“School’s out for summer!” Alice Cooper sings. “School’s out forever!” Definitely feels that way. And summer break has just begun.
Depending on where they live, kids have been home for anywhere from 2 to 3 months. Thanks, global pandemic. My daughter and her schoolmates have been home for 13 weeks. And whether their parents found they actually enjoyed homeschooling, or struggled through the whole ordeal, we are now all faced with entertaining our progeny for another 10 weeks at least.
So, to try to exert some kind of control over the chaos, I planned a summer camp to keep my daughter busy for the next three months and I’ll adjust the plan week by week, depending how things go, which activities are embraced and which ones bomb. I know I could just let the days go by and let her fend for herself, but I think she and I will go a little batty if there’s not some purpose or end game to every day. It’s too easy to just let the days slip away when you have nowhere to be. And since I only have one child, and that we are in the throws of a global pandemic, I’ll be her defacto playmate most days while my husband toils away in our home office.
Family sanity aside, kids thrive on routine. We all know that regular exercise, sleep and a limited amount of screen time are tantamount to having happy, healthy kids. That said, it’s easy to let the “summer-slide” take over and let kids stay up super late, binge-watch tv shows and play endless hours of video games. It’s easy but in the long run, you’re not doing yourself or them any favors. So, sure, we will stay up late and relax our screen time rules, but we’ll also make a point of going outside and doing something physical every day.
So I’ve come up with a camp schedule that I think I will enjoy as much as my daughter will, with some down time and alone time for both of us built in.
To me it’s not really summer unless there’s plenty of beach time, swimming and hiking. And regardless of where you live, and of the weather, lots of outdoor time is key. According to the Child Mind Institute, kids who play outside are “smarter, happier, more attentive, and less anxious than kids who spend more time indoors.”
Coco belongs to a dance company so she’ll continue to participate in zoom classes at her dance studio. Check out On The Edge Dance Studio’s virtual dance classes. OTE brings together a team of fantastic professional dancers and choreographers and they provide top-notch dance training to students of all ages and ability levels. So whether your kid’s the next Briar Nolet or just loves to “shake it like a polaroid picture”, their drop-in virtual classes are $15. The studio offers Jazz, Lyrical, Ballet, Hip Hop, Contemporary – so there’s something for every taste.
We also wanted our daughter’s schedule to include an instrument. Aside from the fact that music is good for the soul and great for brain development (more on that in another post), she’s really musical and got a Loog Guitar for Christmas. So we signed her up for Loog Guitar Camp. LoogGuitars are small, 3-string guitars designed to make it fun and easy for kids to learn to play music. Loogs use the first three strings of a guitar: same strings, same tuning so finger placement and everything kids learn on a Loog can be applied to a 6-string guitar too. Coco has the mint green one and she loves it.
I’ve only included one baking/cooking activity (one that doesn’t involve me) because, well, full disclosure, I can’t cook. And hanging out in the kitchen with an 8-year-old wielding sharp objects gives me hives. But, if you love cooking, my friend Nathalie made a fantastic schedule for her Mom Camp that includes daily cooking lessons with links to the recipes she and her kids will be making this summer. She has sourced out a different recipe for every weekday for the next seven weeks!! I’m am totally blown away by her awesomeness. And, while you’re on her site, check out her blog, The New Governess. She’s a terrific writer with a great sense of humor.
Then there are weekly crafts, science experiments and Kiwi Crates. The crates, about the size of a shoe box, come with cool, and enriching science and art projects. You pick them according to your kid’s age and interests. Coco’s no stranger to Kiwi crates and she has built a kaleidoscope, a mobile of the solar system and a periscope with past kits. She will choose and build (or concoct) her science experiments with her dad. She approaches science projects much in the way she approaches her cooking projects – with gusto and with a complete disregard for the rules so it’s better if I stay out of it.
So, to make up for our lack of kitchen time together and my reluctance to blow shit up, I compiled a list of fun activities, favorite snacks and meals my picky pescatarian will eat and themes I thought she’d find amusing to pick and choose from and left the remaining time slots blank so she could have some say and control over the schedule. You may look at the schedule and think there aren’t many slots that haven’t been pre-determined. What can I say? I’m a bit of a control freak.
Here’s a copy of the Week 1 schedule I made for Coco, along with the list of activities to pick and choose from, and here’s a blank one for you to fill out with (or without) your kids.
By the way, Coco took one look at my schedule and came up with her own. (I’m not the only one with control issues. Ha!) Here’s the schedule she came up with. And we eventually settled on this one, a hybrid of the two.
What are you planning on doing with your kid(s) this summer? Any tips to share? Any other moms out there hate cooking as much as I do?