Our calendar is filling up. We have three weeks booked with BIG Things: a day camp, an overnight camp and a vacation. We have loosely scheduled one FIELD trip for each summer month: the Children's Museum, the Zoo and the Oil Ranch. Now it is time to look at Daily Treats.
Daily Treats cannot cost a lot of money since they are daily. So we start with a loose schedule. The morning is stuff around the house (cleaning, video games, building train tracks or Lego's, whatever), about 10 am is an activity which will be discussed later, about 12 pm is lunch, about 1 pm is quiet time / nap time / reading time, about 3 pm is park time and then 5 pm is dinner and normal evening stuff. It is summer so I am not strict about the schedule. Lots of things depend on the kids and how they are doing. If they are particularly interested in what they are playing, we may not do a morning activity and focus on the fun we are having. If they are being particularly bad, we may delay a FIELD trip day or skip an activity for appropriate time outs and groundings. It all just depends on you and the kids and what you think is appropriate for a reward or for a punishment.
Activities are not in stone, but it is good to have a bag of tricks to easily pick something out that fits the day and the mood. Daily treats (activities) include physical time, mind time and go time.
- Physical Time - Everybody knows how important exercise. Physical time is easy with kids. Kids love to swim, ride bikes and run. We try to go to the swimming pool 2 - 3 times a week which takes up a number of morning activity time. We also like to ride bikes to neighborhood parks which easily takes up 2 - 3 afternoon activities. Running can be done in the backyard, in the cul-de-sac playing with neighbors or at the school park. I like to keep a stash of water guns in the backyard to promote running. Except for an annual pool tag fee, all these activities are free.
- Mind Time - You will have rain days or in Houston we have days where the temperature and humidity are just too high for outside play. For Mind Time, I like to have something interactive for the kids to build or to experiment. Play dough is a cool one. You can buy it to have on hand or make an experiment out if it by letting the kids make their own (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Play-Dough ). The computer has all sorts of kitchen science experiments available (baking soda and vinegar are favorites as well as Menthos and soda). A couple of sites I like are Science is Fun (http://www.scifun.org/homeexpts/homeexpts.html ) and Mad About Jesus Laboratories (http://www.madaboutjesus.net/index.html ). Mind Time also includes crafts like finger painting or painting a planter or t-shirt, planting something like a potato to watch it grow, building a bird house or a pine cone bird feeder, or creating musical instruments with stuff around the house. My older son is a Cub Scout and I have found the Cub Scout manuals a great resource for constructive and creative things to do. This year my son needs to work on his Craftsman Badge. I think we will make a leather wallet (supplies at the local hobby store) and I saw some interesting kids crafts for camping on the Oriental Trading Website (http://www.orientaltrading.com/ ). There are just tons of things you can do at home with stuff around the house. Just keep a list of websites readily available and a few generic supplies readily available. Generic supplies include paper, scissors, glue, tape, markers, paint, bubbles, balloons, and baking soda. Paper airplane day is always fun too.
- Go Time - I have two boys and boys need to move. They are busy and need constructive activities that allow them to be loud and to move. Parks, malls and tourist spots help with cheap and fun ways to fill the days. Parks - We are fortunate that we have a large county park near our house where we can ride bikes, picnic and play on the playground or in a field with Frisbee or football or kites or whatever. There are a number of parks that we can drive to and enjoy (http://www.co.harris.tx.us/parks/park.asp ). Many are not good for bikes so check ahead, but almost all have good picnic spots and bathrooms. Malls - Again, we live in the Greater Houston Area and shopping malls can be a fun daily activity that can easily be combined with an errand for Mom (need new shoes or a purse?). Our favorite mall is Memorial City (http://www.memorialcitymall.com/home.html ). It is a treat for the kids to pick their own lunch in the food court, we run our errand and the kids get rewarded for good behavior with a ride on the carousel, coins for the arcade, time on the castle playground for preschoolers, and/or ice cream. Tourist Spots - These could easily be put under Field Trips, but because they are economical, they can be enjoyed more often and thus have been placed under Daily Treats. Tourist Spots include the Houston Arboretum (http://www.houstonarboretum.org/ ), San Jacinto Monument (http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/ ), Sea Wolf Park Galveston (http://www.galveston.com/seawolfpark/ ), and Sea Center Texas Lake Jackson ( http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/visitorcenters/seacenter/) There a bit of a drive, but a good day for the kids.
The key to keeping the kids happy and Mom happy daily is to have a bag of tricks to pull from. Your bag of tricks does not have to cost a lot of money and can easily utilize things from around the house, but on those days that the kids need a little more room to stretch their legs, it is good to have a list of cheap and easy places to go. Another website of interest when trying to figure out how to fill a day is Nina Loca, a Houstonite with a more comprehensive list of kid friendly restaurants and locations, http://www.ninaloca.com/ .
Our summer is full of fun and relaxation. No stress for Mom trying to figure out what to do with those wound up tots. We have a day camp, overnight camp and vacation to look forward too. We have a Zoo trip, Museum trip and Farm trip to look forward too. We have lots of days to relax and enjoy swimming, biking and numerous parks and picnics. We even have some rainy day things to do including paint and play dough. We will still have a few "down" days where we just hang out, but Mom is armed to battle the "I'm bored" shots with the "look what we have planned for...." and with the "if you are good, we will do a kitchen experiment (or craft or game or whatever)."
It's a rough schedule, but a fun and flexible one. Have a great summer!
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