Kelly is having a link up sharing fun ideas to do with kids for the summer. I've been making a list and checking it twice as I plan out fun things for us to do when the boys are out of school. Nothing frightens me more than a home of preschoolers and no schedule ;) So here's a few things that we're planning on doing this summer to keep us active and busy.
picture by Mike Thomas via Flickr
Public Library Reading ProgramWe participated in these programs as kids and I always loved it. I found out too late to participate last summer, so we're already anticipating this summer. The great thing about this is that it's free, there are fun events scheduled with the library for us, and if the kids hit their reading goals you get all kinds of fun prizes.
Water Parks
We have a local splash park that is free, so we go there a lot during the summer. We've already been this year, even though the water is a little cold. I love splash parks because it basically removes the risk of drowning but still gives the kids that water experience. We also have an actual water park (it's smaller though), that's newer to our area that I think we're going to try out a few times this summer. I'm still not sure how that will go over for Tyler considering he's still so small (and not walking), but I'm pretty sure my big boys are going to love it, since they loved the indoor waterpark in Kansas City we went to a few years ago.
Swim Lessons
We've been out of swim lessons for a whole year, so my boys are chomping at the bit to get back into the pool and learn how to swim. We left last summer with Brayden pretty much swimming independently, but he's regressed just a little bit. Connor has never had lessons where Drew or I were not in the pool with him, so he's pretty excited just to be in a "big boy" class ;)
this was Brayden at VBS last year. I love this shot of him!
VBS
Last year was our first VBS experience for Brayden and he absolutely LOVED it. All I've heard since the day it ended was about VBS. We play the CD he got about 5892871 times a week. Since we live in the Bible belt I could probably send the boys to VBS every week somewhere if I looked hard enough, but we'll probably only do one again this summer. Connor is still too young, which he's pretty sad about, but it gives him something to look forward to for next summer.Kids Matinee Movies
I'm not sure we'll be able to make these this year or not, since it is not very conducive to go to the movies with an infant. BUT... in case you don't have an infant, there are several movie theater companies who put on summer movie matinees. They're generally around 10am and are only on one weekday per week. Most of the movies they show are already out on DVD, but it gives the kids a movie theater experience for pretty cheap (ours charges $4-5 and it also includes popcorn and a drink!). Here's a link to one of the programs (this one is not in our area, but just to give you an idea of what is out there)
Outdoor Activities
This is such a ambiguous category, but I figured I'd throw it out there since I do use it a lot. We do a lot of water and outdoor activities during the summer months. A few weeks ago I filled up a bucket with water and gave the boys squirt guns to play with; they thought that was pretty awesome. I have a bag of some water balloons that I am saving for a day when they tell me they're bored. The boys LOVE to ride bikes, play basketball and use sidewalk chalk, so those are all in our daily rotation as well. And we're super blessed to have neighbors who are gracious enough to allow us to use their pool, so we spend a lot of evenings poolside after dinnertime during the hot summer days.
How do you spend your summertime with your kiddos? Do you like to have a schedule or are you more laid back and relaxed about things?
