HELP!! SCHOOL IS OUT and SUMMER IS HERE and I have NO IDEA what to do!
Summer – ain’t it grand? Perhaps. If you’re a KID. I say this because my slightly less than an acre yard is chock-full of both knee- and ankle-biters (that’s kids and dogs, to the uninitiated). My daughter has what seems like the whole neighborhood here, playing one game or another. The dogs couldn’t be happier – all these kids to chase. I’d say the age range is 5-12, so it’s NOISY. It seems like every time I look out there, there’s another kid!
How did they end up in MY yard, you ask? Two reasons:
 the town pool is three blocks away (remember, small town here), so all the munchkins stop here on their way there; and one of the other moms got tired of the crowd in her yard, so she said, “Why don’t you go on over to Miss Gwen’s yard?” Yes – that mom is an inch away from being permanently off my Christmas List and I already called saying, “I know your game!” She just laughed an evil laugh and said, “Neener Neener Neener.” (Yes, Lawson, I know karma is a bitch :-) ).
So here’s the reason for this post – I need your advice (first time mom here). What do you do with your munchkins in the summer? How many of you ship them off to summer camp? What works the best for this age range (5-12)? I’m going slowly insane trying to work from my home office with this many kids around. How can I keep them, (1) out of trouble, (2) busy, and (3) healthy?
I’m looking forward to the day when “summer” means only lazy days, margaritas, and hammocks, instead of play dates, swimmer’s ear, and soccer practice. I think all I need to do to make this bearable is find me a summer fling…
Hey – maybe The Rock could be my summer fling?
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20041195,00.html
😉
dude you need a fling with RA… just saying
LOL
I play computer games w/ my kids. Computer games, not video games. So now my kids have developed a taste for old-lady casual games.
My kids are 1, 4 and 9. We homeschool and formal learning doesn’t stop in the summer like other kids, so they are kept pretty busy with that.
When my house is full with neighbor kids, I get out the crafts. Nothing keeps kids occupied like playdough, painting and scizzors do.
I used to kick my oldest outside in the summer, but now we have the pool, so I don’t let any of the kids in the backyard unless an adult is with them.
I dread the summer, I really do. It’s hot, we don’t have air conditioning, the dog smells, and the Kids Are In The House All The Time Waiting For Me To Entertain Them.
eeek.
At the end of every summer, I always find a stack of schoolwork and construction paper projects that one of them schlepped home from school in June. Still sitting in its brown paper sack, waiting to be unpacked into some enormous scrap book in the sky. Sigh.
My kids went to day camp until they were old enough to go away. The they wen t to day camp and then went to sleep away camp. We eased them into it a week at a time. Now my younger son (almost 10) does 2 weeks at sleep away camp, and about a month at day camp – long enough to cover the time that my hubby is teaching summer school. My oldest (12 going on 40) is heading off to Australia for 3 weeks, and to boy scout camp for 2 weeks. Then they take most of August off to hang with friends.
Good luck – I remember when they were younger. But since I’ve always worked, we always had them in day camp.