Summer Plans for a 9 Year Old

As my daughter has gotten older our summer plans have gotten more personalized. After kindergarten and first grade my goal was to keep her busy and mitigate the summer slide. After second grade she was old enough for more camps, so we added those in and focused on her favorite places to visit during the summer.

Now that she is finishing third grade, summer is going to look a little different. This year she has a sleep away camp scheduled and 4H projects to complete. Those will take up the beginning of our summer, so I have the days planned out to ensure that we fit all of those tasks in. After 4H judging and our county fair we’ll have about a month of summer to fill. That’s where I’ve leaned into what I know about my girl and what I’ve learned over the last few summers.

Usually we head into summer full steam ahead, really appreciating the structure and schedule. Then, we relax a bit and get a little more loose with our daily routine. Knowing this, I wanted to make sure that our last month of summer was chill, but not boring. My daughter has been really into social studies at school this year, so I’ve planned some trips and activities that celebrate local history. We’re going back to the ice age and traveling to check out some glacial grooves, then hunting for fossils. After that we’ll learn about local Native American history and the lives of pioneers and settlers, with visits to local battle sites and historical villages. We’re going to wrap up with an exploration of industry that built our local economy and the different impacts that it’s had on our community. It’ll be a fun way to a lot of the history that she’s explored in school without feeling too much like homework.

I’m looking forward to helping with 4H projects too. These were always a huge part of my summers growing up, so it’ll feel a little nostalgic and interesting to look at them from a parent’s perspective. I also might be just as excited as my girl is for her to go to 4H camp. It is truly one of my favorite memories, and where I met my very best friends – the people that I consider family now. Knowing that she is going with her own best friends makes my heart so happy.