Family Fun | Keeping Summer Simple

Summer vacation officially kicks off this Friday.  No more waking up early to get the kids ready for school.  No more packing lunches.  No more mad morning scramble.  YAY!!!!   I can’t wait.

For me, summer conjures up images of warm lazy days, lemonade stands, swimming, bike riding until dusk, running through sprinklers, picnics, summer concerts … but that doesn’t seem to be what kids are experiencing today.  Nowadays, summer for many means a continuation of crazy, hectic schedules filled with sports camp, acting camps, French lessons, violin lessons, dance classes, gymnastics, swim team, tennis team, enrichment programs… you name it.  Admittedly, as a working mom, I was tempted to fill Z’s summer days with the myriad of opportunities available, but I am going to resist this summer.  Instead, I want to slow things down and bring back the type of summer I remember from my childhood (to an extent).

While the thought of enjoying lazy days is ideal, I know I need to be realistic – I have two girls who are active, social beings and love being BUSY.  Twelve weeks of doing nothing would bore them to death and drive me I-N-S-A-N-E!!

So here are some things I’m doing in my attempt to scale back yet “plan” things so that I’m prepared for those inevitable cries of “I’m bored!” and “What should I do now?”

• Only sign up for one summer camp as an anchor and build the remainder of summer around the camp we select.
• Plan a few weekend trips and one longer family trip
• Brainstorm a list of activities for some of those unplanned days
• Since Z is older, I had her come up with a list of things she wanted do this summer.  The parameter was that it had to be local – nothing requiring having to get on a plane.
• As a family, we came up with some other things to do which included activities for “bad weather” days and “hot-hot” days.

• Plug some of these activities on our summer calendar and post the remaining ones on a board in our kitchen.  This is for those times when the natives get restless and start complaining … I’ll send them to the board to pick an activity.

Being able to "reclaim summers" is not something all parents can do especially if both parents work out of home, so I am thankful that I get to have this luxury as an entrepreneur.   I’m looking forward to the next couple of months.  What about you?