Fun Summer Activities for stay-at-home parents & their kids

Posted by Melissa Chapman Jul 9, 2006

So, you've enrolled your children in "Mommy/Daddy" camp for the summer.

Whether the reason for your decision is financial, these days day camp tuition is a minimum of at least $1,000 for the summer. Or maybe as a stay-at-home parent, during the year, you're often rushing around trying to maintain schedules, and keep your head above water and you thought keeping your kids at home with you during the summer would be a great opportunity to get in some unhurried quality time together.

It's now July 9th and some of the stay-at-home parents that I know who made this decision have had their fill of "quality time" with their kids. Some of them have even expressed to me their feeling that perhaps they made the wrong decision by keeping their kids home for the summer. It can be hard to find activities to keep your kids busy all day long, and unfortunately it leaves you with no downtime. Whereas during the school year, you don't have your kids walking up to you every hour on the hour saying, "Mommy, Daddy, I'm bored!"

Fortunately I've told some of my freinds to check out the article I wrote about fun summer activities to do with your kids. The list includes, regular pool/swim time, arts and crafts projects, cooking together and a few more,(check it on in the articles section of this site).

The truth of the matter is that, I have two kids a 5 year-old and a 15-month-old, and she had a week off between school and the beginning of her day camp season. It was a pretty tough week and I'm the first to admit, that it was hard for me to adhere to my own list of activities. And there were some days where she spent the better part of the day watching television.

I'm glad she's in day camp now, and I think she's happier too. But if that is not a viable option for you and your kids, don't worry. You just have to try and establish a routine that works for all of you. And if they end up watching a little more television than they should- there are worst things they could do!

Just keep reminding your self each day that these litle people who seem to be engulfing your life, are your kids, your flesh and blood, and they grow up pretty quickly, so try and cherish these moments, hours, days, because before you turn around it will be time for them to go back to school. This is your chance to find out about their lives, without them feeling like you're giving them the third degree. You can use the whole day, and throw in a question an hour, and really start to get a sense of who your kids are and what they dream about. It's hard to find that kind of time during the year, when you are so busy getting them off to school, and before you know it picking them up from school.

When I think back on the week of vacation I spent with my daughter, the truth is we spent a lot of time bonding, we baked a bunch of cakes, I played Barbies with her and we went swimming. It was kind of refreshing not to be tied to a schedule and come to think of it- I had a pretty good time!