-
Last Day of School Traditions
Our last day of school is tomorrow! When my daughter was in kindergarten the last day of school rolled around and I realized that I hadn’t planned for any fun traditions. For me, someone who LOVES holidays and celebrations, this was a massive problem. I quickly came up with a couple of things that work well for us and have been things my girl really looks forward to. Here are our last day of school traditions. I try to keep mornings the same – throwing a special breakfast or activity into our well-oiled routine would throw the whole day off. My daughter’s school always does a half day for their…
-
Summer Family Night Activities
We lean into family nights HARD during the summer. Everything feels more relaxed and fun, so we take full advantage! If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some of our favorite family night activities. The great thing about many of these is that they can be a little spontaneous – which is really what makes summer fun!
-
Summer Learning Supplies for an 8 Year Old
Every year I’ve tweaked the supplies that I gather for summer learning. When my daughter was in Kindergarten we used a ton of crayons, glue, and flash cards (see how I organized all of that here), now that she’s almost done with second grade, there are so many more notebooks, pencils, and books. Here’s what we’re using to keep her on track academically this summer (all links are affiliates). In the past I’ve printed specific worksheets for certain themes. That worked for us, but it also used a lot of ink and paper, plus I had to organize all of it. The workbooks help us focus on specific subjects, and…
-
Summer Planning; What Works and What Doesn’t
Over the last couple of years I’ve learned so much about planning and structuring our summer days at home (see the post that I shared on Monday for a round up of ideas and inspiration)! From planning our days down to the hour to throwing out the plans and winging it, I’ve tried it all. Here are some things that have worked really well for us (DO’s), followed by some things that haven’t been so helpful (DONT’s). DO DON’T The most important thing that I’ve found is to know your kids and plan for what they need. My summer planning has changed every year because my daughter has grown and…
-
Snow Day Ideas and Traditions
We got hit with a nasty ice storm this week, which led to our third snow day of the year (the first two were for an extreme cold snap). Since I work from home, snow days mean that my daughter is home with me. I thought I’d share some of our favorite ways to spend a snow day – but before we get to that, If you’re in a program where you end up getting more children on a snow day, here’s a post that might be helpful! Now to the fun stuff! I’m a huge fan of leaning into the absolute relaxation of a snow day. Sometimes a surprise…
-
Cheap Summer Activities for Kids
Keeping kids busy all summer can get expensive really fast – but it doesn’t have to! There are so many creative ways to encourage children to use their bodies and brains without spending a ton of money. Here are some of my favorites: Parks – Make a list of all of your local parks and visit a different playground each week. Explore nature preserves and walk every trail that you possibly can. Pack a picnic to really make a day of it (then you can challenge children to come up with new picnic foods AND help prep the lunches too) Play dates – connect with other families and schedule times…
-
Summer with a First Grader
Yesterday I shared how I planned for our summer learning last year. Go check out that post! Last summer my girl had just finished kindergarten and my goal was to make sure that she didn’t lose any of the skills that she had learned during her first year of school. This year my goals are a little different. I want to really dig into the things that she finds fascinating and show her that she can take on her own learning. I also want to build a true love of reading for both fun and out of curiosity. Last year we kept one theme for a whole month, but this…
-
Planning for Summer with Elementary School Kids
I’ve been hard at work at planning for our summer fun (and learning), but before I share what this year’s plans look like, I wanted to share how I put everything together last year. Here’s the post on how I organized all of it! If someone asked me to choose ONE word to describe myself it would definitely be the word “planner.” I truly love to organize my thoughts, lay them out on paper and fill in any missing pieces. It helps me feel in control and gives me the structure that I need. When it came to figuring out what our summer will look like, I started with daily…
-
Disney Cruise Countdown Workbook
I’ve been planning this cruise vacation for a year now, so I’ve had a lot of time to think and create. I knew that I wanted to have some kind of countdown to keep up the excitement and help with the “when are we leaving?” questions. It was also really important to me that my daughter learn a little about the ship and the ports we’re visiting so that she feels as prepared as possible, and also gets a little history and cultural understanding. Of course I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so I made it myself. I created a workbook that accomplishes both of those goals…
-
Tips for a Disney Road Trip
Our family always does road trips when we vacation, and over the years I’ve come across a huge variety of tips (some hits, and some misses) for road-tripping with very young children. I’ve shared a lot of my favorites in these posts: Kids Road Trip Activities Road Trip Organization Hacks Travel Products for Kids Tips for Traveling with Preschoolers Every time that we’ve taken a trip I’ve tried something a little different and that’s true for our upcoming Disney Cruise trip too. We’re driving to the port, it’ll be the longest road trip that we’ve taken so far, so I wanted to make sure that my daughter stays entertained on…
