Our 2018 Summer Activities List

Summer can be a overwhelming couple of months when you have multiple kids at home who like to stay busy.  I like to write out a list of activities for us to have during the summer so we can plan our days a little better and the kids can have something to look forward to each day.  I did this last year (you can read it HERE and 2016 HERE) and we’re excited to continue it this year.

Beckham is 6 years old, Maddox is about to turn 4, and Brielle is 8 months old.  So there is a wide spread in ages, but basically this will be a list for the boys and Brielle will come along for the ride.  Ryan (a math teacher) is home a bit more in the summer (he has random jobs throughout the summer), so this helps a ton with the baby and/or him taking the boys somewhere.  We’re also planning on me working a bit more on my businesses to bring in more income before school starts (time is my biggest issue so this should help a bit).

GENERAL DAILY SCHEDULE

My husband and I have talked about a general schedule for the summer, which includes:

Waking up, breakfast, chores (if any), a little schoolwork (the boys need some work on a couple of different things academically, Maddox for speech), a fun activity (most likely out of house) and/or gym with us, lunch at house, quiet time in their rooms, technology if they’ve earned it (good behavior), and our evenings will be playing outside or some other activity, dinner, bed time routine.

That is, of course, a general schedule.  We are extremely flexible and last minute in the summer.  We do a lot of last minute get togethers with people.

ACTIVITIES LIST

I’ve made a list of the things we want to do this summer (some of them are specific to Dallas).  Let me know in the comments of anything we should add!

1. Cinemark Movie Club House – I’m not sure if all Cinemarks have this going on in the summer, but they show a different movie each week for kids that cost $1.00 (even cheaper if you buy the bundle), so we’ll be hitting up a movie each week.
2. School Work (glyphs, sight words, books, speech work with M) – I really want to work on Beckham’s reading and writing this summer and as a former elementary teacher, I feel like I should be able to have him reading much more fluently by August.
3. Swimming – we do a ton of this in our blow up pool in the backyard, as well as at my parents or with friends
4. VBS – Beckham will attend one VBS in June this summer
5. July camp (T/TH) – my kids have a summer camp at a local church in July
6. Family Book Clubs – These are just the greatest when it comes to reading and doing some fun activities with books.  Andrea, from Momfessionals, shares how she reads a book and does some fun activities throughout the day with each of them.  You can check out the books here on her blog.  She has several now after a few years.
7. Go to Dollar Tree and find activities – my kids love taking a few dollars and purchasing stuff here.
8. S’mores
9. Sleepover in the living room – watch a movie and sleep in living room
10. Maddox’s 4^th Birthday Party – we celebrate his birthday on the 25th
11. Bowling (Pin Stack) – they also have arcade games which the boys are obsessed with
12. Library visit
13. Dallas Arboretum – early morning as anything outdoors in Texas is pretty miserable
14. Bake Monster cookies
15. Find a craft on Pinterest – let the pick
16. Paint rocks
17. Drive-in movie
18. Make treats for fire station
19. Berry picking
20. Make cool chalk art and take pics
21. Nature scavenger hunt
22. Look up a science experiment on Pinterest
23. Frisco Rough Riders baseball game
24. Snow cones across the street – we can walk to one
25. Hibachi restaurant – my kids love these and there is one with discount days
26. Family Bike Ride – we have a stroller we can pull Brielle in
27. Sonic ½ price shakes after 8pm
28. Ride the DART to Clyde Warren and have lunch at food trucks
29. Spend the night with Mimo & Poppi
30. Night swimming with glow sticks
31. Visit Cabela’s
32. Pump It Up Jump times – Ryan will take the boys to their daily jump times throughout the summer and spend a couple hours there.  Our kids really like this activity and usually Groupon offers a discount for the summer.

Some of these things we’ll do multiple times and others we may not get to, but it’s always good to have ideas.  We don’t plan on doing a family vacation this summer like in years past because I don’t feel like taking a baby to the beach.  Ryan is also going back to work super early this August so our summer is cut a little shorter than usual.

And for fun, here are a couple of pictures from last summer in Destin.  Here I am “rescuing” Maddox from the wave that hit him (first time in the ocean). And I was very pregnant also (thankful I don’t have to go through this summer pregnant!)

And here I am probably telling my kids there are sharks in the ocean so “please stay close!”  The thought of them going in the water scares me to death!

Let me know your favorite summer activities!