I hit my swim team plateau about 2 meets before the season is over, at the moment we are having a blast. The kids are getting some great exercise, learning a lot about encouraging others and how to be a good sport, and staying cool at the same time.

10. Write our Compassion children even more and find some fun things to mail to them over the next year. There are lots of fun things that we can put together for the children we sponsor through Compassion and have ready to mail to them. I’ve been adding pins to a Flat Crafts for Sponsored Children Pinterest board, so we’ll be working on ideas from that first.

What fun things do you have planned for the summer months?