I can honestly say I have NO clue where this school year went…it flew by! Here are my son’s last day of school pictures (he is definitely not the little boy he was at the beginning of the year…proud mama though for sure!!).
I am so excited to spend some quality time with our boys this summer. I loved summers growing up as a kid and I have some great memories of a TON of outdoor activities and trips and friends and cousin fun! I can’t wait to start some traditions and continue old ones this summer with our boys!
We decided to do a “Summer Fun List” so that we can have a list of things that we can do each week and be able to check them off. I think it’s a great way to allow the kids to be involved and make decisions and have fun with it! Here is ours:
Here are a few tips on how to create a list like ours:
1. Get a bristol board from the dollar store for your list – our boys LOVE the big bright board that is in our kitchen that they can look at and we can talk about at dinner. They love coming up a with a plan and love checking things off and being able to see it!
2. Allow them to come up with the items but make sure they are reasonable.
3. Try to add a few items in for the community. We are going to go and pick up some garbage one day and we are also going to go and support our local Farmer’s Market.
4. We had a good discussion about keeping our list to “extra things” that aren’t normal or daily/weekly tasks. For example – going swimming wasn’t an extra for us, so we didn’t include it as we do this quite often with our pool.
5. Be sure to check the items that you do off! This is the fun part and our boys are taking turns quite nicely checking off items as we go.
6. Add one or two items that are bigger ticket items that they might not know that you have planned already (ours was the Blue Jays Game and seeing waterfalls as I know we will do this on our vacation!). Our boys are super excited for these big events!!
We also thought it would be fun to give you Free Printable for a Summer Bingo Game. This is something you can do completely separate or you can incorporate it into your summer fun list and check them both off! Here is the Summer Bingo:
For this bingo game, simply right click on the photo above and save it to your computer. Print this photo off and put it on your fridge or bulletin board or even in a photo frame and use a dry erase marker.
As you check items off, have the kids try and work towards a line or just the full card. Once you’ve completed your goal, celebrate! Make sure you set your celebration goal before you start!!
Hope your summer is starting off right! We will be back with crafts, recipes and more!