How are you keeping your kids busy this summer? Please Post!

[Judymae]

Make room for me 4H Momma. I'm on my way.
Really now. Our summer has been a waist so I told the kids we are gonna try to do something creative. In the mornings we have been sleeping in til 10. No longer. Up at 9am and first thing we do before breakfast is take care of chickies(only 3wks old) then out to the deck to water. Water the gardens too. Then breakfast. Hopefully starting out a little structured will help us do something besides laying around. I'm tired of being a bum. I have to admit. It has rained almost everyday. Lots of rain. I don't think that has helped much. Not complaining since we have been in a horrible drought here for 2 years. No outside watering allowed at all. If you water bill had too much usage you got fined!

We did take the kiddos the Old City Park. It's a small like Walnut Grove type town/museum. They have brought in old houses or built old house and buildings (bank, general store, printing shop, dr office, saloon,etc.) The homes were furnished with antiques and alot of the homes had characters working in them. They stayed in character and answered your questions abou their lives. Most of the women were actually cooking on the old stoves or in fireplaces! It was sooooo cool. Dh and I kept checking out the chicken coops. They constructed them like they would have been done in the 1800s. Very educational. Most of the homes there kept dominiques. All of the homes had chickens. Most of them had outhouses. It was so cool. Very inexpensive trip. Only about $25 for 5 to get in and you bring a cooler for lunch. Big trees with picnic tables to eat on. It wasn't crowded at all. One good thing-the houses and buildings were airconditioned. Not period there. Everything else is period stuff from 1800s. We loved the working farm they have there. If you live anywhere near Dallas it is a great day trip.

 

[yearofthedog]

I'm introducing my kids to gardening this summer. They helped me plant the flower seeds and water everyday and we are logging the growth every morning.
And my son will be helping his dad build the chicken run and the kids are going to help me prep the soil on the side of our house for the future vegetable garden.
I've also started the "points reward system" of earning points for money to spend however they like(a quarter a point). They are doing stuff like cleaning their playroom, bedrooms, finishing their vegetables, going potty all by themselves and all the good stuff 3 and 4 year olds need to do to be healthy little citizens.
And, we've done lots of hiking, are going to take a road trip to Arizona, Utah and Colorado, and then inbetween time, the kids will go to summer camp for a week here and there.

Oh, and we also joined the friends of the zoo and joined the family program at a natural reserve park locally and that allows us to go anytime all year long and you save a ton of $$. Something to look into in your locality...

 

[poppycat]

4H Mom- Those are some AWESOME suggestions. Especially the slide and kiddie pool. I know what we're doing on the next hot day! Too bad you're so far away. I'd send my kids to your house for summer camp.