Since the summer season in Texas begins in May and drags on through the middle of September,
I've learned that I must have a plan of things to do for those months.
I consider the summer here to be like the winter months up north because it gets so hot that
the children don't like to play outside at all.
So, if there isn't a plan in place, things quickly deteriorate at my house and boredom sets in. That is swiftly followed by petty arguing, then slapping, then full-fledged hitting and throwing things, or things like you see in the above picture!
So as the school year is coming to an end, I pull out my calendars that I've printed from www.janbrett.com (which is a whimsical website with tons of fun things to print out), and start looking around the internet at our local churches to see when they have VBS scheduled. I have sometimes had as many as 5 different weeks of VBS to take my children too, and they LOVE it. Living in the Bible belt, there are lots of churches in our area that are of like faith, so I feel very comfortable taking my children to these churches. Since we've been doing this for awhile, they have begun to see many of the same children there every year, and make new friends. Then they come home with all these neat little crafts. I have discovered that when 4 children come home with the same craft, I have way more than I can display. So we tuck away the sturdiest, cutest, most useable ones and use them as Christmas gifts for the Grandma's and the Grandpa's. My children LOVE to give gifts, and they look so delighted to share something on Christmas morning they made for their grandparents.
Another great resource for us is our local library!! I can't say ENOUGH about the children's programming at our library. Every summer our children's librarian has a whole slew of activities planned that are absolutey free. Every Tuesday night there is some kind of program that is entertaining as well as educational. Last night it was "Professor Brainiac", and what a terrific show full of entertaining science experiments. He had the dry ice a smokin', and the toilet paper flying through the air, and the kids were lovin' it!!
Then there are free craft times at three different times during the week so you can choose
the time that best suits you, and the crafts are really good too. More for the grandparents!!
Best of all...we have participated in the "Texas Reading Club" every summer. We read either 25 books (for the younger ones) or 25 hours (for the older readers), and log it all on a book log. When we complete this, there are great "prizes" like certificates for Sonic
and Whataburger, and a free skate at the ice skating center. We save those until the beginning our of school year, and use them as a field trip.
FREE!!
I've also found that when we are cooped up in the house during those hot months, it's a great time to pull out all the craft supplies we've not used up and just let the children have at it. It's a great time-filler and they have lots of fun.
Finally, we also have a wonderful Sonic eatery (I wouldn't exactly call it a restaurant since that eludes to an eat-in kind of place) that has a big 'ol play place full of sand. Every day is half-price drinks AND slushies, so we coordinate play dates with our friends at Sonic once a week or so and have slushies and play in the sand. It's so fun....until it gets TOO hot of course.
So......what does YOUR family do to beat down summer boredom??
I've learned that I must have a plan of things to do for those months.
I consider the summer here to be like the winter months up north because it gets so hot that
the children don't like to play outside at all.
So, if there isn't a plan in place, things quickly deteriorate at my house and boredom sets in. That is swiftly followed by petty arguing, then slapping, then full-fledged hitting and throwing things, or things like you see in the above picture!
So as the school year is coming to an end, I pull out my calendars that I've printed from www.janbrett.com (which is a whimsical website with tons of fun things to print out), and start looking around the internet at our local churches to see when they have VBS scheduled. I have sometimes had as many as 5 different weeks of VBS to take my children too, and they LOVE it. Living in the Bible belt, there are lots of churches in our area that are of like faith, so I feel very comfortable taking my children to these churches. Since we've been doing this for awhile, they have begun to see many of the same children there every year, and make new friends. Then they come home with all these neat little crafts. I have discovered that when 4 children come home with the same craft, I have way more than I can display. So we tuck away the sturdiest, cutest, most useable ones and use them as Christmas gifts for the Grandma's and the Grandpa's. My children LOVE to give gifts, and they look so delighted to share something on Christmas morning they made for their grandparents.
Another great resource for us is our local library!! I can't say ENOUGH about the children's programming at our library. Every summer our children's librarian has a whole slew of activities planned that are absolutey free. Every Tuesday night there is some kind of program that is entertaining as well as educational. Last night it was "Professor Brainiac", and what a terrific show full of entertaining science experiments. He had the dry ice a smokin', and the toilet paper flying through the air, and the kids were lovin' it!!
Then there are free craft times at three different times during the week so you can choose
the time that best suits you, and the crafts are really good too. More for the grandparents!!
Best of all...we have participated in the "Texas Reading Club" every summer. We read either 25 books (for the younger ones) or 25 hours (for the older readers), and log it all on a book log. When we complete this, there are great "prizes" like certificates for Sonic
and Whataburger, and a free skate at the ice skating center. We save those until the beginning our of school year, and use them as a field trip.
FREE!!
I've also found that when we are cooped up in the house during those hot months, it's a great time to pull out all the craft supplies we've not used up and just let the children have at it. It's a great time-filler and they have lots of fun.
Finally, we also have a wonderful Sonic eatery (I wouldn't exactly call it a restaurant since that eludes to an eat-in kind of place) that has a big 'ol play place full of sand. Every day is half-price drinks AND slushies, so we coordinate play dates with our friends at Sonic once a week or so and have slushies and play in the sand. It's so fun....until it gets TOO hot of course.
So......what does YOUR family do to beat down summer boredom??
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