When I was a kid, my mother made up something called the "Summer Fun Club". We each had a membership card with our picture on it, and when it was time for the fun, we went on field trips to historical sites, made crafts, and went swimming. (At least, that's how I remember it.) Looking at the next 11 weeks of unstructured summer time and knowing the intense social needs of my soon-to-be 5-year-old, I'm considering a similar venture, something fun that I plan ahead of time and have control over. I can even print out some ID cards for everyone (which is fun for me). What should I put on the list? Here's what I have so far.
Fruit-picking (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries in turn)
Yard games (enormous tic-tac-toe, races, croquet, frisbee, badmitton?)
Nature crafts from a book I have
Jell-o toss, decorate a jell-o flag
Food making (pretzels, home-made sodas, ice cream, anything)
Making play dough
Field trips to: Lake Dunmore, Shelburne farm, Montshire Science Museum, Echo Center, Rokeby Museum, Sheldon Museum
Play dates
Trip to Pizza Putt or mini-golfing
More crafts (trip to Michael's)
Hiking on the Trail Around Middlebury
Making musical instruments
Boat making
Indoor fort
Piano performances (our own made-up songs)
Maple Landmark train, visiting other new playgrounds
Sewing projects
Kites and bikes (with Dad, too)
Photography Day (taking pictures then printing them later)
Sun prints
Board game day
Making a book about summer (or other seasons)
What fun things can you think of for kids 2-8 year old?
4 comments:
How about pressing flowers and making cards to send to friends or people you know who are sick?
I just wanted to add this about Summer Fun club- it was done in self defense. The idea was to keep busy with scheduled activities- library the same day each week, etc, and it was mostly in the morning with the plan that afternoons were naptime, read-to-yourself time, or pool time.
Here are some of my ideas showing the High family genes:
With the Olympics on this summer, a bunch of Olympics themed activities.
Obstacle courses/relay races in your backyard.
Go swimming
Get a lawn croquet, lawn bowling or badminton set that Sonja and Laurel can play pretty independently with
Have a family track meet with long jump, shotput (throw a grapefruit), discus (toss a frisbee), a small race of some sort
Do a gymnastics meet. Laurel has to make up a floor routine, she gets to pick the music. You take lots of pictures.
Where do I sign my kids up? That sounds really fun. The only thing I have planned is Story time at the library, volunteer day at the library, a chore game thing (in the works), and learn about a different thing (ie counrty, plant, science subject, etc) each week. Your's sounds much more fun. But like your mom said, I want to do it for self defense.
This year I am planning to convince my kids that it is fun to reorganize closets and clean out the barn.
A couple of years ago I got inspired by Mom's Summer Fun Club, too, and I made lots of ideas, some of which we did.
Some that you didn't mention. (not many of which we actually did but which I still think are good ideas)
Visit an old folks home.
Candy factory or bakery.
Pick a town you've never been to for a daytrip (we live near the commuter rail, so going there on a train is a bonus). Or visit the public library of another town.
Make a radio play (on tape) or narrate a slide show (remember those??).
Make a commercial on video.
Make masks.
Make fruit leather.
Grow something in a petri dish. (back of the fridge does not count). Doesn't Quinn know someone in biology who can get you one?
Get some pH paper and test lots of things.
Make giant bubbles.
Grow sprouts.
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