As our school year has come to a close I’m excited for the start of summer. I remember dreaming of summer all school year as a kid and I already see that in my own kids. But not only them, I still feel that way! I LOVE the summer! I love the heat, the pool and all the outdoor activities of summer!

As I get further along in my pregnancy, I’m having less and less energy for running around doing lots of activities and find my tendency is to just stay at home.  However, I want the kiddos to have a fantastic summer! So I’ve gone through the calendar and made sure that each week we have something special to do. I’ve looked for activities we can do at home, places to go and just fun things to do in the kitchen! (today we are making paleo ice cream!)

I don’t want the summer to roll by and regret that we didn’t do any of the fun things I remember doing as a kid! Also once the baby arrives in late July I know we won’t be going lots of places, so I want to do that now and plan some fun activities that are easy to oversee with newborn in arms and during the high heat of August.

So if you are like me and need some good ideas, here are some of the things we are doing!

We started off the summer a few weeks ago with our Dessert for Dinner Day which was a huge hit… how could it not be?!

Memorial Day weekend 4 day, 3 night camping trip
Week 1 – National Zoo
Week 2 – Family vacation for 1 week – staying local in VA
Week 3 – Hidden Pond Nature Center with picnic lunch
Week 4 – Trip to our raw milk farmer for a Farm Tour/Trip with camping 1 night
Week 5 – T-shirt Tie-dye
Week 6 – Go pick blueberries with Mom
Week 7 – Visit a local sprayground with friends
Week 8 – Fireworks in Alexandria to celebrate Tonchi’s Birthday
Week 9 – Go to the summer $1 movies at a local theater
Week 10- Baby #4 due date – so we will be taking it slow
Week 11 – Vacation Bible School at our church – Will be a great way to have the kids occupied and give them an outing when I’m at home with a newborn. Hoping to have friends be able to pick up and drop off the kids for me!
Week 12 – Treasure Hunt – Have the boys find items that start with ‘A’, then ‘B’, etc.  I recently acquired a box of playmobile from a clothing swap and I’m going to give that to them at the end.  Wrapped.
Week 13 – Make tank top bags and paint them – hoping to make the bags before baby is born, so they can be ready to paint.
Week 14 – Go to the summer $1 movies at a local theater
Week 15 – Have the kids make Goo to play with
Week 16 – Start of School – homemade ice cream sundays for lunch

Yes this is a LONG summer! We finish school before Memorial Day and start 1 week after Labor Day! But that is the benefit of homeshooling! If we want to start early or finished late or go through the summer we can!

Also in our area there are A LOT of fantastic free summer concerts. We plan to take advantage of those as well, planning them for at least 1 evening a week. We will take a picnic dinner, a blanket and be ready for a good time!

I encourage you to look into it in your area! It’s a great way to have kids exposed to all sorts of music in a friendly atmosphere where they don’t have to sit still in an auditorium.

So these are our plans! How about you! Anything fun coming up! Or anything I should know about for my kiddos to enjoy?