In our home this week, it’s the dreaded week between the end of school and the start of camp which seems to coincide each year with the inability of the adults in the household to be out of the office at the same time. So, instead, we’re taking turns running what my kids have affectionately called “Camp Home” while using a combination of days off, flextime, and telework.
We’ve scheduled some day trips (my kids call them adventures), but, inevitably, there is going to be some downtime this week at home (and probably a few days like this throughout the summer). The day trips have been planned using our local “bucket list” which contains activities and places to visit within a three hour drive of home. As we hear about something interesting to do from a friend or a post on Facebook, it goes on the bucket list (it’s mostly kid-focused, but there are a few adult items on the list for date nights).
The rest of the time and for the rest of our summer afternoons when camp lets out, we started with the strategies that I laid out in this post on what to do when your kids say they are bored. To help our kids be a little more self-directed, we’ve taken it a step further. Each of our kids has a list of activities which are a blend of crafts, school or parent assigned academic work (need to fight the summer regression trend), and other activities in the house. The goal is to make this list a little more self-directed then a parent directed schedule.
We call it “This Week Have I?”
Fill it out in partnership with your child using ideas you generated here, plus those that your child supplies you. It may help to take a walk through the place spaces in your house and even dig into the closets for art projects that you have forgotten about. We’ve divided the list into three sections:
- Learning – e.g. summer reading and writing, piano practice, math drill
- Playing – e.g. dress-up, playing catch, board games, dance parties
- Making – e.g. baking with a parent, various building toys like Legos, knitting
Let us know how Camp Home is going at your house.
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