A guest post by Kim Beeghley
In the later part of May, I said to myself, “OH NO! Three weeks until school is out. WHAT am I going to do?” During this time, three of my four children (ages 13, 10, 8 and 6) were still in school and my six-year-old, who just graduated from kindergarten, was constantly asking me, “When are we going to pick up the kids at school so we can play?”
I started to ask myself, “How am I going to survive the summer? Are there any camps or events for them?”
I decided I needed to take action. I needed to find things for the kids to do to fill up the summer calendar and to keep them from killing each other out of boredom.
First, I needed a plan. Living in central Pennsylvania, I was aware of some things for kids to do in the summer including free bowling, library reading programs, vacation bible school, cheap movies, and (of course) swimming. I registered the kids for free rounds of bowling (which are AWESOME for those rainy days) and picked out a few movies that we could go see at $2 per person (popcorn before lunch?).
As if my head wasn’t swimming enough, I registered the kids for bible school and the three boys for Cub Scout Camp. Then my mother called and suggested that each of the kids spend a week with them. Where am I supposed to fit that into our schedule? These will be special moments for the kids to spend time with their grandparents and form great memories, though.
At the end of June, the kids (and my husband) were presenting at an international educational technology conference in Philadelphia. We were there for six days, and it was a terrific opportunity for the kids to give presentations to classroom teachers from around the world.
While these items filled up some of the calendar, I was looking for ways for my kids to keep learning over the summer. I sent an email out to all my homeschooling friends to see if they had any suggestions for me.
Based on some terrific suggestions, I ordered the summer bridge math (2-3 pages a day) and the Wordly Wise (2 lesson a week) for them to complete. I also ordered Prima Latina to help build those Latin skills. Now my summer schedule is finally starting to come together.
Another advantage of living in central Pennsylvania is that we are “centrally” located to many different places. We can take day trips to places like Gettysburg, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, or New York City. We just pack a lunch and snakes so it can be a cheap trip with only one meal to buy.
With a summer calendar full of fun, we can keep the “I’m bored” comments to a minimum, reduce the amount of fighting between the kids, learn some new things, and most of all have fun!
What are YOUR ideas for fighting summer boredom? What have you been doing with your family this summer?
—
Kim Beeghley and I met at last year’s CNMC and we’ve stayed in touch through Facebook in the year since then. She still hasn’t started the blog she’s been thinking about, but I have hope. She keeps busy with her family in their home in central Pennsylvania.