Don’t Stress; Simplify Summer

School’s out and the kids are wildly excited! Their moms, however, are shrinking back in the corner, an Iced Mocha in one hand and their other hand on their forehead in an effort to calm the storm they feel coming.  It’s called Summertime.

Are you dreading the coming months with your children at your feet?  Are you a little worried that the chaos will ensue with children who have more time at home than normal, making your days completely upside down with demands for another Popsicle or pleas to head out to do something fun?  I have a few suggestions to help calm the anxious tremors in your heart.  Grab that iced mocha and read on!

• Be pro-active!
  • Decide what you want to accomplish with your children this summer. Before the days drag on and your child is looking for an adventure, get out your planner or a pad of paper and make a plan.
    • Does one child need to learn to ride their bike without training wheels
    • Do your children need to learn to swim?
    • Is there a passage of Scripture you’d like to memorize as a family?  Write these things down and then decide how you’ll accomplish each one.
      • What day of the week will you work on this?  What time of day?
• Be present!
  • Let go of your own list of accomplishments and pour yourself into your children. Forget the list of to-do’s you want to attack and focus on the time your children are free from schedules and homework and make the time to BE with them.  Determine to work on your own list of projects at a time when the children are busy doing other things or away at camp, etc.
    I don’t mean you shouldn’t allow them independent play or that you shouldn’t  do laundry or vacuum, I’m talking about big projects or plans that would keep you preoccupied so you can’t spend some quality time with your children.  Those things will keep; your children won’t!
• Be prepared!
  • Make a list of age-appropriate activities you can do with your children  that are free and can be done at home or close to it.  Determine to keep it simple!  We’re not talking about season passes to an amusement park or a cross-country trip in a travel trailer.  Consider these free activities:
    • #1. Water balloon or squirt gun fight!

      #2. Draw with Sidewalk Chalk.

      #3.  Play in the Sprinkler.

      #4.  Make popsicles.

      #5.  Build an outside fort with lawn chairs or clotheslines and sheets.

      #6.  Have an outdoor movie night with a projector (borrow one) and a sheet.  Or, visit a drive-in movie if you have one nearby.

      #7.  Go on a nature scavenger hunt.

      #8. Visit the library.

      #9. Make ice cream.

      #10. Play outdoor games at sundown when it’s cooler.  Wear glow-bands when it gets dark.

    • Here’s a great list of 100 Free Activities
    • A huge list for teens is found here!
  • Create Boundaries with Screen-times so your children can be creative and active!  It’s easy to let a tablet or phone satisfy our children, allowing us free time, but consider what you’re both missing out on when you allow too much time in front of screens.
    
    This week I lined all my kitchen chairs up on a rug so I could mop the floor under the table.  I immediately thought about my childhood adventures whenever my mom would place all the kitchen chairs in the hallway to accomplish the same task I was getting ready to tackle. My sisters and I pretended that was our train as we piled aboard, someone being the engineer and the others the passengers!  Simple imaginative fun creates memories and creativity; something I’m afraid we don’t see as often as we should.

Rather than dreading the next few months, Be Pro-Active, Present and Prepared so you will ALL enjoy summertime. Plan some simple, fun events that will leave unforgettable memories that, unlike your suntan, will never fade!

What memories do you have of your childhood summers that you’d love to see others enjoying?

Refresh your summer with simplicity!