5 Tips to Make This the Best Summer Ever with Your Kids
"Summer afternoon..Summer afternoon….the two most beautiful words in the English language." – Henry James
Are your kids telling you they're bored? It's never too late to make this the best summer ever with your kids. It doesn't take travel or a lot of money. All it takes is your time.
That's right, your time. If you're anything like most parents, you have a long list of things that need to get done and you feel a 
little (or a lot!) overwhelmed. But it's summer. Your kids won't be kids forever. This is the stuff their childhood memories are made of. These are the experiences that shape who they become. Why not decide now to make the most of this opportunity to connect with your kids?
Of course, your kids also need plenty of lazy summer afternoons with not much happening. So finding that sweet spot of "just enough" activity without overscheduling is the goal.
Here are five simple tips to make this summer your best summer ever with your kids:
1. Set aside some time every day to have fun with your child. Whether it's running through the sprinkler together on a hot afternoon or counting the stars on a blanket in the backyard before bedtime, do one thing a day to connect and have fun.
2. Institute daily reading time and biweekly library visits. Read to your kids, and have them read on their own. For more on helping your child learn to love reading, click here. For a starting list of great books to take to the library with your child, click here.
3. Help your kids develop a healthy relationship with time
, one that includes the important life skill of being comfortable with their own company, without technology. Time is, after all, what life is made of. To help kids learn to structure their time, set up a Boredom Buster Jar. For over 50 great ideas to put in the jar, and more on why it's good for kids to have a chance to be bored, click here. For more on nurturing your child's creativity, click here.
4. Strictly limit technology to certain times of the day. When kids are bored and it's hot outside, screentime has a way of swallowing up all their time. It may be a good babysitter, but we all know that's not what kids need. The more you limit screen time, the better kids get at finding creative things to do with their time -- and the less they bug you to watch TV or play computer games. (For more on what's wrong with screen time, click here.)
5. Plan some
fantastic family memories, even if you don’t have the money or time to
head off on vacation. Don’t wait. The key is to get out a calendar
and schedule the things you really want to do.
Start at dinner
tonight by asking everyone what they've loved most about this summer so
far. Then ask each person to pick one thing for the whole family to do
that will make their summer complete. Set parameters before you
start. For instance, no hotel stays, and the total cost of each
activity must be under $40 (or whatever your budget is.) Here’s a
list of ideas to get you started:
- Buy a badminton set and have a weekend tournament for all your friends and family, complete with a potluck barbecue.
- Set up a water festival in your backyard that includes dunking, running through sprinklers, a water balloon toss game, a slip ‘n slide, and a water balloon fight. Let your kids invite all their friends, and invite a few of yours, too. Celebrate the end of the day with watermelon.
- Rent bikes and follow a local bike path you’ve never been on. Stop for ice cream cones.
- Go camping. Go hiking, catch fireflies, roast marshmallows, sing songs, snuggle on a blanket and watch the fire together.
- Go tubing. Or canoeing. Or rafting.
- Have a dinner picnic and watch the sunset (bring the bug repellant.)
- Go to the beach and spend the day body surfing. When you get cold, collect shells and use them to decorate your sand castle.
- Go to bed really early some night when you’re tired, and get up for the sunrise. Bring donuts and coffee.
- Make homemade ice cream. (You don't need an ice cream maker, just rock salt and plastic bags, there are recipes online.)
- Buy a mess of crabs and cook them up with some corn on the cob. Invite a crowd and let the kids stay up late playing tag as it gets dark.
You get the idea. Be sure to toast the family member who chose the activity, and take lots of pictures. The last week of the summer, print out the photos and make a Summer album to look at together over Labor Day weekend. If you do this every summer, you’ll create precious family heirlooms, not to mention a family tradition that will have your kids bragging about how great summer was in their families….and begging to look at the Summer albums with you every Labor Day, even once they’re teenagers.
