Ok, I know it is only March, but our summer vacation starts in May so I'm thinking a bit ahead. The nearest metropolitan area is 3 hours away from us, so we are pretty isolated from anything where we are. I was wondering what some of you do with your kids in the summer to keep them occupied? DD6's mind is always going and if she is idle for 3 days we start to get on each other's nerves, by the end of a week of with no planned activities either she has holed herself up in her room with her books and refuses to come out or she is constantly at my side asking what can we do now. (Which I can only take so much of.) I'm looking for "different" interesting things we could do, be they crafts or whatever. I also have a 13month old who we need to think about with these activites too.
We go biking, have swim lessons, go to the park, go for walks, and go to library summer reading program, but that is about all of our options.
PS it is usually around 100 for most of the summer.

I think a long summer project would be a good idea. Plant a garden, build a playhouse(if you're up to that), make candles or soaps, do science experiments (you can probably find a book in the libary to help), make Christmas cards, try scrapbooking, or let her use a digital camera (an elementary school I read about gave cameras to kids to photograph the letters of the alphabet, not on signs but in nature and around town. For example, the letter A could be the A-frame on a swing set. They had all kinds of cool results, that included reflections in ponds and shadows, things that you wouldn't see just any time of day.

I love the idea about the photos, she already has her own camera and loves taking pictures. I've already told a friend about it and she's ready to have her kids do it with us:) Thanks a lot.

The picture idea does sound cool; I need to get ds8 a camera, he has taken a lot of good shots with mine and I think this would be another good outlet for such an arty guy.
Plus, even if he's at the sitter's I might get to 'see' more of what they've been up to.

Here are things I thought of:
Strawberry picking.
Rocket launching.
Going to a mall that has a climbing/play area (if your 6 year old is not too big yet)
make ice cream or ice pops
make sun tea or lemonade (lemonade stand)
we found a great book called 'totally irresponsible science', it mostly uses stuff you have around the house already.
wash the dog
make an oven out of a box+aluminum foil - cook an egg (check out online - your summer temps sound perfect for this)
playgrounds in the early morning, swing in a hammock in the afternoon
set up a tent in the backyard (under a tree if possible for double shade) - great for toddlers!

We did lots of these things when we were in tx with our then 4-year-old.

Every year we do a scavenger hunt. I hide small things around the property, draw a map and the kids have to follow the map to find the treasures. We also have a backyard campout every year complete with a fire and roasted marshmallows. Gardening is big here and we're raising baby chicks.

Last year my 5yo and I painted a fence, planted a beautiful flower garden and did a lot of baking and canning. He loves to measure stuff!
One fun thing to do that's super simple is to make homemade butter. Get a qt size mason jar, buy a qt of heavy cream. Pour the cream in the jar, leave a little space so that the liquid can move, drop 3 marbles in. Make sure the lid is tight. The kids can roll the jar, shake the jar, whatever as long as it keeps moving. My 2 yo rolls it around the floor like a truck. Make something special like pumpkin bread or muffins to use it on!

ooooh! baby chickens! you mentioned that - how is it going so far?? This is your ds heading up this project, is that right?

We always have an insect zoo. After gathering our specimens, my son then records observations/data in a journal about each one such as where he found it, what it eats, what eats it, life span, changes such as caterpillar to butterfly, etc. We actually have a crecopia moth in a cocoon in our garage. Apparently they "hibernate" thru winter.
I also love to go to rock quarrys and bring home a bunch of rocks. I then give them old tooth brushes to polish the gems. Clear nail polish adds a nice coat of finish to make them shiny. We then look the rocks up in a book. You can really take the lesson to different levels from there.

We have 3 cecropia moths and 3 polyphemus moths we raised last fall currently out on our porch in a giant jar. We also raised about 10 monarchs and released them last summer. That was all great fun. We got a lot of books from the library and read all about them on the internet.

I'm chuckling with this suggestion because the closest mall is 3 hours away! But thanks for all of the suggestions, after reading them I'm sitting here saying "duh, you should have thought of these." But that's ok, everyone has brain blanks.

I like to fish, so I take the boys fishing a lot in the summer time. We also hunt for snakes and salamanders.

Here's a dumb idea, but the kids love doing it. Grab a bucket of plain water and paint brushes. Let the kids paint the foundation of your home with water. The concrete will darken with water, and they can do it anytime they want, it won't harm anything.

We usually participate in our library reading program as well. Time and money permitting I plan mini-vacations (1-3 nights) throughout the summer to nearby cities with a science center, natural history museum or zoo. We have memberships to our local ones so admission is usually free. This way my kids aren't looking for one big vacation, but lots of little ones. We usually research the city, the museums, history and points of interest on the way.

We live close to a national park and they have many resources through there we participate in. They also have letterboxing and geocaching sites. We have done letterboxing, but DH has looked into geocaching as a fun family activity.

Depending on your geographical location you may be close to fossil sites too.

Then of course there are the regular summer favorites like swimming, riding bikes, camping etc.

Hope this helps!

Jen

Have you looked into summer camps, too? DS4 and DS7 are just aflutter about the day camps they're going to this year: cooking camp, insect camp, soccer camp, etc. They can't wait!

Along the lines of what Tall_boys said, you can take an empty dish detergent bottle, and fill it with water. The kids can then use it to "paint" the sidewalk, by squirting water everywhere! A teacher of an art class that my son took did this, and all the kids loved it. And as she said, you do your "painting" before lunch, eat lunch, and come back out and your "canvas" is clean and dry and ready for more "painting"!

oh wow, i LOVE the photo idea! both of my kids LOVE to take pictures!

My DS6 got a "Digital Art Studio" for christmas. Made by VTech, was about $50., hooks up to the TV. Plug in your digital camera and you can edit to your hearts content. They've cool frames and effects, he loves it!

Hi Kerry,
I was going to sign DS6 up for an online math class over the summer. Just something he can do when he feels the urge to do some work.

Which site are you going through?

Well I was going to try this one out. I dk if it is going to be any good.

http://coursecatalog.thecambridgeacademy.org/

We've just decided to send her to zoo camp for a week. It is 3 hours away, but we have friends who live in the town with the zoo, so we can stay with them.

What great ideas here! For the past 3 summers I have developed "mini camps" at home for my kids. This is actually more like homeschooling, because I am extending what they learned the previous year, reinforcing basics, and exploring topics that they ordinarily wouldn't be exposed to in school.

The key is to make it fun! We have a different theme each week and our "camp" is held for 2 hours every morning. Last year we did a week on Ice Cream. We learned about solids and liquids, graphing favorite ice cream flavors, pasteurization, making ice cream in a bag, and even took a free visit to a local dairy farm to watch cows being milked. Other themes included the Great Outdoors, Insects, Safari, and the Rainforest. This year I plan to do Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Whodunnit Mysteries, Art Week, and Heroes & Heroines. I got these ideas from my kids, believe it or not! There are many lesson plans available online, and I usually use materials I already have and heavily rely on our library for resources (FREE!).

To bridge the age gap of my kids (2 yrs apart), I set up individual learning centers in my basement (science, math, writing, listening, and computer) and have age-appropriate activities there.

It takes a good bit of planning, but the kids are so EXCITED about it and it prevents summer "brain drain." It's cheaper than traditional camps and still leaves time in the day for playing and just being kids.

Great ideas advocate!
Wish I could send my kids to your house

Thought I'd let you know what we've been up to lately, now that summer is upon us.
We've been to zoo camp for a week. DD had a great time, because it was fun, but she was frustrated some of the time because all she ahd to do to answer the counselor's questions was to read the sign she was standing near. (She told the counselor that all the answers were there, but she was the only one who could read the signs!)
We've also recently found out she's been accepted to Univ. of Northern Colorado's Young Child Summer Enrichment Program. Has anyone ever done this with their kid before?
Otherwise we've been going to the pool, the park and horse riding lessons. We have also been learning about astronomy, bugs and doing math games.
We spend a morning with a ladybug, another with a turtle (both visitors to our yard), and another doing a math treasure hunt complete with a barbie doll as a "treasure". (I could have done without that particular treasure, but when it's been given to her by Grandma, what can you do?)
We haven't gotten to starting the alphabet photos yet, but I think we'll do that soon.
What have the rest of you been up to?

Ahhhhh summer is the best time for all of these things. We will fish and hike, grow things in the garden, collect and identify insects and amphibians, travel and let kids help plan and map, go swimming, visit relatives. This year we are doing summer journals and kids can draw or paint pictures, write fiction or poetry or a days narrative, or jot down notes from research on something that is interesting them at the moment. Both DS 8 and DD 6 love this and it makes for a great keepsake. We also add pages like Favorite Parks or Favorite Lakes or Ice Cream Parlors(and list what we like or don't at each. They are so fun to look at at the end of the summer and then again the following year.

It's been a great and amazing how fast it's flying by! I'm grateful for lots of ideas from this board which have enriched our summer.

We've spent quite a bit of time at the pool for swim team. DD7 completed her first kid's triathlon and got a medal to boot.

Summer reading has been going well. DD's were excited about free book rewards from the library and Barnes and Noble (read about that program here -- thanks!). They are also enjoying a program that combines reading and ponies. DD5 read her pony to sleep today (literally! flat out sprawled on the ground sleeping ) and the older girl who was helping her was excited about how well she could read.

We've enjoyed working our way through the Number Devil (read about it here -- thanks!) Today DD7 completed a problem multiplying a 3 digit number by a 2 digit with regrouping and no mistakes. She's been understanding the process for a while but kept making little mistakes, so it was exciting to see her pull it all together.

Quite a bit of travel too so I have been (and will be) hit or miss with posting. Creating travel "journals" with notes jotted on the back of postcards, using a hole punch and slipping them on a binder ring.

DD7 has been doing theater camp after lobbying for it all year. Tonight she said she wishes there was an archeology camp so I'll have to see if that's an option for next summer.

This has turned into more of a brag post than I'd intended but you're like extended family who LIKE to hear this and not rolling you eyes, right?

P.S. I've also been reading Raising Your Spirited Child which I'd heard about here. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the recommendation. I cried and laughed reading the first chapter "Who is the Spirited Child."
Check!

Now there's a great idea! Thanks, inky!

(and you can brag about your kids all you like! They sound wonderful--totally brag-worthy!)

peace
minnie

My 12 year old daughter and I just finished a volunteer week at Mesa Verde Nat'l Park. We learned so much and got to take tours that are usually not taken by visitors. It was an incredible experience for both of us. We were in discussions about the Ancestral Puebloans and heard all theories and got to listen to brainstorming by archaeologists and historians.

What a wonderful experience Ellipses! How did you find out about volunteer week? I didn't have any luck searching the website.

I was interested in that park and emailed the volunteer coordinators. We chose the week ourselves. Hope you have luck with this. It was a growth experience for both of us.

Thanks Ellipses, you've inspired me once again!

I've got to report on the great time DD6 had at camp this year. She went to Univ. of Northern Colorado YCSEP (young child summer enrichment program). She has a wonderful time! The only complaint she had was that she could only do 4 classes and not all of them! The only thing that didn't go so well was that the residential part of the camp, for the older kids, had an outbreak of strep and the flu and since the programs shared teachers the health dept shut the whole camp down after the first week.
We live 5 hours away, so we drove up and stayed in a new dorm (nicer than most hotels I've stayed at) - in a suite with 2 bedrooms, a living room and private bath. It was a great decision for us, because the yc program is only in the mornings, so we spent the afternoons being tourists!
DD took Dawn of the dinosaurs, rainforest creations, once upon a time and digital photography. There were also classes in science, drama, language, cooking, water, math, and others I've forgotten.
The programs are divided up for 4 & 5 yr olds (they have the same teachers all morning and have a single course), then 1st-4th grades (with these kids picking from the same choices for classes, but being divided by gr 1&2 together and 3&4 together). Then there is the residential program for the gr 5-10s.
If you're looking for a program for next summer, I would highly recommend this one. We may even be going back, even though we'll not live in Colorado anymore it was so good!

That sounds great Kerry If only Colorado was closer to Perth! We went to New Zealand for 2 weeks and it was bliss. The girls did a lot of drawing, reading and processing. And I knew my evil plan was working when we left the Waitimo caves and Miss 5 said "mum, I think I'm going to do a project on the lifecycle of glow-worms!". It was so lovely to see their curiousity come back to life. If only we could stay on holidays forever... But day 1 of Term 3 started today. They both skipped off to school happily. Here's hoping it stays that way. jojo