As a former stay-at-home and veteran homeschool mama, I know full well that as mamas, WE set the tone for our homes and even our kids attitudes. When we are excited about something it stirs their excitement! Living in the northeast, where nice weather is fleeting, summertime with my kiddos was always so fun, as formal lessons had ceased and I could slow down and allow my kids’ curiosity to lead us.
Let’s take this precious gift of summer days to show them that the little things really ARE the big things. That the simple pleasures and seeking wonder are what will bring them the greatest joy their entire lives!
We always would create together a “Summer Fun List” that would give us excellent ideas when boredom tried to pop up. Also, boredom is good and healthy and spurs us to rest or find something interesting to do 😉 Things like:
-Plant some seeds and watch them grow!
-Search for rainbows after a storm
-Build a faerie house out of an old stump with things you gathered on a nature walk and check each day for signs of a visit
-Hike a new trail and let them use an old camera to take photos they can later scrapbook or use to sketch from
-Do some daily bird-watching and keep a little journal to jot down discoveries, calls, sounds, habits, nest types, get books from the library, do a presentation on your favorite…mama’s sneaky way of getting some writing in over summer break 😉
-Feed a critter, chipmunks are the easiest and such creatures of habit that you can have your kids draw a map of the path they take to your left over banana bits to where they prefer to eat it
-Walk a trail that has a babbling brook and let your kids wade in water shoes with baggies to capture tadpoles, salamanders or cray fish to put in a bucket for short term observation
-Hunt for caterpillars under milkweed leaves and raise them for a couple of weeks to be monarch butterflies…we once had to take our chrysalis on a roadtrip and were able to release “Pocahontas” in the woods of New England!
-Have a picnic on a blanket…really playing anything that is usually played indoors on a blanket outside is more fun
-Hunt for fireflies at night or dragonflies when near a water source, make a simple craft and research different bugs
-Sit by a pond and sketch or paint what you see (yes, Mama, YOU go first! Even though art is not my gifting, I had my own sketch journal to “draw what I saw” **tip**go back to that exact same spot in a different season and draw what you see and ask what looks different
-Make homemade ice cream in a ziplock bag, the ten minutes of shaking makes it taste better than store-bought and proves there is joy to be found in effort 😉
-Read great read-alouds (reading great literature to my children was one of the greatest joys of homeschooling and we did it all the way through high school), on road trips or when sitting in a doctors appointment we’d each have our own copy of the same book to read alone and then meet up to chat about it, keep a summer reading chart for littles and keep track of all the hours they bank and count it toward fall credit, you know you’ve hit on a good one when at bedtime they say, “Just one more chapter?!”
-Play dress-up and write a script (another sneaky writing prompt)and have them act it out (my kids were obsessed with Peter Pan one summer, but sadly, I was always cast as Captain Hook or Mr. Smee 😉
-Build a fort, inside or outside and pretend to go camping
-Make s’mores inside by candlelight or Sterno on a rainy day
-Visit a farm or the lake or the mountains to discover what terrain your area is famous for
***Most importantly, let your kids see YOU enjoy this beautiful world the Lord has given us! My kids are now grown, but when they say, “You only get 18 summers”, it’s true, Mamas! Enjoy every bit of it before the back-to-school bug bites 🙂 ~Be Blessed, Jenny
P.S. Looking for a “mom coach” or “homeschool mom coach” to chat with through the ups and downs? I’d love to be your girl! Let’s chat! Send me a message or hit the COACH WITH ME button and let’s get started!
~JENNY RIEFLIN MINISTRIES~ 