Wednesday, May 21, 2008

I'm Tired of Waiting....Let's Talk Summer!

I just read this inspiring post at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home. It really got me to thinking about how we can spend our days this summer at home. We will be home quite a bit with gas prices like they are, and a need to be frugal anyway...so we might as well make the most of it.

I feel so blessed to be home with the girls this summer. I remember all too well the alternative from summers past (school-age daycare is scary to me!). Let me share some of my summer plans with you and I hope some of you will do the same, because I am nosy that way. Well, actually, you give me good ideas and I'm always looking for good ideas!

My sister is one of these nerd-types that makes out summer calendars and writes in all the activities before summer even gets here. Oh wait. I do that too. Well, she's still a nerd because she used to read encyclopedias for fun.
Actually my sister has a great deal to do with our summer plans because she and her kids drive an hour to come to our house each week. I live by the grandparents so she has to drive this way instead of the other way around, which I think worked out quite nicely. Tuesdays will be taken up with cousins and visiting and playing and a whole lot of screaming. Four girls ages 4-8=a lot of noise! Plus, on Tuesdays we all trek to my old city for story time at the library with our wonderful librarians. All four girls will be old enough to participate in the summer reading program so I believe reading will take up a huge chunk of time this summer. (By the way, working off of those reading lists has made ALL the difference in our book selection. They have LOVED the books I've been picking--ones that they would have never picked on their own either!)

So what about the rest of the week? Well I really need to find a balance between housework, home projects, and spending time with the girls. I know, I know, they can help with the housework. We can do it together. And we will most of the time. But I really need to be purposeful in choosing activities for them to be involved in every day that we can all do together. It's really easy to get out the water paints and leave them to paint at the table while I go do something else, but I also need to choose activities that we can all three do with each other. It all goes back to keeping their hearts and tying strings of fellowship and all that.

We are also going to have to figure out some inexpensive places to go. I am not capable of staying in this house 6 days a week. This is Texas, so soon it will be too hot to visit any parks for more than 10 minutes at a time. It's a challenge. I believe I need to do some brainstorming.

And I'm not sure you understand the level of mine and my sister's nerdiness. We are picking themes for each week and skills for each girl to work on. More on that later.

OK, what are your ideas? How do you fill the days up? And please don't write and tell me all about your vacation plans because that will not add to my contentment. :) But how do you fill up the regular ol' summer days at home? Can't wait for your ideas--you can leave them in the comments or post it on your blog if you like. Just make sure and tell me so I can go read it! I really do need ideas!

I'll leave you with some shots of last summer! Of course, I didn't take many pictures of the everyday things.

4 comments:

  1. Brenda,
    I have to say, while you've been open about your sister's nerdiness before, you've never been so revealing about your own nerdiness in Real Life. I'm so glad to have this blog address to learn the truth!! I am fortunate in that our church built a HUGE "playscape" indoors for the kids and it's open every day! We just got back from 2 hours of playtime, while I got to sit around and visit with the gals! Sorry, that is not helpful to you I can already tell! I don't know what we will do this summer either, so I don't have any useful ideas to share.

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  2. Wow! It's been a while since I visited your blog (like, maybe, before Christmas?) and it's changed quite a bit...

    I'm looking for ideas for my kiddos this summer as well. Keep the at-home ideas comin'!

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  3. Those pics of your girls playing with stick horses look so much like mine...only blonder. :)

    I *think* we'll continue with our skill work, especially music practice and reading and writing. But for the afternoon hours, when we're not swimming, we'll be gathered around the Chronicles of Narnia series--I will read aloud while they stitch pre-cut quilt top squares. They need to practice doing something more permanent than *always* and *only* building with blocks.

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  4. Okay, so summer has snuck up on me, so I really don't know what we will do. But. Now you have me motivated to figure it out. And, actually, our schedule won't look much different than now. Mondays- grocery store, Tuesdays- swimming lessons, Wednesdays- playgroup, Thursdays- library, and Fridays- catch up/impromtu playdates and the like. Of course all of those things won't take up that much time each day, so I might jumpstart school (as we have gotten behind) and implement some fun summer craft activities, since my kids love crafts.

    I really like your theme idea. That's cool. :) I can't wait to hear more about that. :)

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I don't get to talk to a lot of actual grown-ups during the day, so your comments make me really happy! :)