Each year as the school year ends, I get anxious about what I will do with the kids at home all day. I don't know why it makes me nervous -- I've always stayed at home with them and before they started school they were home all day. And Tanner still is 3 days a week! But I still get nervous. So I make plans -- nice, organized, not too complicated plans. This year I made little tickets intended to be completed within a month. Each ticket had an activity for the kids could complete -- things like Read 20 minutes, Serve someone, Play catch outside, etc. Anything to get them away from video games and TV. And if they finished their sheet of tickets, we would do something "fun" as a reward.
Well, our "tickets" still have not been completed -- the month goal has become the summer goal. And if they finish their tickets before school starts in a few weeks, I will still take them somewhere "fun" -- you know, one of those loud, germ-filled places where kids jump, run, and yell a lot. And just writing this I'm seeing the flaw in my plan -- I was probably subconsciously sabotaging the project just so I didn't have to take them somewhere "fun".
It was a good plan. And maybe I'll try it again next year -- but their reward will be a giant Ice Cream Sundae or something.
We did get out a few times, though. Some of my favorite moments were the good ol' classic summer activities:
Running through the sprinklers:
A Lemonade Stand:
One of Andrew's friends came and got him one morning to help with a lemonade stand. A couple hours later when we went to buy a 25 Cent Kool-aid, I was surprised to find the kids enthusiastically waving their sign -- all dressed up as a hamburger, Spongebob, and Mario. It was awesome! And in that two hours hardly anyone had stopped! But they were having a great time -- even showing great feats of strength -- lifting each other in the air, pogo-stick jumping, and other eye-catching tricks. Luckily, their persistence paid off and customers came. I tell you, it was awesome.
Swimming Lessons:
And after 3 years, I finally managed to get my kids back in Swimming Lessons. Tanner got to play at the Splash pad while Andrew and Eric had semi-private lessons. They had a cool teacher who was very encouraging and said they made great progress. Then Tanner had "group" lessons -- even though it was pretty much semi-private too since there was only one other boy there most of the time. He had fun too, as you can see from his very proud face as popped out of the water in that last picture.
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