Summer Camp: Home Edition.

This morning Lola told me she has 7 1/2 more days of Kindergarten. WHAT?! I can’t believe it! It makes me so sad to say goodbye to what was a great school year and… AND — I am so excited to have the kids home with us for the summer! I feel like it’s an advantage to be home with my kids for the summer months and I understand the privilege we have to not worry about childcare (or pay for summer camp!)

All that said, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t totally intimidated by having four kids home with me all summer! FOUR kids. Woah. That’s a lot of people of different ages and planes of development with a lot of feelings and likes and needs and hopes and disappointments. It’s a lot of pressure! I know I can’t make everyone happy but I also feel like if you go into something with a semi-plan… you have a better chance at things going smoothly. And if not, at least you tried!

Last summer I didn’t feel the need to prepare activities for our home because we spent about six weeks of summer away from home! But this year — we don’t have any big trips planned! I enrolled each kid in one week of summer camp per their choosing (which by the way, cost the same as a vacation) and other than that we have ten long weeks (or two short months) ahead of us. Enter: Home Camp!

HOME CAMP: DAILY PLAN

First, I love a good play on words so when I found things on Pinterest that suggested having days like Make It Monday and Taste it Tuesday — I was sold! Also, these activities will not take the entire day. Sometimes they’ll take minutes! Sometimes an hour, occasionally a half day. And that’s what I’m looking for — a little guidance, not something so structured it takes the fun and spontaneity out of our summer days! Here’s a peek at our daily themes along with some suggestions of other themes if the ones I chose don’t work for you.

Make It Monday: We’re going to start each week with a little “make it” — sometimes it’s an art project or a craft, or something we will DIY. This should appeal to all my kids because they all love to make things! Other ideas for Monday themes could be Mystery Monday, Move It Monday, Mammal Monday, Math Monday, or Magic Monday!

Taste It Tuesday: All my kids love to be in the kitchen, so that’s where we’ll be on Tuesdays. Not necessarily baking (although they would love that!) sometimes it’ll just be a quick treat they’ll only need to prep before they enjoy. The girls will especially love these activities and Javi will enjoy the tasting part. Other ideas for Tuesday themes could be Take A Trip Tuesday, Trivia Tuesday, Try It Tuesday, Tinker Tuesday, or Time To Read Tuesday!

Water Wednesday: What’s summer break without getting wet?! I went with a water theme on Wednesdays — activities like water balloons and visiting the splash pad plus some drier water activities like putting together a snow globe or building a water wheel. These should be popular with all my kids. Some other ideas for Wednesday themes could be Bookworm Wednesday, What’s Cookin’ Wednesday, Would You Rather Wednesday, Wonder Wednesday, Watercolor Wednesday or even Watch It Wednesday!

Thinking Thursday: This is to appeal to Javi, my oldest, because let’s face it — I’m going to have to convince him that this is fun! 🙂 So Thursdays will have a focus on STEM activities so that he can experiment, explore, and learn some cool new stuff. Some other ideas for Thursday themes could be Thoughtful Thursday, Thankful Thursday, Theater Thursday, or Take A Trip Thursday!

Fun Friday: Who doesn’t like to have a little fun before the weekend? (Also, do weekends exist in the summer when every day is the same?!) Our outings may be ambitious but Sean has half days at work on Fridays so we’ll likely be able to do most of these fun outings as a family. Some other ideas for Friday themes could be Friend Friday, Fancy Friday, Farm Friday, Fitness Friday or Flower Friday!

HOME CAMP: WEEKLY THEMES

Once I had my daily plan, I decided on some larger themes for our weeks. I chose six topics that I know the kids will enjoy (and that I’ll have to purchase minimal supplies for!) Once I had my themes, I chose one activity per day that fit both the weekly theme and the daily activity! It took me about an hour to put this all together plus I saved a whole bunch of extra stuff on Pinterest just in case they want to continue and do more, more, more! 🙂 Here are our big themes:

Summer:

Camping:

Lego:

Space:

Dinosaurs:

Sharks:

I may add one more week because there’s a week that Javi is away at camp, and I might try to do something special for the girls — maybe fairies, princesses, Taylor Swift… who knows! Here’s a peek at how this may all come together:

What are your big (and small) plans for summer?! Any HOME CAMPS happening at your house?