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I’ve been away from my blog a few days already having some summer fun! Memorial Day weekend we camped out at our favorite campsite, last week we went to our local zoo and over the weekend we visited family and met some friends at the John Ball Park zoo in Grand Rapids MI. I thought I’d share some of our ideas on what we like to do in the summer!
(Putting up the tent this Memorial Day weekend)
Camping- Okay, I’m not really a camping kind of girl but we love to camp in our backyard. We are blessed to have 5 acres and we often do campfires so we just pitch a tent for a few days and have fun. I love that we have our own bathrooms, refrigerator and grill on the deck but we can sleep in the tent and cook over a fire if we want to. Even if you don’t have 5 acres it can still be great fun. The kids love that they get to stay up “really” late, and the yard looks so different in complete darkness.
Some things you can consider doing on your “camping trip”. We like to play card games and things in the tent as well as tell stories around the fire. One person starts the story and then we go round and add on. One year we made it into our own “family” camp at home with crafts and everything. We made a family flag, square piece of green material I had, which we glued sticks to in the shape of letters to spell our last name. We propped the flog up on their play set and our yard became “camp Reynolds” for the weekend. I got inexpensive T-shirts and we tie dyed them out in the yard. We also gathered small sticks and covered ball canning jars with sticks to make rustic “vases” for our wildflower’s we collected.
 (My son and a chemelion he met at the zoo!)
Zoo’s- We are very fortunate to have a zoo about twenty minutes from us in South Bend Indiana. When the kids were little we’d go at least once a week. Most zoo’s offer a family zoo pass. Our’s is $55 and it gets you not only into your own zoo but many others. This weekend we used our zoo pass from South Bend’s Potowatomi zoo to get into John Ball Park zoo in Grand Rapids MI for free (just cost gas money!)
When the kids are young they just love to look at the animals but as they get older bring along digital camera’s and/or sketchbooks. Let them make a notebook of your zoo adventures.
Nature Centers- Many parks have nature centers along with hiking trails and more. The Gillette Nature center in Hoffmaster Park (Muskegon MI) has great learning not only on animals but sand dunes as well. You might be surprised what’s in your area. Nothing wrong with a little “fun” learning. Many of these center’s also offer inexpensive (or expensive it varies) lessons or camps in canoeing, kayaking, animal topics and more.
Fairs- We use the Berrien County youth fair to sneak a lot of school into the summer. It’s a fun way for the kids to do projects, get paid and learn something. Most libraries and stores like Rural King or TSC have local fair books. We usually enter our chickens (of course!), photography, art (painting, drawing etc…), sewing, quilting, canning, baked goods, speeches, flowers, science lapbooks, bug collections and probably a bunch more I’m forgetting. You would not believe all the categories. You can enter stories, poems, electrical project, woodworking projects and so much more.
The kids love the fair because they earn money for each project and it keeps them busy and productive during the summer. (Not to mention the fun of fair week itself!)
Beach- It’s fun to just go hang out but a couple of things you can do at the beach is make a volcano! Just bring along some vinegar, baking soda and a water bottle. Instructions can be found here here . It’s fun and creates quite an attraction from fellow beach goers. You can also bring along some plaster paris and a bucket and make hand (or foot) prints. Just dig a circle (or whatever shape you want) into the sand at least big enough to contain the hand. Now press the child’s hand into the sand to make an impression. Pour the plaster paris and let it sit while your at the beach all day. Usually it takes 4-5 hours to set (check the directions on the plaster paris box.)
If you’re going to an ocean beach it’s always fun to find a tide pool. The beach we go to in Rhode Island has a rocky area at the far end where you can walk and see tide pools. We’ve found clams and starfish to look at. And of course there’s always shell collecting!
Summer Reading - Most libraries have summer reading programs where they award prizes to the kids for hours read. You can add to this yourself by looking at your recommended readers for your curriculums for next year and offer a bonus if you kids chose those books to read. We can never get enough reading done during our school year so this has worked great for us to get in some of those “extra” books. Last June my 10 year old daughter read, Fire, Bed and Bone and still claims it as her favorite. (See archives for my blog last summer on that one.)
Okay, well I guess that’s all for now. I may re-visit this subject later, there’s just so many good things to do! Leave me a comment and let me know what you do for fun in the summer!
Gina | 
