How do your kids spend the summer?

[hillview]

I have 2 boys they will be 3 and 5 this summer. I am not doing camp for them. I am thinking (see other post) of joining a swimming club sort of place that my parents (who watch them) and our babysitter could take them several times a week and they could have swim lessons. We also belong to the science museum and children's museum. I hope this works!

What do you do?!
/hillary

[AnnieW625]

This summer DD will go to a summer camp at her preschool from mid June to mid July, M-Th, from 9 am to 1 pm. We have decided to keep her in daycare for the rest of the time so I can have some good bonding time with #2. DD will most likely do swim lessons, and then will continue ballet on Saturday mornings for one hour.

[khalloc]

My kids are in daycare full time. They spend alot of time outside playing during the summer at their school. We go on bike rides and to the park in the evenings, will go camping for 4-5 days hopefully. We have Lake Champlain about 2 minutes from our house so we also have a sailboat that we use on weekends and there is a nice beach about 1 mile from our house. Thats what we do for the summer. I also have a neighborhood pool that we might actually use this year.

[egoldber]

Younger DD is staying at her current daycare, which goes year round. In summer they call it "camp".

Older DD is going to a series of camps, all of her own choosing.

[JoyNChrist]

I have no idea what DS (3) and I are gonna do this summer!

He's been going to preschool 3 half-days a week this year, and I have to say that I've grown very accustomed to that break. :bag But they don't offer a summer session, so it's just gonna be him and my increasingly pregnant self from June to September.

We're starting swimming lessons in a week or so, and we do have a membership to the children's museum, so I'm sure we'll go there occasionally. But I know that as I get bigger and more uncomfortable, and it gets HOTTER (it's insanely hot and humid where I live), I'm probably not going to feel like being out and about much. I'm considering hiring a mother's helper or someone to take DS out a couple days a week, just so that he doesn't get bored and I don't go crazy or completely wear myself out.

[Tondi G]

Camp around here tends to be VERY expensive so we haven't enrolled in any camps. My boys are home with me. We try to make plans to do one bigger outing each week... beach, museums, amusement park, water park, pony rides etc. We take any chance we can to visit a pool if we have friends who have one at home or have access to a pool (community).

On the other days we attempt to hit the library, park, go hiking, get out the sprinkler or slip n slide, ride bikes around the neighborhood, arts and crafts at home etc.

I am thinking about setting up swim lessons for the summer. I need to look into the programs the parks will be offering this summer... they are usually more reasonably priced.

[bubbaray]

Younger DD is staying at her current daycare, which goes year round.

Older DD is going to a series of camps, all of her own choosing.


:yeahthat:

Except I am choosing the camps for DD#1. 3 weeks will be French camp. Other weeks will be run by the same facility that does her (and DD#2) daycare during the school year. The camp staff are different and there are things like field trips, etc.. One of the daycare moms might do a sewing and crafts week and I think we will do that too.

ETA: We also have 2.5 weeks of RV trips planned. One is a week in July, the other is a 1.5 w trip in August.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Chilling at the pool with their friends. Some playdates, parks, museums, zoo,...the basics. We also will do a few week long camps.

Beth

[BabyMine]

M is at summer camp at his preschool school. They do about 1 field trip a week and this is the last time he will be in school with his friends.. He has been with them since 2. TT and I are just hanging around doing what we do now. I will be slowly getting butterflies in my stomach ache as the date draws nearer for M to go to Kindergarten. We also do a couple small family trips throughout the summer.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

My younger DS will go to his regular daycare.
My older DS is signed up for a variety of camps through the Y.

I'm actually off work for 8 weeks this summer, so we will have one week of Mommy camp and 2 weeks of vacation.

I may cancel some of the other camps if we want to do more stuff together. We decided it was better to sign up and get the spot and forfeit the deposit if necessary rather than risk not having a spot if we wanted it.

We also plan to spend a lot of time at the pool. We love eating at the pool in the summer (take out or delivery). I might try and do more of bringing our own food this year.

[newg]

We also belong to a swim club, so I plan on using that a lot this summer; along with the baby pool and sprinkler out back!
We are also going to join the zoo this spring. They have some great summer programs for little tots that I think DD (and I) would really enjoy. Plus we will keep up with our playdates and playgroups.
Possibly even the aquarium or museum on days that it's really hot outside.

I'll be 7-9 months prego this summer, so I don't envision feeling like doing a ton of stuff.

[sarahsthreads]

Play outside?

Let's see. Last summer DD1 did a week long soccer camp, two weeks of daily swimming lessons, and a couple of art "camps" (two hours, two days...how is that "camp"?). Plus some playdates, some trips to the children's museum, and visits to local parks and playgrounds. Oh! And the library. They do a summer reading program so we were there every week last summer.

This summer we'll do the swimming lessons again, and I'm thinking of finding a summer soccer league. That's probably it for structured stuff unless DD1 wants to do another art class or two. I like my lazy summers!

DH is picking up a sandbox on his way home from work today and I might try to talk him into a basic metal swingset - the giant wood monstrosity that came with the house is way too big even for DD1 yet. So I expect we'll spend the balance of the summer outside with the sandbox, swingset (if we get one), bike, trike, ride-on, bubbles, chalk, hula hoops, soccer ball and sprinkler...now that I type all that, *I* can't wait for summer! :)

Sarah :)

[niccig]

DS is in pre-K and he'll be going to a Camp for 3 days a week in July. I'm working from home part-time, but in July I will need to go into work a few times. I chose the camp that most of his class is going to, so he'll know lots of people.

Apparently a local private college has a great pool that isn't expensive to join, so we could be there every day we're not in Camp or doing something else.

We have swimming lessons for 4 weeks in there. Our playgroup also gets together one day a week for an outing. We'll have individual play dates too.

I want to come up with week theme ideas, like what DS's preschool did over the Summer, for the times DS is home, so I can have a list of activities to do....I might start a new thread on that.

[KrisM]

DD's preschool teacher runs a summer camp that DD and DS1 will go to. It's Mon and Wed from mid-June to mid-July.

Other than that, we'll take trips up north, probably a family vacation somewhere and do other things around town. No museums are very close, unfortunately, but we might try to get to one or two.

[belovedgandp]

My boys are 6 and 3. I try to mix scheduled and un-scheduled weeks up.

I just bought our swim pass to go to our city's pools. We'll do that several times a week usually late afternoon or early evening.

6YO is signed up for 4 week-long camps (all are about 3 hours for 4 or 5 days in a week) - VBS, soccer, baseball, and theater. (2 weeks in June, 1 in July and 1 in August)

3YO is doing one week of VBS

Both will do two weeks of swim lessons.

We'll do a one week vacation very early in the summer. Otherwise, playing with neighbors, swimming trips, and other basic fun.

[fivi2]

Honestly, I have no idea and I am starting to panic.

In general summers are freaking HOT here, so most days we are inside by 10:00 am. They are doing well in swim lessons, but I am not ready to take the two of them by myself to a real pool (they are fearless). Generally we have droughts, so aren't really supposed to do a lot of sprinkler stuff... Summer camps are WAY too expensive, and I planned our big trip for May...

So, I am going to have to look for splash pads and wading pools. I am thinking about joining the zoo that is over an hour away just because they have a nice splash area. Otherwise I may join the Y or Lifetime Fitness because they have zero entry pools, but they are a long drive from my house and I hear they get super crowded and that worries me with the swimming issues...

Seriously I am really worried about our sanity this summer!

[almostamom]

DS is 5. His preschool is year-round, so we'll continue that on MWF mornings. He has swim lessons one morning a week and the local movie chain plays a different children's movie each week, so we'll do some of those on Thurs mornings. In the afternoons, we have our usual appts (speech and OT) and the other days we'll go to museums, the science center, play in our pool, etc.

Linda

[LarsMal]

We spend a lot of time outside- we'll go to the neighborhood pool, playground, and some of the parks in the area as much as we can. We also spend a lot of time at the beach. My parents live there year-round so I go back and forth all summer. My mom is a caterer and runs a snack bar at one of the resorts. We hang out at the pool where the snack bar is and eat her yummy food, then hit the beach in the late afternoon/evening. DS is old enough to go to a couple of the camps at the resort this year, so we'll plan some of our visits around the weeks the camp has openings.

Besides that I am planning on signing the kids up for a couple activities through the rec center, but no other camps.

[LexyLou]

We're doing 8 weeks of camp here. 3 days a week from 9-1pm, that way we still have T-Th to have playdates and do day trips, etc.

[HIU8]

DS and DD are going to summer camp for 5 weeks. DD's is an extension of her preschool. The rest of the summer we are going to take a small vacation and then they will go to a sitters house for a few hours a day while I work (I work 20ish hours a week from home).

[sunnyside]

This is making me seriously miss the blissful days when I taught horseback riding camp all summer. It was so fun and such a great job. I mean, my software job pays a lot better, but oh man it was so fun.

[jess_g]

This year both my boys will be at the same summer camp and they are very excited about it. My youngest is just old enough this year. Its run by the school system and held at the middle school (where my oldest will be next year). The kids do arts and crafts, board games, story telling, and my sons favorite sport tennis. Some of the kids have aides to help them and some of the kids are typical kids. Its a small program with only about 30 kids (and almost that many adults!) but its nice and just perfect for my older son. They also provide acedemic help if the child qualifies for it. Its 6 weeks mornings only from 8 to noon but just enough for my boys. On some days I take them to the playground or the pool too, but the camp does realy tire them out for a while when they get home. We are also doing a big cross country family trip at the end of the summer which my kids look forward to every year.

Jessica.

[smilequeen]

Mine are signed up for camp at their school, which is 3 2 week sessions in the mornings. They will probably take swimming lessons and otherwise we'll spend a lot of time in the backyard, in the pool, or we have a plethora of kid stuff to do around here. We also have a few short trips planned at the beginning and end of the summer.