Summer Fun Series

I had intended to post our "Summer Fun Series" starting post before today but it took us a bit longer to recover from the virus that struck us, and we are still struggling with Kaitlyn's sleep regression (but that's another post entirely).

With my girls not being in school yet we don't have to deal with the sudden change in routine and summer boredom issues, but I still wanted to find a way to make them aware of summer and make it fun as well. I had the idea to do a summer advent calendar (much like a Christmas Advent) that would hold all the different ideas for fun summertime activities. In my mind it was going to be a beautiful quilted piece with a colorful banner and lots of brightly colored pockets. Then reality set in. I realized that summer would be over before I was able to complete something like that so instead I pulled out my trusty glue gun and felt stash and set to work.


I went with the basic visual of what I had originally planned but made a few changes along the way. I realized that while the pockets were cute it gave me no chance to guide the direction our days' activities went. I decided to simply glue the squares down and tape the activities to the front. It gives me a chance to see which activity we are picking each day to ensure we choose one that can be reasonably completed when I take into account the temperaments of the children at any given moment. It has worked out very well this way and Kinsley likes to ask, several times a day, what each piece of paper says.



When I looked at the picture I realized that I listed "make our own crayons" twice, I'll have to add in a new activity to replace one of those. You can do a search online and find tons of blog posts and websites full of summer bucket list ideas like this one and this one and this one as well. I didn't include activities that I consider to be part of our everyday schedule. I used this as an opportunity to try out some of the crafts and activities that Kinsley and I had wanted to do but never tried before and a couple old favorties that we hadn't done in a while.

Have a Fashion Show
Big girl library day
Outdoor art show
Backyard carnival
Art in the park
Tie Dye
Squirt Bottle Painting
Mentos Fountain
Make our own crayons
Write our own bedtime story
Camp out in the backyard
Family Game Night
Go Fishing
Indoor Hopscotch Game
Melt icecubes in the sun
Have a parade through town
Make a fairy garden
Have a watergun fight
Water bomb sponges
Build a fort
Roast Marshmallows
Homemade icecream
Face Painting
Homemade playdoh
Have a picnic
Beaded jewelry
Decorate canvas shoes
Make sidewalk chalk paint
Silly string fight
Puppet show
Lighted sno-cones
Cardboard tube binoculars
Patriotic ribbon wands

I tried to include more activities that could be done indoors because it is so miserably hot already this summer and we just can't spend that much time outdoors. I think this way we have a pretty good mix and hopefully no one will be bored. We also didn't include many outings because we didn't want to deal with the crowds or the heat right now. And with trying to get the littlest one back on a regular schedule the more time we spend at home the better off we are.


We're also taking part in the Smart Summer Challenge to give us a few more ideas. This week's theme is "You on the Map". While we're following along with the calendar we are changing up some of the activities to better suit younger kids and what I think my girls in particular will enjoy. Today's activity was drawing a life size Kinsley.


She was so excited to decorate herself and we spent the better part of the afternoon on this activity.


And of course we had to draw on a t-shirt and t-pants because that is the only suitable wardrobe for an almost 4 year old.