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Summer Activities: Tips and Ideas for Thriving this Summer {Episode 73}
95 Plays5 years ago
This year has been bizarre, scary and full of the unexpected...and there's no end in sight! If you're feeling overwhelmed and emotionally tapped out, we're here for you and we've got lots of ideas to help you and your family stay positive.
We heard all your requests for wholesome activity ideas and compiled them into this episode all about surviving and thriving all summer long. So, regardless of what happens outside of your home, you and your children will have exciting and, dare we say it, educational opportunities for growth and fun. Check out our list of activities below to get you started!
Outdoor ideas: camping, boating or playing at a lake or river, hiking, picnic in the backyard, treasure hunt at the park, nature walk in a new neighborhood, playing in sprinkler, chalk art, painting rocks.
Indoor ideas: forts in the living room, making snacks together, making and delivering goodies to neighbors, packing up lunches for the homeless, sewing or craft project, acting out your favorite book, writing a play, making a list of books to read, secret service between siblings.
Paid outings: zoo, water park, stay in a local hotel, go out to breakfast, rent an RV, museums, trampoline park, movies, bowling, laser tag, arcade, road trip to explore local town.
Multiday activities: Monopoly, lengthy audio books, huge puzzles, complex craft projects, building projects (sand box, swing set, fort), learning a new skill like sewing or playing an instrument.
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Transcript
Challenges of Summer 2020 for Parents
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Outnumber the Podcast. We are constantly getting questions about great, inspired, fun activities to do with kids that don't cost a lot of money and lately can be done in the comfort of our own homes.
00:00:15
Speaker
we fully realized that with the approach of this summer many of us mothers are kind of pulling our hair out already going crazy having been stuck inside with kids for so long and having very little structure and schedule as it is.
Reviving Summer Excitement
00:00:30
Speaker
So today's episode is going to walk you through this unique challenge we have here at the beginning of the summer of 2020 trying to figure out how to survive these next few months
00:00:40
Speaker
of hot weather, no activities, and just an overwhelmingly scary world that we live in that is full of the unexpected. So we are excited that you are here. We hope that some of these tips and suggestions can bring you back some of that excitement that you felt in the summer's past and give you and your kiddos something to look forward to for the next three months.
Mission for Peace and Humor in Parenting
00:01:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumber the Podcast. I'm Bonnie.
00:01:10
Speaker
And I'm Audrey. We're experienced moms to a combined total of 18 children. Our mission is to help overwhelmed parents find peace in parenting and humor in the chaos. Come join us as we attempt uninterrupted conversation about parenting with joy and intention.
00:01:31
Speaker
Welcome back,
Navigating COVID-19 Summer
00:01:32
Speaker
everybody. Today's podcast episode is all about summer. We're heading into summer now. It kind of feels like we've been in summer for like six months already because of this COVID-19 thing. So we have some unusual circumstances facing us, but we wanted to share just some great tips and tricks for making the most out of your summer, especially when it feels like you're maybe just a little bit overwhelmed with all this together time with your children, right?
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, just think you've already gotten through the first hard week that's really hard, where they're not used to being in school and you're not used to
Embracing Summer Activities
00:02:05
Speaker
having them around. That's already taken care of so you can jump right into summer activities. Right, exactly. Now it can just be fun time. So we wanted to start off by instead of doing a humor segment, we want to start off by asking you guys a favor.
00:02:19
Speaker
Can you please go leave us a review?
Call for Listener Reviews
00:02:21
Speaker
We haven't gotten a review in a little while and this is something that helps iTunes know how to categorize our podcast and how popular it is and how many people to show it to in the search results and all that. And we just need you guys help to give us a little bump. So pause right now. We'll be here when you get back and go leave us a review, not just the rating where you swipe the stars, but an actual written review would mean so much. So thank you.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yes, thank you so much for taking the time to do that. I know I rarely take the time to do that myself on my favorite podcast, but ever since we started ours, I'm more conscious of that because I know how valuable they are. So thank you guys so much for taking that time.
00:02:59
Speaker
So let's dive into summer.
Summer Heat: Phoenix vs Midwest
00:03:02
Speaker
My perspective of summer is maybe a little bit different from some people's. Most people get really excited about warm weather and chance to be outside, but we live outside of Phoenix. And so summer for us is like everybody else's winter. We just stay inside. AC is cranked. We try not to go anywhere. We do swim. So it's kind of miserable sometimes, especially having had multiple months of kids being stuck inside already.
00:03:25
Speaker
we're already looking at some struggling times, right? So we wanted to talk about our tips for enjoying this time with your kids, letting go of that guilt of school that we may or may not have done, but still retaining some sort of a structure and what has worked for us in the past.
Structuring Summer Without School
00:03:41
Speaker
Just had to throw that out there that our summers are even more miserable than some people's with kids being home all the time. Yeah, it gets pretty hot here too and humid.
00:03:54
Speaker
in the Midwest. And so I'm going to talk, we're going to talk a little later about what we do, but we do take that into consideration in our summer schedule as well. So we're going to talk about how to keep some structure and discipline without it feeling like the total punishment or structure of school. So, or a regular, you know, the regular part of the year. So we're going to try to give you both tips and ideas.
Preventing Chaos with a Schedule
00:04:20
Speaker
Right, and probably all of us are very aware of how no structure, no schedule, and being stuck inside is a recipe for a disaster, right? We've all basically gone through that for the last three months. It's just figuring out how too much together time, too much TV time, not enough work, or
00:04:39
Speaker
you know, schedule whatever is a recipe for disaster. So we're going to talk to you about how to how to fix that. So the first thing we want to say is something we've talked about multiple times in regards to this, the forced homeschooling aspect of the quarantine days. And that's keeping a schedule. We've mentioned it before because we really feel passionate about
00:04:57
Speaker
when everything else has gone away, keeping your own sort of schedule is crucial for making sure that kids know what's going on. And so that you know what's going on and you can last till the next chunk of your day rather than throughout the whole day, right? Yeah, that's really key. I've found in the past in summers that we haven't kept a schedule that my kids get really out of whack. They're just really crazy. And then when we go into the fall and we start a schedule again, it's like they are
00:05:26
Speaker
totally different people. They settle down, they settle into routine, and they just, yeah, they're not so crazy. Then I end up asking myself, now, why didn't I do this all summer long?
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, totally. So yeah, we also keep a schedule and part of it is just kind of a general schedule. And I'm going to talk about in our little bit differently when we talk about what we do for school through the summer, I'm going to talk specific
Balancing Work and Fun in Summer
00:05:53
Speaker
schedule stuff. But just in general, we work outside in the morning in the garden with the animals stuff that needs to be done. And then in the middle of the day where it's really super hot and humid, we come indoors and we do
00:06:06
Speaker
the indoor things that we do. So if there's learning that they're doing or games or whatever that, that is all saved for the middle of the day. And then we go outside again in the late afternoon after some of that humidity. And he has burned off and we spend time doing more things outside again in the late afternoon. So generally in the morning it's work time and in the evening, the outside is kind of more like play time.
00:06:32
Speaker
Oh, that sounds lovely. I grew up in the Midwest too, so I have so many wonderful memories of just riding my bike in the summer and playing in the sprinklers and on the trampoline, and so what a fun time. Yeah. So one thing I wanted to mention before I tell you about our kind of loose schedule is that it is totally okay to change your schedule up as often as need be, right? So I found that during school year, during summer, it doesn't really matter what time of year, we last about three months on a schedule before we need to change things up a little
The Flexibility of Summer Schedules
00:07:01
Speaker
bit.
00:07:01
Speaker
I don't know if it's... And that might just be me. It might not even be my kids. It might just be me. But I found that after three months of hitting school hard early in the morning, then we have to change it to a little bit later and we have to have a little bit of playtime first, just to give a little bit of variety and make it so kids just don't get really burned out by the schedule that we're currently on, right? Yeah. It's like when you change around the furniture in a room, everybody gets all excited about that room again, don't they?
00:07:30
Speaker
Yes, totally. That was one of my favorite things to do as a kid, and we still do as adults. Yeah, just to change things up, make things interesting, and it's especially essential if you've been stuck in your house for a long, long time or you haven't been able to go out and enjoy the local water park or public pool or whatever.
00:07:47
Speaker
So to change things up, don't be afraid to do that at all. You can even just keep your same blocks of schedule, right? Like the three hour learning time or the one hour learning time or whatever and the two hours of playing, but just swap them around, you know, try it in the afternoon and then try it
Family Summer Routine
00:08:02
Speaker
in the evening, et cetera. So that can be just the breath of fresh air that you need.
00:08:07
Speaker
So our summer schedule usually looks a little bit like this. We try to do some sort of devotional or scripture study, and sometimes that's later on in the day, like I mentioned, we move things around. We try to do plenty of chores because, like I said, we are stuck inside for a lot of the day. We always do some swimming time, but in the summer we usually have to move it up early in the morning because it just gets way too hot in the afternoon to be out in the sun. Time with friends, time with friends over at our house or over there,
00:08:35
Speaker
kids over at someone else's house. I try to always make sure there's some quiet reading time just for fun. You know sometimes I give them a book that I'd like them to get through in the summer but for the most part I just let them read whatever they want. And then sometimes some screen time that just depends on how patient I'm feeling. Which it was just like in the school year we try not to allow any screens except for on the on Saturday. But sometimes mom just needs a break and that's what we do but yeah.
00:09:04
Speaker
Okay, so moving on to number two, plan some special stuff in. Summer can seem to just drag on without surprises to change things up.
Special Activities to Avoid Summer Drag
00:09:18
Speaker
Sometimes, you know, at the beginning of summer, everybody's all excited. Yes, no more school, no more whatever. And then, you know, within a couple weeks they're like, I'm bored. The thing that was so exciting to them a couple weeks ago is now the most boring thing they've ever done in their life.
00:09:34
Speaker
Yes, I love this idea because it doesn't matter how fun your days are. Everything gets boring after a while, right? Like our pool, for example, we moved into this house almost two years ago. It was our first house to ever have a pool. So exciting, my kids spent...
00:09:50
Speaker
hours and hours and hours in that pool every single day that first summer. And then the next summer came and it was just a little bit less fun. And now this summer's coming and it's still fun, but it's just, you know what I mean? Like the thrill just kind of wears off. And so no matter how cool your house is or how fun your neighborhood is or how awesome your neighbors are, the
00:10:09
Speaker
the gleam of it wears off eventually, right? So to include surprises. Now, I will say right up front that I'm not the type of parent to sit and make a list a mile long and say, these are all the amazing things we're going to do every summer. So many of my friends do, and I'm so impressed with them. I'm just like, can I send my kid to your house because you have so much more fun than we do.
00:10:27
Speaker
I just, I don't operate like that. And that's okay too, if you're like that. But I do like to plan some fun things with the input of my kids. That's important so that they know what's in the cards and they get to participate in the planning. But even something like once a month or once every two weeks or three weeks or something. So there's kind of an end to the boring routine, even if there is fun stuff, but the same old, same old.
Monthly Activities for Summer Excitement
00:10:52
Speaker
And you go, guess what? In two weeks, we get to go camping. We're so excited. This is the date. And you circle it on the calendar, and there's something to look forward to, right?
00:11:00
Speaker
A few ideas just off the top of my head are trips out of town. Obviously, it can be something elaborate like going to a theme park and staying in a hotel or it could be something super simple like camping outside, right? Going to a campground somewhere. Having cousins come visit or friends over for the full day or weekend. Trips to the ice cream store. You can say, guess what? Every Friday at 4 p.m., we're going to go get ice cream. Yay, it's something to look forward to, right?
00:11:27
Speaker
My kids love to camp in the backyard. That's fun. Although we don't do it in the summer. We do it in the fall or the spring. Going fishing, going to the beach, whatever. We'll have a lot more of these fun activity ideas at the end of the podcast, but those are just a couple to get you thinking.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah, so like don't start getting overwhelmed if you're not the fun mom either. We're not the fun moms either. But we have also learned to be fun enough that we don't go crazy with our kids boring us about being
00:11:59
Speaker
bugging us about being bored all summer long. So there's a good mix of being the fun mom without getting overwhelmed. So if you have babies or if you have a large family, um, a lot of these things that we might suggest aren't even within reach or a good idea, but you'll, you'll tell her for yourself. We know you guys. Okay. So just including one a month can give everybody something fun to look forward to.
00:12:24
Speaker
Um, what we often do is in the summer, we have a town day. And on that day, what we did last summer was we had a swimming lesson and we got it. We got it timed just right where we, um, we would do.
00:12:39
Speaker
We'd go by the library. Everybody would get books, new books, pile of new books. And then we would go do our swimming lesson where they weren't looking at the books yet. So they would go do their swimming lesson. And then we would go home and that afternoon was the most peaceful, quiet afternoon ever because everybody was tired out from swimming and they had all these new library books to look at.
00:13:03
Speaker
So I made the stress of the town day like just loading everybody up and getting everything together for the swimming lesson and everything that we needed. And we also packed a lunch because the littlest kids would fall asleep on the way home. So we would eat after the swimming lesson on the way home and then not have to worry about doing lunch and clean up. So we made it work for us so that it was enjoyable. I say us, this is my teenage daughter and I that was helping me.
00:13:27
Speaker
And we made it enjoyable for us so that it wasn't a drag and so that it was sustainable and we didn't quit because it was just too much work. Right. And I love that idea of, you know, you knew that you weren't going to commit to going out and having an outing every single day of the week or even three times a week, but you could commit to that one day of just going whole hog, doing a bunch of fun things, wearing everybody out, and then feeling real good about your fun mom status for the next week,
Parental Enjoyment in Summer Planning
00:13:52
Speaker
right? Yeah.
00:13:54
Speaker
The last thing I want to say about these fun activities is, like we've mentioned in other episodes, make sure you're including things that you like to do. Now, it doesn't always have to be something you love to do. Obviously, your kids like to do lots of things that you probably are like, really? The water park? You know?
00:14:11
Speaker
But include at least one or two things in there that you are really excited about. A Harry Potter marathon, which what we did recently, kids really loved. Or maybe you love the outdoors, so going on a hike is like your idea of heaven. Whatever it is, or maybe it's just going and sitting inside a cool movie theater where you can close your eyes and your kids are entertained. Whatever, no judgment. Whatever's fun for you, make sure you incorporate a couple of those. Otherwise, you're gonna feel tortured all summer long, right? Yeah.
00:14:40
Speaker
Okay, so number three tip is to include some learning time.
Incorporating Learning in Summer
00:14:44
Speaker
I highly recommend not calling it quote unquote school, because that's a surefire way for kids to like roll eyes and be like, it's summer, though we don't have to do school. Yeah, yeah. But to plan it into your day somewhere. So like I said, we have our quiet reading time. And I will say, hey,
00:15:01
Speaker
this week, I want you to do this during your reading time. Make sure you read some of this or make sure you do a little bit of this math game with your sibling. They'll love that, right? So phrase it in a way that seems a little bit more fun and laid back, but that way they keep their skills fresh and they don't get totally out of the habit of learning something every day. Yeah, we have some summer school activities built into our schedule too. And we look at this as an opportunity for kids to learn to schedule their own time and activities.
00:15:31
Speaker
Maybe we'll do a whole episode about homeschool scheduling and how to schedule your day when we start in the fall. But for summer, so for the regular part of the school, I give my kids a schedule of what activities, lessons, books, et cetera, that they need to get through that day. Well, for summer, I switch it up and I give them a blank schedule and I write with a list of things that I need them to accomplish that week.
00:15:56
Speaker
And so it's an opportunity for them to learn to schedule their own time and their own work, their own activities.
Teaching Time Management with Self-scheduling
00:16:04
Speaker
So what are those? For us, we keep doing a little bit of math once or twice a week, Spanish daily and music daily. Just math because I don't like to reteach in the fall. I'm too lazy to teach over, again, things I already taught. And then Spanish and music because those are the kind of things that
00:16:26
Speaker
Um, you know, you don't want to not do that for three months if you're trying to learn a language. Um, and then we add in new things like my kids absolutely love typing tutor, Mavis Beacon, Mavis Beacon typing lessons. We'll link it in the show notes. And, um, they love, uh, so I'll put on their schedule typing twice this week and they'll schedule it in and they love, they love their typing time because it's games and they race the computer and you know, whatever. Um, we also do gardening.
00:16:55
Speaker
in the summer and I consider that part of their school. Very good science. Okay. And then one thing I like to do with them, I mentioned we have a trip to the library. I like to give them the assignment of, so I give them a list with all the different sections of the library. Okay. There's the fiction section, there's the nonfiction section, there's the
00:17:22
Speaker
autobiographies, there's the biographies, there's the history, there's the, okay, all these different sections. And I say, all right, I want you to get one book from the poetry section and one book from the nonfiction section about history and then as many books as you want from the fiction section. Cause that's, you know, that's right where they had, that's the fun stuff to read, right? Or maybe the next week I'll say, okay, I want you to, this week I want you to check out a play and a
00:17:49
Speaker
I have a geography book about somewhere that you have never been and then as many fiction books as you want. So what I have gotten my kids to do is to go into the undiscovered sections of the library and check out books from there. And some of them have really gotten into something or another because mom said, oh, I have to go into the sports section this week and, you know, check out a book about, and they're like, oh, hey, this is really cool. Did you know that water polo or jousting or, you know, whatever, and then they'll spot all these facts.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So I just make up a little, a little list for them with some library requirements. Like they can actually, I don't say you can get as many books as you want at the library. I say you can get as many books as you can carry because I'm not carrying your books. Yeah. Yeah. So that's something we do for, for the library is, um, those, the section. So anyway, I like to, I like to view school as an opportunity for them to
00:18:50
Speaker
summer school as an opportunity for them to do something different. Yes, I love that idea. And I will say that if you are a little bit more uptight about your kids schooling, so let's say you are a homeschooler or you have been and you felt kind of uptight and like very pressured about making sure your kids get this great education, summer can be a time for you to practice a little bit of unschooling, right?
00:19:12
Speaker
that kind of schooling where everything's an educational opportunity, but it's a little bit too loosey goosey for your personality. I totally get that. But summer is a time to relax a little bit while still immersing your kids in learning environments. It doesn't have to mean that they just stare at a screen all day long or they never do anything, but rather they just kind of reach into these other areas that they might not normally have explored, like those undiscovered library sections. I love that tip. That's great.
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good time to do a unit study or a deep dive on on one particular subject. Yeah, totally. Okay, so some of our learning time. Well, first of all, most of our learning time looks like being immersed in books we do. There are many summer days where the only learning time we do is just read to each other and read alone and I am totally
Fun Approaches to Summer Learning
00:19:59
Speaker
okay with that. I love the idea of my kids just having their nose in a book for hours and hours at a time and that makes me happy.
00:20:05
Speaker
So we read aloud, we read alone. We do do math most days, like you. It's just those skills that I don't want them losing. I do try to make it fun. We have a couple of fun math games, you know, like for the little ones, how to learn how to use money, how to learn how to tell time. For the older ones, it might be something a little bit more complicated, but try to make that fun. And then we also try to dabble in some hands-on
00:20:32
Speaker
learning like like in science so we've explored lots of different science kits or experiments that might be normally too messy or too time-consuming to do during a regular school day but we can take an hour and make a huge mess in the summer and I'm it stresses me out less right yeah and then travel I think travel is one of the best teachers there is out there and last summer we we did a
00:20:58
Speaker
kind of cross-country journey from Arizona to Tennessee. That's when we, Audrey and I met up, super fun. And I felt like my kids learned more about geography on that drive than they probably learned the entire year. We printed out maps in the United States and we laminated them and we passed them around and the kids got to see where we were going.
Travel as a Learning Tool
00:21:16
Speaker
Any big city we stopped in, we'd tell them where we were. Hey, we're in Oklahoma City. Hey, we're here and they're going, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, look, we're close to this. Oh, we're close to this. It was super fun and a really great way for them to
00:21:27
Speaker
just see more of life, different ways that people live, different cities, different countries, different houses, not countries, different cities, different towns, different houses, and we had a great time. So lots of different ideas there. Yeah, absolutely. We love travel in the summer. We try to plan at least one trip, and it just feels like your kids' horizons expand.
00:21:51
Speaker
they become more aware of the world. Their little world expands when you travel. So yeah, we love to do at least one trip somewhere in the summer too.
Managing Screen Time
00:22:01
Speaker
Okay, number four, you knew this was coming. Watch out for the electronics trap. We've mentioned this before that, but we've mentioned it before because we have so much experience with this. Children behave so much worse when they have unlimited access to screens or even extra access to screens.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yes, totally. If you are still convinced that you need to give your kids access to screens during the summer, then a safer idea than allowing access every day is to try to do something fun, like incorporate one of those fun activities into their electronics time.
00:22:39
Speaker
letting them play video games whenever they want. How about a family movie night where you spread out a blanket and you put the projector on the wall or you let them eat popcorn on the carpet or something unusual that's super fun that creates like a bonding moment, a bonding experience with the family rather than a potentially addictive behavior. And I know that it is so hard to say no to screens. As we talk right now,
00:23:03
Speaker
My oldest is not helping my younger children. And so I let them watch TV because it was just survival. And I had to do this podcast. But if at all possible, when we pull our kids away from those screens, we will see improved behavior. But it just doesn't always come right away.
00:23:18
Speaker
warn you there. And it's not for every like I get that some survival times require a little bit of help. And if that's a TV show, more power to you, you're the mom. But we have both found that the more we pull it out of our kids lives, the more imagination we see, the more love of life, the better behavior. It's it's it's a double edged sword, those those screams for sure. Yeah, two, two, so two thoughts on this.
00:23:46
Speaker
We can't keep our kids away from screens. It's going to be a part of their future and a part of their life. And I know that we've said this before. So what we have chosen to do is experience screens with them to help them manage their thoughts and reactions and expectations of and toward screens in the future. So it's not something that they're exploring alone, but it's something that
00:24:11
Speaker
either we're doing together or they're supervised in it or something like that. And my other thought is that if you give your kids limitations and they know what those limitations are and
00:24:26
Speaker
and everybody knows what those limitations are, then you'll get a whole lot less nagging. So if you say, okay, zero screens this week and if everybody honors this and stays off screens, then on Friday, we will all do something fun together. And then they don't ask you every two hours through the day or every day for hours on end. Can I watch something now or can I play a game now or can I
00:24:50
Speaker
But no, you said remember we agreed together that on Friday night that we're staying off screens this week and then on Friday night we're gonna have a fun time together or whatever you've decided on. So just test this one out. If you're struggling with your kid's behavior, if they're bored, if they can't think of anything to do, if they're fighting, if they have a lack of imagination, if so many things, try a screen-free week or a screen-free month and see if it affects their behavior at all.
00:25:20
Speaker
Yes, and I was gonna say that if you see improved behavior or extra imagination or anything positive come out of your children being away from screens for a while, be sure to mention it to them. So we recently had an experience, I have at least two children that I know have more addictive type personalities than others, and we often see this come out in regards to screens. If they have access to it, it's a very addictive set of behaviors that they,
00:25:49
Speaker
present towards screens. It's not like I can watch 20 minutes and then walk away. It's like all or nothing for them. So we recently had a problem where one child was sneaking screen time when he wasn't allowed and it was really bothersome because there was a lot of deceit going on. It really just really, really got under my skin. So we sat and talked and it had
00:26:07
Speaker
a whole bunch of consequences ready because the deceit was just not okay, right? And so once we got this child completely away from screens for a while and we knew that the honesty was being reinstated and there was some more trust there, we sat down and talked about it. How have you been feeling? Because we could see a dramatic increase in happiness in this child. Because all of a sudden there was no sneaking around, there was no guilt on his conscience, so many things were positive and this kid was like,
00:26:34
Speaker
I feel great. I feel happy. I feel purposeful. He was going to bed earlier, getting up earlier, just all these positive behaviors. And I thought, wow, what a concept. And I could tell that this kind of behavior would not be typical of another child. The other ones just have different personalities. But because of this kid's propensity towards
00:26:53
Speaker
you know, being addicted to screens that he really had a hard time when he had too much. So just to be aware of that, like to mention, hey, have you guys noticed how much less you fought this week? Have you noticed that we've really enjoyed our movie night on Fridays, but we haven't nobody's asked for it the rest of the week. I love that. I love that you're playing together, etc. Make sure that you draw attention to that.
00:27:15
Speaker
This really is an area that we want our kids to learn to navigate alone. They need our help, especially a child with a propensity to be addicted to
Creating a Fun Summer Activity List
00:27:25
Speaker
screens. They need help with that. If they were addicted to something else, we wouldn't just throw them out there and leave them to it. We would help them with that. This isn't something that we want them to have to go through.
00:27:38
Speaker
and deal with on their own either. Like little kids, two-year-old, a two-year-old doesn't know that they're watching too much screen time. They don't know that. They're two, right? Yeah, yeah. Yes, and thank goodness we have a chance to do this because just speaking from personal experience, I think we had a computer
00:27:54
Speaker
when I was growing up in high school, but we never did anything on it because there was nothing to be done. You know, I don't even think we had the internet, maybe maybe my senior year. And so I showed up at college and my roommate had a computer and there was just, I mean, all we had was instant messaging and email, but there was still the temptation to message my friends all day long. And then there was the temptation to be on the internet, et cetera, et cetera. So thankfully we have all these resources now to help our children learn to navigate them while they're in the safety of our homes rather than just thrown into the real world and figuring out on their own. Yeah.
00:28:25
Speaker
Okay, so number five refers back to our fun activities, and that is to remind yourself to just have fun. We mentioned a few of the activities before, and we are going to add in some more right now. We mentioned creating a summer fun activity list, just a word of warning ahead of time. Make sure that you maybe think through some potential ideas your kids are gonna have and decide what you're gonna say yes to and what you're not, right? Don't say yes to, I don't know,
00:28:53
Speaker
Staying up all night if you're not prepared to deal with kids that are super cranky the next day, right? Yeah have some have some confines to those activities Yeah, that's right. That's a good tip because like if my kids and I sat down to do a summer list I'm sure they would have all sorts of things on there that I would just be
00:29:14
Speaker
It would just be drudgery to me or it would be a huge pain or too much money or a lot of stuff. So maybe we as moms could make a list and then say to our kids, pick something off this list that you want to do this week. But of course, have their input on the fun things that they want to do too.
00:29:32
Speaker
Anyway, it's a great way to get them involved in planning their days, but you're still there to moderate and make sure that you're not planning a bunch of stuff that you can't or won't or are not willing to do. Because I think we talked in a previous episode about throwing your all into it when you say yes. So just think about what you will say yes to and then be the fun mom on that yes.
00:29:57
Speaker
Right, so an idea for how to make this work with your kids input without them going too crazy is to create your list and then subdivide it, right? So let's say you just have a big brainstorming session and kids throw out all the things they never want to do, right? And then you subdivide it into, I don't know, maybe things that are free versus things that are paid.
00:30:15
Speaker
things that you can do when it's raining and things that you can't. Things that you can do with all the family, including the baby and things that you'll have to get a sitter for, right? So then they realize that there are some constraints. You can't just pack up and drive to Disneyland, whatever day you want, right? And so then you can look at your schedule and say, okay, this Friday we're going to do a fun activity. It has to be a free one though, because we're trying to save money. So pick one from the free list. And then they get the opportunity to choose within those constraints of, you know, we're not leaving town, we're not spending a ton of money.
00:30:44
Speaker
et cetera. Right.
Outdoor Summer Activities
00:30:48
Speaker
Okay, so I'm going to start with a few outdoor ideas. For those of you who are lucky enough to be in places with gorgeous weather in the summertime or you live close to a place where you can drive to have good weather, a few ideas are going camping, going boating or playing at a lake or a river, so some sort of water experience, hiking, a picnic in the backyard, don't have to go far for that,
00:31:10
Speaker
a treasure hunt at a nearby park. So you can go hide, you know, old bracelets or quarters or whatever and let your kids go treasure hunting. A nature walk in a neighborhood you haven't been in before, playing in the sprinkler or pool if you have access to one, doing chalk art, painting rocks. My kids painted rocks for about three hours yesterday. It was the funnest, cheapest activity they've done in a long time. So that's something to get you started.
00:31:34
Speaker
Yeah. And then indoor activities for when it's hot, uh, build a fort in the living room. I find that my forts in the living room have to have an end time. Oh, you say, okay, we're going to build forts until five o'clock and then we're going to clean it up before supper because otherwise the forts are like perpetual for like a week on end and then everybody gets tired of it. And then can I have breakfast in it? And then we don't do my reading. No, no, no. Yeah. Mom's going to go crazy. We gotta pack up.
Indoor Summer Activities
00:32:02
Speaker
Make snacks together. So make and deliver goodies to neighbors. Pack up lunches for the homeless. A sewing or craft project. Act out your favorite book. Write a play. Write a poem. Make a list of books to read. Have a secret service between siblings. Have a secret sister. Secret sibling. Right?
00:32:26
Speaker
Yeah. And just tons of indoor ideas. Your kids, you know, like Bonnie and I are like writing some stuff down, but your kids will have tons of good ideas. And there are so many resources online as well. We'll include links to a few fun summer activity lists, but just do a quick Google search or hop on Pinterest and you will be bombarded with ideas. You'll, you'll have more ideas than you know what to do with. So yeah.
00:32:51
Speaker
Lots of people do call it a bucket list and
Paid Outings for Family Fun
00:32:53
Speaker
they do that. Yeah. Their summer bucket list. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a few paid outings, outing ideas are going to the sewer, water park, staying in a local hotel. We love staycations. You don't have to go far, but it's still the fun hotel experience.
00:33:08
Speaker
If, you know, hotels are fully functional this summer, we still don't know, we'll see. Going out to breakfast. Going out to dinner is always fun, but I think breakfast is kind of a fun surprise to just wake up on a Saturday or something and I'll go get pancakes. Rent an RV, leave town, go to museums, trampoline park, those are pretty popular in a lot of cities. Go to the movies, bowling, laser tag, an arcade. The options are endless for those paid outings. You probably just want to live with those, I'm assuming.
00:33:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And if you want some more family friendly ideas that work for the whole family, we had tons of ideas in that episode. So we'll link that one in the show notes too. Things that are not too expensive and are enjoyable for the whole family, a whole range of ages.
00:33:54
Speaker
Okay. I had thought of some multi-day activities because like summer is a good time. You don't really have that much yet that you have to work around. So it's an opportunity to do some multi-day activities.
Engaging in Multi-day Projects
00:34:07
Speaker
I mentioned forts in the living room are not a multi-day activity for us around here. But there are some.
00:34:15
Speaker
that are just kind of cool and everybody can kind of get into it together. So think long lasting games like Monopoly. I think every summer my kids have a Monopoly game going somewhere and it lasts like, you know, four days and then they, somebody wins and then they start all over or whatever. Lengthy audiobooks, like think a Harry Potter audiobook that just, you know, you need a week to listen to it several hours a day. Huge puzzles.
00:34:41
Speaker
complex craft or sewing projects, a building project, like the boys go and build a sandbox or a swing set or a fort out in the woods, outside larger building projects, like lots of times for our animals here on the farm, we'll build new shelters or new cages, so some sort of building project. And these things, they go over several days, just like a house project would.
00:35:06
Speaker
or like learning a new skill, starting and learning a new skill. Last summer, my third daughter wanted to learn how to sew. And so she started to learn sewing through the summer and she'd spend like an hour a week on it or whatever. So tons of fun stuff that are maybe longer, lengthier projects that is not conducive to a fall school schedule that are just perfect for summer.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, I love those ideas. I especially love the idea of learning a new skill at the hand of another sibling, right? So maybe you have a child who's an expert in sewing or playing volleyball or building something, and he or she decides to teach everybody else. And so, you know, every other day at 3 p.m., you all go outside and learn from Big Brother who's teaching you the proper way to hammer a nail or whatever. That sounds really fun for the younger kids.
00:35:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That reminds me last summer, she was 16 last summer. She was teaching four of her younger siblings how to knit and every day she would take one of the siblings and sit down and her hands on their hands teaching them how to knit. So that was one of her summer projects last summer.
00:36:16
Speaker
Okay. That sounds like my almost 11 year old. She loves teaching kids how to do stuff. And I just wish there were three of her. Okay. So there's plenty of ideas to get you guys started. I hope that this episode hasn't made you feel overwhelmed, but, but just a little bit like, okay, I can do this
Blending Learning with Summer Magic
00:36:32
Speaker
summer. Even, even though I have been staring at my kids inside my house for the last three months, we can create a structure that will, you know, that's the key to create some sort of a structure without it feeling like school is dragging on and on.
00:36:43
Speaker
but also to intersperse your days with a little bit of summer magic. So we hope these ideas help you out and be sure to check the show notes for lots more ideas. Thanks so much for tuning in. Did you know you can help the podcast in several ways? First up, we're on Patreon and there are three different levels to support us there.
00:37:00
Speaker
Just head to patreon.com slash outnumbered. Next step, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a written review on iTunes. It helps other parents find the podcast and receive the help you're enjoying. And finally, you can follow us on Instagram at outnumbered the podcast. We're always having fun over there too. As usual, if you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, you can reach us at outnumbered the podcast at gmail.com. Thanks for all your support. We'll talk to you next week.