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Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Summer family project time!

This week is a themed week for Works for me Wednesday. It is the "Mom, i'm bored" edition. This is something that we all dread hearing. After a long summer break i'm sure it's bound to happen at some time. I used to hear it all the time. Of course I always loved coming up with creative ways to make the children stop telling me every five minutes that they were bored. I could always help them not be so bored by scrubbing out the trashcans or by dusting the baseboards. You get the point. It still got to be tiring though, so we changed things up a bit for them.


First thing I want to say is that we homeschool. It is a bit different for us since we don't follow the typical schoolyear schedule. We take off one whole month in the summer (this year we are taking off the month of June), and we take off the whole month of December. I have found that just having a shorter summer break cuts down some on the "Mom, i'm bored" cries.

Now you know it would be too easy if that's all it took, but of course I still used to hear it pretty often. That's when we took it a step further and implemented a few summer changes around here. It has made a huge difference and it's actually quite fun.

First thing to go is the TV. We turn it off every summer, for the whole summer. There is nothing on but reruns anyway, but I find that the kids whine about being bored more if they sit in front of the TV everyday. So, off it goes.

Every year the children also attend one camp. The last three years it has been a music day camp at one of the local churches. It's fun for the kids and it takes care of one week. Plus it's free!

The big thing we do though that has made the most difference is complete a family project together every summer. Last year we built a chicken coop together. If you want to read more about our chickens, you can do so here. This year we have been working on checking off Mom's nesting list. Baby should come at any time now so it's got to get done. We have painted a few rooms in the house, built a loft bed, and we are about to start expanding the chicken run.

Including the children is something we love doing and we never hear, "I'm bored!" It also helps them build skills that will help them later on in life. Most importantly, it helps build our relationship with our kids and it makes great memories. If you don't have any big projects to do, do something small. Build a birdhouse, plant a flower garden. Lets the kids pick. It works for us!

To get more great ideas on how to keep the kids entertained this summer, visit Rocks in my Dryer.

4 comments:

Mom's Marbles said...

We cut our cable a year and a half ago and haven't looked back. We still get the basic channels but watch far, far less than we did before. I was nervous at first but it can be done...and painlessly too!

Teresa said...

I'd love to cut out cable, but hubby still wants it. I'm just glad that he likes to turn it off for a few months. Maybe one day i'll convince him that we don't NEED it.

Candace said...

Hi Teresa,
I didn't realize you were so close to having your baby. How wonderful! I do hope God blesses us again.
I am really enjoying your blog and I saw some of your posts over at MOMYs recently. What a great forum of ladies.
You'll have to keep us up to date on how your nesting projects are coming along!

Teresa said...

Candace, I had no clue you were on MOMYS! I love it there. I have actually been a member of the digest for 5 years now and I think about 2 on the boards.

About baby. We have been trying to hold off for a few days yet so that my hubby can finish up a terribly busy week at work. I've been a lady of leisure the last few days or so because of that. Now today is the day I put my foot down and take a walk or something to get these contractions going! :-)