Those with elementary children, what are you doing this summer?

[AmberDaClown]

I have made a different breakfast each morning, but have soon realized this is going to be tough to not repeat all summer. However, I was wondering what sort of plans you have to keep the boredom at bay for you and your children this summer?

 

[denisenh]

Let them be bored. I am so tired of being the kids entertainment coordinator. I don't ignore them and I am nice as can be but for petes sake....I think boredom is the mother of creation.

 

[kinntj]

I agree. During the school year, we're running to gymnastics, soccer, and everything in between so I love having to do nothing. The only thing they have is swimming in June and July for 8 days a piece. The rest of the time will just laying around, reading, riding bikes, going to the zoo whenever we feel like it. We'll play board games and do crafts or go to the library on rainy days.

I love summers and the boredom of it all!

 

[ilisao]

Well, we just decided last night to go to Disney after school gets out (I have a timeshare week that's about to expire and I was able to get us reservation at Horizons by Marriott - I've been wanting to go there). That takes up one week. Shortly after we get back, the kids start summer school for the month of July. That's half day. If I get my tax return soon, we'll join a pool. The beginning of August we're going on a cruise with my cousins, dad, aunt and uncle. If possible after that, the kids may do a week long camp. DD wants horseback riding and DS wants gymnastics. But, we'll see. I'm kind of playing it by ear.

DD has done the all-day, traditional day camp thing, but never really liked it. DS is pretty much open to anything.

 

[teacups]

We home school, so summer isnt much different than the school year. We will go camping twice in each June and July. We are going to the Oregon Coast. We went to the humane society and donated a big bag of dog food today. I bought a bunch of that white PVC pipe and a bunch of connectors of various types. I cut the pipes into odd sizes and they had a blast building things! We have 2 acres so I plan to let the kids find toads, build toad houses, build bird nests and see if a mama moves in (hasnt happened yet, but they still try!) and this is silly but they LOVE it: The sprinkler pointed at the trampoline on a hot day! I'd love to take them to a place they can hang their feet over the dock and just read or play their Nintendo's in the fresh air. NEVER over schedule a kids (or moms) summer! Lazy summer days... thats the BEST!

 

[Brianne]

"Bored" is a banned word in our house; the kids know if they use it, Mom can find plenty of things they can do & wouldn't like.

We do a bit of "homeschooling" in the mornings. We've done workbooks in the past & may do a bit of it again this summer for math. This year I'm having them do journals with writing prompts each day; the main reason for that is to get them to work on handwriting because they've all taken after DH in that department.

Afternoons are spent either reading, playing (toys or videogames) or some sort of activity they enjoy doing. One DD makes things out of polyclay; my other DD loves to paint. The youngest loves his Legos so I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of "Lego creations" (his words) this summer.

 

[teacups]

I think boredom is the mother of creation.

I think a lot of people agree with this!
BUT dont let the TV fill that boredom time.

 

[leafette]

The week after school ends, they have a week of day camp at a local nature center. My daughter has been attending since she was 5, and this is my son's first year to go. She loves it, and I hope he will too.

I have to travel to Louisville the following week. The kids will come up for part of that--lots of things planned.

DD has required summer dance training (2 days a week for 4 weeks).

Vacation Bible School.

Hanging out at my mom's pool (they live 10 minutes away).

Lots of summer movies!

I'm teaching a class in Jacksonville, so everyone plans to go down with me for a long weekend and hang at the beach.

No big vacation, since we'll be doing Disney in September during our fall break. I do have a contest planned where they can earn Disney dollars for their trip by doing various chores. I did it last year, and they loved looking at their chart each day to check their "balance"!

They would be happy playing outside all day with their friends, though, so I'm hoping to sit on the porch with a book and watch them!

 

[leafette]

I think a lot of people agree with this!
BUT dont let the TV fill that boredom time.

I agree. We try to keep the TV off until after dinner, and then they can watch a little to unwind.

 

[AmberDaClown]

I told DD she gets two hours a day of TV or computer (webkinz) and she can use it any way she sees fit. When the weather is bad we do relax that a bit. It gets pretty miserable in the summer and the pool has no adequate shade so we try to go their after dinner.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Well first of all we relax - by this time of the year I'm glad to be done running the kids and since I'm our PTA President, I'm ready to be done running over to the school too!

Two weeks of vacation are spent at Disney, we'll probably do 4 or 5 days in Hilton Head, we'll do one day at either Great Adventure or Sesame Place, we go to the AMC $1 (used to be free) movies once a week. Best of all we have an inground pool so the kids swim pretty much every day.

They'll all have some summer assignments but we don't overplan too much and really do relax.

 

[debster812]

Well, so far it looks like DS won't be bored.

He was invited to a soccer tryout last night, and stands a decent shot of making the team.

Add to that Y Day camp for 6 weeks, Soccer camp for 2 weeks, and various and sundry 'vacation camp' day care days, he's outside all day everyday, most of the summer.

We let him veg out on weekends and at night, because he's literally active from 8-4 every day.

 

[Cindy B]

If my kids say they are bored then I tell them "I'm not your entertainment director!", or I find a list of chores that need to be done... then they aren't so bored!

 

[Capn Jack]

We're attending as many of the local festivals as we can. Not only is it something fun for them to do, but it also gets all of us involved in the community and broadens our horizons.

 

[maciec]

Our kids get out of school on June 13th. From then until July 29th we are doing nothing except lay and play at the pool. July 29th I fly them to Maine and drop them off for a week. I fly home August 1st. My girlfriend is picking them up on August 10th and taking them to her house in New Hampshire for the week. I will fly up on the 13th and fly them home on the 15th (thank you SWA!). On the 23rd we go to WDW for the week and then it's back to school.

I can't wait for summer to get here so I can sleep in for once!!!!

 

[dismom9761]

I got us a membership to a local pool for the first time.I will get to lay by the pool and they get to swim with their friends.One of the movie theaters is showing free movies three mornings a week and the library has a great story time one morning a week.I am sure we will be taking advantage of those sometimes.A few nights a week we have softball/baseball practice and then most weekends are spent at tournaments for my DS11,DS10,and DD9.

The older three will be going to church camp for four days in July.Our family vacation will be a week at the beach.

I am looking forward to alot of lazy mornings and downtime with my kids who are growing up waay too fast.

 

[vegasnative]

We plan to go camping several times, we have 3 trips lined up. Also, they start baseball in the summer. Thinking about taking a few day trips to places about 2-3 hours away with picnics of course. I love to go on picnics! Plenty of trips to the park, running through the sprinklers type stuff. Go to the library once a week, we do that now, but it will continue through the summer. Wrapping up with a trip to Disneyland the week before they head back to school. Boredom will not be an option in this house this summer!

 

[douglisa]

Ds 7 will be going to a day camp where they do all kinds of cool stuff and day trips to various places. He is most excited about the trip to the caves! They do everything a regular camp does but without sleeping there. I also have a friend that is going to give him 1 on 1 swimming lessons which is going to be so much cheaper for me than regular classes. He will have friends over frequently and we usually go camping a bunch. I almost forgot, grandma lives almost 2 hrs away and since she does not get to see him much she takes him for a few weeks every summer. Which always makes me crazy missing him.

 

[aprilgail2]

We are going away to Disney in June and then going away a few more times over the summer when I ahve vacation from work. Otherwise its a few weeks of girl scout camp and a few weeks of oceanography camp so there will be no time to be bored! For the evenings our town does a once a week free outdoor movie at a local park and then they have a whole free concert series each weekend and a few weekdays in a local park- they have some good cover bands doing Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, Beatles, kiss, do wop etc so those are really fun to go to and they are all free with free parking so you can't beat them! We attend most of them!

 

[Jaimee]

DS 10 is going to daycare during the day, which he usually enjoys but we have some activities to break up the summer. He's going to football camp for 3 days right after school is out. Then a regular week long sleepaway camp the end of June. He also plays baseball in a rec league twice a week (it's just a fun league, no stress, they don't even keep score most of the time...). In August he starts football practice (I'm nervous about this, it's his frist year). Other than that we try to do something fun on the weekends (I work full time during the week). We'll go to local festivals, parks etc.