In the Good 'Ole Summer Time

craftytam

craftytam

Executive Chef, *Master in the kitchen!*, *Scrapp
So...my boys have been off school for 3 weeks now and they are already bored to death! :( They are 13 & 14 and the only thing they want to do is sit and play games on their computers. We live in an apartment, so we don't have a yard or garage where they can just go out and play around, which makes it hard to get them out.

What fun things are you doing this summer?
 
We are in the same situation at my house. I have a 2 and a 4 year old. Our lot backs up to a canal, and we are in the process of making our backyard safe for the kids (aka mommy doesn't want to go jump into the canal to pull out any kids). So playing out in the backyard won't be an option this year. And we don't have sidewalks either and even though we live on a dead end road crazy neighbors drive like they are on the interstate so its hard for me to get the kids out in the front yard. Luckily the kids go to daycare and they play outside a lot there. Looks like mommy is going to get a lot of use of our city park pass and the double stroller this summer.

As far as summer plans we just finished up a week long vacation to MD to see my husbands brother and his family, so that was our BIG summer vacation. Later on this summer we are planning on taking the kids to a hot air balloon festival, (I think mommy is the most excited about this), we also have a zoo membership for the Detroit Zoo so we'll hit that up a few times, and we just became members of the Henry Ford, so we'll get out to the Henry Ford Village to watch some old time baseball games. The local park has a splash pad that the kids loved last year so we'll take them there.
 
My "babies" are 14 and 16, yesterday was the first day of summer break for us. And they both wanted to sleep all day. lol.

But we do have a huge yard and property, so we like to have campouts, water balloon fights, and squirt gun fights.
We also like to have lazy days, and watch movies and stuff.
Today is Friday the 13th and we are going to have a scary movie marathon :) yikes!!

I have seen a ton of cool pins on Pinterest with lists if summer ideas, you should both totally check that out!
 
The neighbor's kids have been coming over ever since vacation started, lol...

this is what we did the other day. It's too fun at our house, I need a break!! Lol
swimming, hanging out, and I drag them hiking with me.

at least I get lots of pictures!

10460451_488569474608287_8320640861534130500_n.jpg
 
Sounds like my 17yr old son. :) Although somehow he watches Netflix and plays online games at the same time. Here is how he is keeping himself entertained when he is not fighting mythical creatures and bad guys:
- getting his wisdom teeth out this week
- Boy Scout camp in the mountains for a week
- Drama camp for a week - they are doing 39 Steps
- probably going to learn Pointe ballet, just for the fun of it - he just finished his 2nd year of ballet
- studying Algebra 2 and Trig for a math placement test at the community college
- figuring out what colleges to apply to and what he wants to study (he is a rising Senior)
- acting in a play written by a friend
- working on Boy Scout merit badges
- planning his Eagle project
- go bowling (kidsbowlfree.com) - he is not free, but his sister is, so we will get a family pass
- take a vacation
- use those museum, zoo, aquarium, and tiger rescue memberships that we have
- doing family chores - mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, folding socks

Hey maybe, I should send this list to him!!
 
I'm quite certain it is difficult to entertain the young ones during the summer reprieve from school. When DD was in that age group, she did Bush Gardens zoo camp [daily for 1 week], lots and lots of dance [well she was a competitive dancer so....],
trips to the beach, a pool, Busch Gardens.

For little David, he likes the Y. Thus far only Wiggle Worms and his swim lessons. DD takes him to some play groups too. When I have him, we walk, go to the park, visit Poppy and he entertains the residents.
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klgossia said:
We are in the same situation at my house. I have a 2 and a 4 year old. Our lot backs up to a canal, and we are in the process of making our backyard safe for the kids (aka mommy doesn't want to go jump into the canal to pull out any kids). So playing out in the backyard won't be an option this year. And we don't have sidewalks either and even though we live on a dead end road crazy neighbors drive like they are on the interstate so its hard for me to get the kids out in the front yard. Luckily the kids go to daycare and they play outside a lot there. Looks like mommy is going to get a lot of use of our city park pass and the double stroller this summer.

As far as summer plans we just finished up a week long vacation to MD to see my husbands brother and his family, so that was our BIG summer vacation. Later on this summer we are planning on taking the kids to a hot air balloon festival, (I think mommy is the most excited about this), we also have a zoo membership for the Detroit Zoo so we'll hit that up a few times, and we just became members of the Henry Ford, so we'll get out to the Henry Ford Village to watch some old time baseball games. The local park has a splash pad that the kids loved last year so we'll take them there.
Click to expand...

That would be scary with your kids being so young, Kelly. I hope that project gets done quickly! It sounds like you have a lot of fun things planned for the summer. Sometimes I think it was easier when my boys were younger because they didn't complain when I took them to do things ;)
 
GingerScraps said:
My "babies" are 14 and 16, yesterday was the first day of summer break for us. And they both wanted to sleep all day. lol.

But we do have a huge yard and property, so we like to have campouts, water balloon fights, and squirt gun fights.
We also like to have lazy days, and watch movies and stuff.
Today is Friday the 13th and we are going to have a scary movie marathon :) yikes!!

I have seen a ton of cool pins on Pinterest with lists if summer ideas, you should both totally check that out!
Click to expand...

That sounds like fun, Ginger!
I know if we had a large yard (or a yard at all) they would be outside more. They miss that a lot...it's not the same having to drive to a park (they hate doing that!).
We did do a "Sherlock" marathon... that was fun!
 
BevGoodrich said:
Sounds like my 17yr old son. :) Although somehow he watches Netflix and plays online games at the same time. Here is how he is keeping himself entertained when he is not fighting mythical creatures and bad guys:
- getting his wisdom teeth out this week
- Boy Scout camp in the mountains for a week
- Drama camp for a week - they are doing 39 Steps
- probably going to learn Pointe ballet, just for the fun of it - he just finished his 2nd year of ballet
- studying Algebra 2 and Trig for a math placement test at the community college
- figuring out what colleges to apply to and what he wants to study (he is a rising Senior)
- acting in a play written by a friend
- working on Boy Scout merit badges
- planning his Eagle project
- go bowling (kidsbowlfree.com) - he is not free, but his sister is, so we will get a family pass
- take a vacation
- use those museum, zoo, aquarium, and tiger rescue memberships that we have
- doing family chores - mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, folding socks

Hey maybe, I should send this list to him!!
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have quite the list going for your son, Bev! :)
 
This year I think most of the summer will be spent playing outside for my boy. He's nine and we finally live in a place and he is at an age where I let him go out on his own and check in with me every hour. There are a ton of boys around and someone is always out. We'll let them have water play and I'll keep ice cream and popsicles on hand. I think it will be a summer to remember for him.

For my daughter, 12, she's looking forward to crafts and sewing and hanging with friends. There are a couple girls here in the neighborhood that come over and they sing and make up dances, LOL. She's going to be babysitting regularly and starting two dance camps in July. So, she'll be busy too.

I'm going to scrap, read and chill, oh, and NOT drive to dance and soccer as often as during the school year, LOL
 
Sounds like fun, Jen!! I miss those times when it was okay to just roam free. I don't even let my kids outside unless there are at least 2 of them...and that's just right on our front lawn.
 
Too hot to play outside (over 100F) so we do: summer reading program, swim team, board games, use pool noodle halves for sword fights (make a great noise, but don't hurt), Nerf wars, one ds did music/art/drama camp, public pools are $1/kid here, various hobbies...
 
My boys are 13, 15 and 17. The 17 year old starts work next week as a rec camp counselor; he'll be working 7:30 - 5 and then rehearsing 3 nights per week for a musical he's in in September. Thankfully the camp is only through the 1st week of August, and he has every weekend off. I won't have to find things for him to do!

My youngest will be going to rec camp... most of his friends go, and it's an awesome program, but not at the same school as his brother. He will have every Friday off.

It's my middle son who is the biggest challenge... he would plant himself in front of a screen all day if I let him. He's into landscaping, though, so I'm planning to have him help me do a lot of yardwork, and it will be a good chance for us to spend some quality time together. I'm also looking in to him doing an internship or volunteering at a local garden center. His dad also got him a bow and arrow for his birthday, so we'll be going out and using that (he got him a big target too).

Board games (especially RISK) are always something that they will do together, which is great. Luckily, we live in a neighborhood where there are a bunch of kids, and I am lucky that it is a safe place for them all to play. They still play the traditional games like kick the can, etc.
We have the Eastern Trail near us, so I also plan to get out biking with the boys too. Hiking is another activity I am planning on, especially since we'll have everyone available on Saturdays. Last summer was kind of a mess because we were going through a divorce... looking forward to a much better one this year!

Love the Pinterest idea, Ginger... I'm going to check that out!
 
I have fairly small ones for the summer(grandkids): 6 and 8 yr olds from Arizona(mama deployed)..9 yr old twin girls..and a 5yr old. Yes, they are usually all together here or at Twin Mom Scraps' (auntie) house..we have done all the little kid things, like zoo, park, water park, pool.....but, something new to us was geocaching..we ALL liked it and made for nicely tired kiddos..Geocaching is a good activity for older kids as well! It's a nice family activity also..great app is available at https://www.geocaching.com/
 
I have a 14 year old daughter who would happily sit hidden away in her room watching youtube all day everyday. But that is not so acceptable. So far she has spent a week at a sleepover band camp since she plays flute - and she loved it. She has another week of band day camp coming later in July. In August I'll take her up to Toronto to visit my family for a week. Past that plans may include: zoo trips, exploring fun neighborhoods of Portland, easy day hike/drives along the Columbia Gorge, state fair if we're in town and it's not 100 degrees, a couple days up in Seattle with her friend, I'm going to see if I can find her somewhere to work with clay, friend hang outs when possible. Maybe a cooking camp but don't know if we can fit it amongst other things in August. Thinking about forcing her to come walk in the pool with me at the health club to get her butt moving!
 
You guys are very energetic!! When I was raising children--it was before computers--mostly. I think for the second two we did have a computer--and the two of them would play Carmen San Diego but that was about all. They didn't have email accounts, and none of their friends had computers either!!
We moved to our California home when my two older children were kindergarten and 2nd grade. It was a nice little normal neighborhood in a very small desert community--We live on a kind of dead end road--our block has a road on each end, but our road is only the one block long, so most of our traffic was just for our block of neighbors. It was a quiet little, safe area! mostly!! There were LOTS of kids the age of my children, and the children usually went from house to house and figured out stuff for themselves to play. We'd have picnics for lunches, and when they played in the slip and slide, we had all the kids here--we had a tree house with a swing out there--and it was everything from a spy camp, to a cowboy hide away--and anything else. the playhouse (under the tree house) was well used. We always had a set up little pool for the kids to play in, and one of the neighbors opened up their built in pool to the neighbor kids--so swimming was one of their favorite things to do--when they were a little older. The only stipulation was one of the parents from every family that was swimming had to be there with their kids--(great idea!!) The lady with the pool didn't want to babysit all the kids in the neighborhood all summer!! I certainly didn't blame her!! :) It was so nice of her to let the kids use the pool. I don't remember the younger two using it as much as my son-and occasionally the oldest daughter--
We had a 15 year span between the oldest and the youngest--(4 in total) and they usually really entertained themselves!! The two younger ones read a LOT--When the girls got older--I think about 12 they started babysitting for kids in the neighborhood--IF I was home!!--and IF I knew the parents well!! We were pretty strict!! They could only babysit with kids in the neighborhood or for our church families--again, only if I was home to call if they needed help!!
I was thankful for the safe neighborhood we lived in!! We never had any problems with any of the kids or anything. There is no way if I had kids today that they would be able to have as much freedom as the kids did when we had them!! Our neighborhood has changed so much, and it makes me sad that so much crime and unsavory people have moved into the area. And they are so trashy and disrespectful to other people's property!! --and we've had several home break ins too. It's so sad!! If I was raising kids now, I would have to be much more selective in what the kids could do--and where they could go, and who they could go with!! I admire all your plans!! I hope you all enjoy your summer. We're going to have grandkids here for a couple of weeks, so I'm going to keep an eye on this thread to get ideas on what to do with them while they are here!!
Oh, our kids DID do vacation bible school at our , and always wen to youth camp with the church kids. They were active in sports --especially my son--the oldest. We live about a block from a school, so they spent a lot of time playing there too--That was when the school property was left open for the neighborhood--now it's locked up tight. But the kids would go up there and play baseball or basketball.
 
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When I was a kid, we rode our bikes all over the place and entertained ourselves without adult supervision - even played in the school yard near our house.... There is no way I would let my boys do that now. Times sure have changed, huh, Deanna?!
 
Yes, I totally remember those carefree days! I would tell my kids how I would never be home after lunch, we drank out of the garden hose of random neighbors (eek!), didn't come home until dinner, just roaming the streets on our bike.

Then my smarty pants 14 year old said, but you would never let us do that now! Yup, that's right.

But the other day they all rode their bikes around the neighborhood--my 14, 10, 7 and 18yr old neice. They were very excited about their adventure! I'm thankful we live in a relatively quite neighborhood. Although a few months ago, there was a house a few blocks away that was busted with lots of marijuana and meth! Wow!!
 
I've been wanting to learn about geocaching. Seems interesting, but hmm, I don't fully understand. I'm going to read about it at the website, Lydia... thanks!
 
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