Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Mom..I'm bored

Before you start hearing "Mom...I'm bored" this summer, take a little time to plan some special activities to keep the kids going throughout the summer!

Here's an idea for those of you feeling particularly ambitious!

PLAN SUMMER CAMP AT HOME!

Some of my favorite summer memories from when I was a kid consist of my family's camps that were held at home. This included themed camps with lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, and family friends. To get you started here are a couple ideas!

1. Pick a theme - we had Olympic camp and Gym camp.

2. Plan a schedule for each day you will hold camp.
Camp could be every morning for a week, one day each week for a month, or all day every day for a few days including camping in the back yard! Have plenty of activities set for each time slot and rotate kids through them at set times.

3. Ask for help
Adult friends and relatives or older kids and teens can help you by teaching arts and crafts, gymnastics, archery, music or whatever their special talent might be.

4. Include plenty of fun activities like scavenger hunts, games, making smores by the fire, etc.

5. Have a special closing ceremony for your camp where kids perform or show of something they have created during camp and receive a special prize!
Hint - Special prize idea can be a washer on a ribbon medal of accomplishment.

It worked for us!

7 comments:

Blessed Beyond a doubt.... said...

Awesome and creative idea! Thanks for the suggestions~

Jill
http://tonsofsons.wordpress.com/

Jamie - Family Focused Fun said...

Thanks Jill! I have to give credit to my extended family!

Anonymous said...

Your kids will remember this stuff for years, too. Mine do, and they often talk about the crazy fun things we did during our "VBS at home" days. Once we had "backwards" day, when we did everything backwards. Last year I did a full week with the 2 youngest while the older kids were at camp, and we had cowboy day, fishing day, pirate day, etc., with corresponding activities. I was exhausted by the end of the week, but they had a blast. :)

Joyful Days said...

This is something I've wanted to do for a while. Thanks for the reminder.

Heart of Wisdom said...

WOW! All your ideas are great. Thanks

robin@heartofwisdom.com
http://www.heartofwisdom.com/heartathome/

Lisa said...

I love this! I could have my big kids host it for my little kids ~ and then vice versa (Now THAT would be interesting!) &:o) This is the stuff memories are made of.

Anonymous said...

Olympic camp would be fun this summer, especially, since you can coordinate with the summer olympics in August - what fun!

Thanks for the great ideas -- I am enjoying browsing through your blog! :)

Amy @ Let's Explore