The first day of summer is technically June 21st, but here at the Gilkerson home we’ve already entered summer mode. Yeah baby! Time to open the pool and get some vitamin D therapy. I greatly enjoy our more relaxed summer schedule. The boys stay up later and sleep in later. We don’t have as many weekly evening obligations. We don’t school through the summer. It’s a much more relaxed time of playing and having fun with my boys.
Every year I say, “Oh, in the summer I’m going to do X, Y, and Z,” and it seems that most years there are several between A to Z on my list that slip through the cracks. It’s not that we don’t have the time, but the problem is that I don’t have the list in writing. This mommy’s brain is running in so many directions her mental lists no longer work correctly. Ya feel me? If I don’t have a list written down, and if we aren’t intentional about scheduling these things into our life, they don’t get done. This year, that’s going to change!
This year, the list is in writing (see below) and several of these things are already on the calendar. Interested in seeing what’s on our bucket list? Continue reading. I’d love to hear some of the things on your summer bucket list too (if you have something good, I might need to add to this)!
Fun & Educational Things to do with the Boys
Even though we’re not year-round homeschoolers, I like to take the time to fit in some fun, educational opportunities during the summer. These are things the boys love to do, but it seems like it’s just so hard to fit them into our day-to-day life during the school year.
1. Go through Book Traveler with all four boys. My friend Cassondra has come up with a series of books called Book Traveler. She currently has them for China and Japan, but is working on more. This is a fun series that teaches geography through the use of literature and games. My kids will love this!
2. Make homemade soap. My boys and I have been talking about making more of our own products and soap is one of the things on our list. I’ve been reading about soap making for a while, and we plan to try our hand at at this summer!
3. Make lotion bars. I love lotion bars, but they are a little pricey (but you can’t beat the convenience). This is another one of those things the boys and I want to try our hand at this year.
4. Make cheese. This is something the two older boys have been begging to do for months now.
5. At least 2 animal dissections with Bradley. We have a few animals left in our dissection kit, and I’d like to do at least 2 of them this summer. Bradley and I have dissected several animals (fetal pig, crawfish, worm, etc.). His little inquisitive brain just eats up learning all about the internal systems of animals. This mama with a degree in Biology has so much fun guiding him through it!
6. At least 4 other science experiments with the boys. We have several books from the Backyard Scientist series. Guys, these books have been around a long time. My mom had these books when I was a kid—seriously. But they’ve got some fun experiments you can do with stuff that is laying around the house. No special equipment required.
Fun Family Times
Planning things to do as a family is something we’ve started to get more intentional about in 2014 in general. It’s so easy to let time go by and not do special or even ordinary fun things with the kids. We need to take advantage of the warm Michigan summer and do a few of these.
7. Take a day trip to Lake Michigan. This is something we should do every year. After all, we live in Michigan and Lake Michigan has an awesome beach and sand dunes—it’s great. Why in the world has it been so long since we’ve spent a day on the beach? This year, it’s happening!
8. Zoo trip (or two). We often get a zoo pass or museum pass each year (you can read more about how we utilize reciprocal passes to get our family into thousands of awesome locations for a teeny price), but we’ve not had a zoo pass for a couple of years now. I think it’s time to get one. Our twins just turned 3, and we know they’d love chillin’ with the animals!
9. Teach Cameron to ride a 2-wheeler bike. It’s time for the training wheels to come off! Cameron has been asking to learn to ride a 2-wheeler, and we’re ready for smoother family bike rides.
10. Bike the The James S. Miner Riverwalk with the family. This is a fun 5-mile trail in our hometown that ends in the neighboring city Corunna at a large park. Our newly 2-wheeled Cameron may not be a strong enough biker on his own to do this, but that OK because we have the Trail Gator Bike Tow we can hook up to Daddy’s bike while the twins ride on the back of Mommy’s bike in the bike trailer.
11. Boys backyard camp out. Daddy wants to use the tent and campout in the back yard with the boys. This might give moi some time to get one or two of the things on the below list checked off!
12. Pool Party with kids from Coram Deo. We have a big in-ground pool and we love to have friends over to share in the fun. This year, we’d like to have a party and invite all of our friends from Coram Deo, our local homeschool group, over for a pool party!
13. Pool Party with local blogging friends. In addition to the above pool party (and pool parties with family and friends) we’d love to have some local bloggers over to enjoy a cookout and time in the pool.
Mommy Goals
Ahhh…the mommy goals. These aren’t quite as fun as the above items (well, not most of them anyhow), but nevertheless they’re important. Gotta get er’ done.
14. Make at least 5 different varieties of sugar-free homemade ice cream (and of course share them on the blog!). Nuff’ said.
15. Meet my friend Jennifer who blogs at Growing up Triplets. I’ve been adoring Jennifer from afar for quite some time. I love reading her blog and all about her little triplets. I’m in awe of how a mama could breastfeed 3 and keep up with 3 (I was so overwhelmed when I heard I was having 2—I just can’t imagine 3!) Beyond that, she’s someone I’ve connected with on a number of different projects and is even my author manager over on my other website, Breastfeeding Place. She’s just awesome and she is moving to Nashville which is just a short 8 hour drive away. I think I need to meet her soon. 🙂
16. Get 1 month ahead on writing blog posts and have the year planned out. Ladies and gents, I just love writing for this site but can I tell you something? Sometimes it does get a bit overwhelming keeping up with social media, writing, creating products, responding to e-mails and comments, and all of the other stuff that goes into keeping up with this blog. As much fun as it’s been to see the blog grow, the bigger it gets the less time I have to write and the more time it takes. Don’t worry, I’m not giving it up. It’s too much fun for that. But, I would like to get ahead so when life gets in the way I am not stressed that my blog post due tomorrow isn’t written!
17. Finish writing my book on sugar and sugar substitutes. I have this book I’ve been working on for over a year now. It’s been put on the back burner several times, but it’s a book I am really excited about. I hope it will be a helpful resource for those of you who are navigating the waters of the good, bad, and ugly of sugar substitutes—trying to balance natural with keeping blood sugar in check. So, I want to put this on the front burner this summer. I want to coalesce the hours and hours of research I’ve done for this book, so I can get it into your hands.
18. Plan & order 2014-2015 curricuala. I’ve got Bradley’s curriculum pretty much figured out, but Cameron’s….not so much. I’m not quite sure what to do for him this year—more to come on that topic soon!
19. Determine memory work for 2014-2015 & put together a memory box for Cameron. This past school year we kept up with Bible Memory, the boys memorized Exodus 20:1-21 (we have resources to help with that here), but we slacked off on some of the other memory work. I want to get back on the ball with that this year. I know the elementary years are the perfect time to be stressing that with the kiddos.
20. Paint the twins bedroom. I hate painting. Just gotta do it.
21. Go through all of the kids toys: organize and purge! I enjoy the purging part more than I should. Am I the only one who gets a little high when getting rid of stuff?
That’s a great list! I have no idea what my goals for the Summer are. I love this idea though. I tend to make a list in my head, but then we don’t get to everything because I forgot to verbalize it, or I simply forget until the Summer is over.
Exactly! That’s why we’ve got to write them down… or blog them 🙂