School's Out...Now What?

Works for Me Wednesday has a theme this week. It's the

"Mom, I'm Bored!" Edition

These were Shannon's instructions:

Post your ideas for clever ways to keep the kids
occupied during the summer months. And if your ideas are cheap and simple, I'll love you that much more...

Here's our free/cheap and simple summer entertainment plans:

Free Movies!!!!

Regal Cinemas is offering their Free Family Film Festival again this year. Throughout the summer they will be showing FREE G and PG rated movies every Tuesday and Wednesday morning at 10 A.M.

I'm 6 months pregnant and due in August, so free, air conditioned fun sounds great to me!

Our Local Library:

I can't believe all of the great activities our local library is hosting this summer. I know all libraries are different, but I recommend checking out what your library offers.

Ours has a summer reading program called "Catch the Reading Bug" and they've planned a weekly activity for every Thursday afternoon around the insect theme. We signed up this afternoon.

They also offer weekly classes for all ages (e.g. Kitchen Science, Art, Video Gaming Groups, Summer Fun Club, etc.) And again, everything is FREE and you just show up when you want to participate. There isn't any registration required or required attendance. We could go once a day and be fully entertained.

Nature Journals:

After listening to this Focus on the Family broadcast and watching my girls enjoy the visit from our little duck family, I have been inspired to give my kids more opportunities to enjoy nature.

We went to the dollar store today and they each picked out a journal with blank pages and a new box of colored pencils. I didn't want this to feel like a homework assignment, so I just gave them the blank journals and said, "Go explore and look for bugs, plants, birds, animals, flowers, or anything you see in nature that you like. Then draw what you see and we'll see at the end of the summer all of the great things you discover."

We got home from the dollar store this afternoon and they started right away. I was surprised by how enthusiastic they are about this project. I'm excited to see how they fill the pages.

It's funny. When I read through the summer rec program here, I was bummed by how expensive it all was. As I looked for what we could do for free, I've found more than we'll probably have time to do. There's the upcoming minor league baseball game that is $1 admission on Family night, the Christian bookstore's story and craft hour, the parks and rec van at the parks on Monday mornings.....the opportunities have filled my calendar.

I want our summer to be free (not just financially). I can remember times in my own childhood when I was over scheduled. I decided I'm just not up to a strict summer schedule. I plan on lazy days of sitting in the wading pool, eating our Popsicles, and then having all of these opportunities available when we want them. If we are happy eating our Otter Pops in the backyard and running through the sprinkler, I don't want to stop because we HAVE to be someplace.

And if the girls get bored, there's always Webkinz on the computer. THAT topic I will save for another post on another day. (Has the Webkinz craziness hit your home yet?)

Happy Summer Everyone!

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