Happy Monday everyone! Today's Share Your Summer edition is all about Battling the Boredom.
Fortunately, The Cutes are still pretty young and usually don't get too bored during the day (or at least don't know that word yet to tell me). Our summers here are so short and so far ours has been packed out. We've been to the beach, had camp, spent days at the pool splashing away, and done tons of playing with all of our favorite little friends.
It's also been nice that we can often take the summer fun outside. It hasn't rained much at all in our neck of the woods so outside play morning, noon and night is an easy activity to achieve. Our littles can play outside for hours! Even if it is 100 degrees with 80% humidity and I feel like I am going to pass out from heat exhaustion in .2 seconds, they keep going and going and and going.
And when in doubt we bring the water balloons and sprinkler out. :)
Still even with all that available fun, I can tell some days that The Cutes get tired of the normal summer lazy routine. A couple of times I have joined Carrie Beth on her summer bucket list mission, and often I have referred to our summer activities list, but at home I have a few tricks up my sleeve too.
We have a closet in our hallway that I store games and activities. This closet has a child proof doorknob on it so that they can't go in it freely. I choose to use this closet as something of a special treat so that they get excited about anything coming out of there. If any time I see The Cutes are starting to act out out of boredom or need something new to do, I ask them if they want to choose something from the special closet.
Here are some of their favorite activities and games that I have stashed in the closet...
1: Playdough - We have a huge tub of Playdough and accessories and they could play with this for hours. What child doesn't love Playdough. Mommy just can't handle all the mixing and crumbs that get everywhere. Limiting this to a special treat makes it more fun for them and mommy's OCD can take a back seat to all the squealing and smiles.
2: Kinetic Sand/CraZsand - Carrie Beth has mentioned this sand before, but it really is fantastic. Both littles love it and we can play it inside and outside with little or no fuss. And clean up really is minimal unlike real sand.
3: "Who Shook Hook?" - This game is one of the kids absolute favorite. Cute received it for Christmas and loves it. It's based on the Jake and the Neverland Pirates show from Disney, and the object of the game is to get some of Hook's treasure without waking him. When Hook falls from his hammock the game ends and the kids usually think it is hilarious. Great for little ones who are trying to work on fine motor skills.
4: Let's Go Fishing Game - This game, or a version of it, I remember from when I was younger. Well the classic entertainment has held true for future generations because both Cutes love playing it.
5: Super Sorting Pie - I actually saw this game in Cute's preschool class a few years ago. His teacher used it to help students with their pincher grasp and fine motor skill practice. Cute loved the game and often talked about it at home so we purchased one. Now years later he still loves it, and so does Little Cute. It also helps with sorting, color identification, and counting.
The closet has a ton of other goodies and arts and crafts, but these are the ones they usually pull out first and get most excited to play with.
Summer fun is coming to an end soon (sooner than we would like), but know we are going to savor these last few weeks we have. We have tons of fun little activities planned so hopefully that end of summer wall that most kids hit keeps at bay, and then it's time for school.
How do you and your little ones battle the boredom over the summer?
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