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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Yeah, okay. I’ll admit it. Having fun with the boys is not always a strength of mine. I’d rather write or sew or work in the garden. Or finish whatever tasks are in front of me. Although I’m noticing that that list of tasks never ends.

So.

I am trying to plan out the summer so that the boys have enough fun. Things like trips to the beach, camp, and visits with family are on the list. We’re scheduled to finish our lessons in two weeks, and then summer vacation will commence. I do have some academic plans for the summer months, but they’re very light-weight and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes after breakfast. If we keep fresh on all they’ve learned then my hope is that next fall will see a smooth transition back into the full school schedule.

What to do with all that time on our hands? There’s plenty of work to do around the homestead here, and to be honest I could easily spend all of the next 3 months working on my todo list. Which isn’t the best plan, so rather than let the time just slide away I’m trying to make some commitments now that will amuse my pack o’ boys and fill their fun quotas.

For starters, I’ve set time with my sister to get together twice a month. We’ll do some sewing in the morning while the kids play, then have lunch and go somewhere kid-friendly in the afternoon together. We live about a 40 minute drive from each other, so it’s easy to let time pass without getting together, especially during the school year.

There are a couple of annual events (camp, the local fair, vacation bible school) already on the calendar, along with the berry-picking that we try to do. I should throw in a few trips to a beach I think. Oh, and we bought a membership at the botanical gardens in the city and they have a concert series in August that sounded interesting. I really want to try getting to a baseball game; we’ve not taken the boys and there’s a really great minor-league team in the city. Throw in time with both sets of grandparents and I think we may have a successful summer.

Wow, it wasn’t until I typed all this out that I realized how much opportunity awaits. So what about you? What are your goals for family time over the next 3 months?

Originally posted on GNMParents, now archived on ForeverParenting.com.

Earnest Parenting: help for parents who want to have fun in the summer.