Stay at Home Mom

The last few days of school are here and it is time for fun in the sun.  Summer time.  There have been alot of stories online lately about parents planning ahead for sending their kids to summer camps that are NOT connected.  How are the kids going to survive for an entire week without their Internet, without their Facebook, without their text messaging?

That makes me giggle a little bit actually. Kids are supposed to be able to entertain themselves.  We are parents – not full time entertainers – and in the absence of us entertaining them we shouldn’t just hand them technology to fill the time.

Here are some ideas from Stay at Home Mom.

1. TV Vacation

( This is something we have done every summer ) Tell the kids that everyone needs a little vacation and that includes the television.  Put a sheet over the television and give it a summer break for 4 days to a week.

What our family found was that the kids complained the first day.  Then we all sort of grumbled the second day.  By the 3rd day the kids were fine but the parents were going through withdrawals.

This is a great way to help your kids decompress from constant media in a sort of fun way.

2. Summer Reading list

Put together a summer reading list with your child and a tangible reward if they get through a certain number of books.  We would love to hear what is on your summer reading lists and we’ll post those results later this month.

3.  Deck of Cards

Learn some new card games.  Even if your child is very young they can play games like slapjack or go fish and they will love that time with you.  A very fun card game is “Slamwhich” and it comes in a little tin lunch box – very cute.

4. Let out your inner Artist

Get a sketch pad for everyone in the family and some watercolor pencils.

Have time for everyone to draw and color.  One fun thing we have done is to have everyone draw the same thing and then compare pictures and see how differently everyone looks at the same thing.

5. Silence is Golden

Take some of the daily tasks around your house and turn them into family activities.  Turn off the TV and all fold laundry.  The kids may (again) grumble but let them know that the goal is to have a balanced life and working together to get the chores done gives everyone in the house more time to just play.

MOST OF ALL – VERY IMPORTANT: Take the TVs out of any bedrooms.  Have any TV in your house in a community room.  You don’t have to take the TV away from your kid just make sure that everyone in your house has a place to go to just enjoy some quiet.

The entire summer does not have to be plugged in – but here is the key to this entire strategy – the parents need to lead by example.  Don’t tell the kids to turn off their TV and then go into your bedroom and start watching movies.  Of course, we recommend that you take all TVs out of bedrooms so this point is moot.

If you make up a summer reading list for your kid then make one up for you too.  Let them know this is something for a lifetime not just something to get keep them busy just through this one summer.

Let us know your unplugged summer ideas!