As I head to pick up my son from school I find myself singing Alice Cooper School’s Out and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince Summer Time and feeling a rush of excitement. It’s the last day of school!
SUMMER TIME!
After handing over teacher gifts and wishing everyone a happy summer, we’re walking back to the car and I realize, “It’s summer. No school. What in this ever-loving world are we going to do?” Gone are the schedules that had us moving in the mornings. Gone are the tasks that I needed to complete before picking him up. It’s free time, free play and good gosh what am I going to do to keep this child from becoming a couch potato?
This is my first summer with a full-fledged, energetic, growing and learning toddler. I’m not what you would call a “creative mom”. Fun and educational activities don’t pop into mind at a moments notice. Aside from swimming and splash pads, we won’t be outside for any length of time. Living in Houston Texas in the summer is much like hanging out on the surface of the sun if the sun was also prone to 130% humidity.
So, now what?
I like the schedule the school year brings because it lets you know when things need to happen in order for other things to happen, but besides us waking up and eating breakfast I feel like there will be NO structure to our day. Oh, sure, I know that having a free schedule and no plans can be freeing or relaxing but, to calm the chaos in my mind, I think doing certain things on certain days will help us not get too bored (fingers crossed), too waterlogged and too sick of each other (yeah right.)
Here’s a short list of activities I’ve come up with:
*swim lessons
*beach
*rainforest and aquarium day
Cool! I’ve got items on the calendar!…and they all occur the first 2 weeks of June. What?! That’s it?! I want to enjoy summer and make his days fun but I don’t want to tear my hair out in the process of figuring out the fun. Also, I don’t want him living in front of the TV all summer either.
Y’all, I don’t know what our parents did without the help of the internet or Pinterest! I know we all got shoved outside and told not to come home until the street lights came on, but this world today is a whole different ball game (Woohoo! We can go to a baseball game) and I wasn’t 2 ½ years old when my mom was shooing me out of the house.
There are some great activities, I would have never thought of, that are educational and relatively cheap and easy!
- Place canvas on the ground (outside) and let them loose with paints
- Making several of the crafts posted on Ur Basic Mom Blog
- Doing activities from Busy Toddler
There is so much out there I have found to do with my son that now I can plan some activities and not feel like we (I) wasted the whole summer thinking, “now what” or memorizing lines from all the Disney Jr and Nick Jr cartoons. No doubt, most days will just happen or be lazy TV days but it makes this momma feel better that there is stuff out there for us to do that is also easy and inexpensive, aka free. There will be days he won’t get bored and drive me crazy(-er) because there’s nothing for him to do.
What have you planned to get through the summer days? Or, are you like me and searching for inspiration?
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