Got kids? Got summer? Got no do-re-mi? As it happens, I’m an expert in all three of these conditions. So, as the weeks of vacation spread out before us and I contemplate how much longer I can bear to listen to my sons doing what they think is an appropriate way to spend the day, I offer up this list of actual doable activities for the broke, low-energy parent with a houseful of restless kids of various ages.
1. Mud painting. I’m probably revealing too much about my standard of living here, but I just don’t care when my kids mix big batches of mud in the driveway and smear it on the van and the shed. Then they take the hose and wash it all off. Then they get it all muddy again. Then they get bored and I find them rolling around on the couch, so I make them go outside it and hose it all off again.
2. A slightly more palatable activity: water painting (get house paint brushes from the dollar store). Same concept as above, just don’t add dirt. On a hot day, the “paintings” will evaporate quickly, which little kids find fascinating.
3. Weed tours. This one turns parental sloth into pure childhood gold. If your grass is a little higher than you’d like (read: your children can hide from you simply by standing out in the yard and staying still), DON’T CUT IT ALL DOWN. Instead, mow a tricky, windy trail looping through the yard. This is the poor man’s version of corn mazes, and your kids will love it.
4. Okay, moms, this one is difficult: This summer, think hard about whether your kids are old enough to spend some time on their own. If necessary, drive them to a safe part of town with a few bucks and a cell phone, give them a few stern lectures, and let them be on their own for a while. (Obviously, this depends on where you live and what kind of kids you have, and may not be doable in your area; but it’s easy to get carried away with safety, and it really is good for kids to be unsupervised.)
5. Poker night. Movie night is fun, but we have the problem of either watching something so stupid that the adults can’t tolerate it, or watching something so good that the adults can’t tolerate the kids’ chatter and squirming. So we’re teaching them to play poker. Be prepared for the most obnoxious child to get an unbelievable lucky streak. That’s just how it goes.
6. Scrap wood, hammer, box of nails. There is only a limited amount of harm they can do to themselves, and you may be surprised at—well, I was going to say “at what they come up with,” but more likely you’ll be surprised at how proud they are of the weird little wobbly doodads they spend all afternoon making. Practice this phrase: “Wow, look at THAT! TELL me about what you made!” Also: “That contusion makes you look just like Indiana Jones. Here’s some ice.”
7. Firepit. A project so easy, even I could do it! You just dig down until you hit bare dirt, and then make a ring around it with rocks. Little kids are thrilled to throw in grass and toast marshmallows, older kids enjoy the edgy thrill of staying up past bedtime outdoors, and adults can bring out a bottle of wine.
8. Story time for teenagers when the little ones are in bed. People sometimes forget to read to older kids, but it’s an irreplacable way to spend time with kids of a tricky age while passing along some precious ideas. Make sure the kids like the book, though—you don’t want this to be summer school, but family time. (Leave book suggestions in the comments!)
9. Tie dyeing. I actually only wrote this one down because I promised the kids we would this summer, and now it’s in writing, so I really have to do it. When I was little, tie dyeing involved ruining several of your mother’s pots with RIT powder and filling the air with a horrible stench, but I think they’ve recently come up with a tidy, easy, quick way to do it. Right? Right?
10. Okay, the Fourth of July is over, you ate and drank moderately, no one ended up in the burn clinic, and you suddenly realized that the person who complains about those damn inconsiderate neighbors making all that noise when decent people are trying to get some sleep . . . is you. How did this happen? You used to be cool, and now you wear black socks with your sandals and kvetch about how much dietary fiber you need. For the sake of your kids, for your own sake, and for the sake of uncomfortably rational adults everywhere, go ahead and make some steel wool fireworks.
Or, failing that, a miniature hydrogen bomb (especially if you’re the Wile E. Coyote type). One way or another, it will be a summer to remember.
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Regarding #5—-we do board games, since neither my husband nor I know how to play poker to save our lives. And yes, the obnoxious child always gets the highest salary card in Life, or gets all the wedges in Trivial Pursuit, or makes it to Candy Castle before everybody else.
When I leave my kids to their own devices, they get into my compost in the yard or the buckets of powdered sugar in the basement. Half the time I think, “If they don’t know I can see them, I don’t have to discipline them.” *sigh* I’m a truly lazy parent these days.
Also Tom Sawyer them, mine painted three old tables on the driveway, loved it.
Fairy houses—friend taught this, to make a house out of twigs, sticks, grass and flowers—leave an acorn or two for the fairy. In the evening, leave a little something as a thank you from the fairy like bubbles.
Read to books with olders: It depends on how old; I use the Norton Anthology of short fiction—monkey’s paw, the necklace, Dark They Were and Golden Eyed, Hills Like White Elephants, A Good Man is Hard to Find, it allows for discussion afterwards and doesn’t exhaust you.
Also, if they haven’t discovered a Wrinkle in Time or the Percy Jackson series, that’s loads of fun for 4-6th grade.
#11 - Sock Wars Take all those unmated socks you have in your house (come on, everyone has them). Bundle them in loose balls, head outside, blast John William’s epic music and begin the battle!! Everyone can get in on it, you can make teams, rules or not.
If you want to make it extra fun - soak the sock balls in water and you get re-usable ‘water balloons’ and everyone is drenched but be careful w/ smaller ones as the wet balls are heavier and can hurt if thrown too hard by older siblings or an unaware parent (still dealing with that guilt).
Should you be really daring as a parent, you can make the wet balls muddy as well and really amp up the laughter.
What type of poker are you teaching them?
Stories - How about The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Fr. Brown mysteries, or The Man Who was Thursday?
Tie dying - if my memory is correct, they have come up with an tidy and easy way, but it still takes at least half a day. Then again, when I was a kid we did tie dying outside, but none of my mom’s pans were ruined.
love the ideas-
#8—don’t read books that you yourself don’t enjoy. i’ve read to our older kids as well—All of these books were enjoyed by our daughters & sons
some favorites:
anything by Brian Jacques - all of our children would pick up his books on their own after reading one from the Redwall series—his other series Castaways of the Flying Dutchmen were a favorite of all of us. Avi’s Crispin books (i think there are 3)
Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series (5 books)—i read the 1st and the kids read the others (the disney movie does NOT at all follow the book and isn’t worth seeing)
a favorite: Outlaws of Ravenhurst -by Sr. M.Imelda Wallace—excellent- all of us wanted more
Fr. Finn’s books - especially Tom Playfair series (TAN books—unfortunately, these books don’t hold up well)
I did read Louis deWohl’s “The Spear” to the kids but i did ‘edit’ a bit—they loved this too- great historical fiction.
George MacDonald - The PRincess & Curdie & The PRincess & the GOblin—any of his children’s books
book they all loved: Where the Red Fern Grows—unfortunatly, i can’t get thru it without crying
I read “The Yearling” to them last year -oh my- the story is not only excellent, but the humor is terrific (the movie doesn’t do the book justice)
FOr those larger families “Cheaper by the Dozen” is fun - it’s based on truth - the father of this family truly was ahead of his time
Hilda Van Stockum books are also favorites (i guess we have a lot of favorites) but they may be for those 11 and younger.
i would never read a book to the kids that i didn’t also enjoy; i think the kids enjoy books more if the one reading is also enjoying the time.
@Evan - I don’t know, the most basic kind, where you get five cards. I’m still at the level where I have to check the chart to see how good my hand is.
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@AnO: good point that the adults should enjoy the book, too (or else you’ll somehow never manage to have time for it.)
I have 2 books I can highly recommend, “Under the Hawthorne Tree” and “Wildflower Girl” by Marita Conlon-McKenna. These are wonderful story’s about a group of young siblings, plight in Ireland during the Great Famine. They are both in series but are very heartwarming and even sad at times but if your older girls enjoy stories about family, struggle and justice I think they will love these. I read them to my older daughters when they were young pre-teens (my wife worked evenings) and they still remember. In some parts I would even get a bit choked, as some parts I seemed to relate to. You might find them in a library but they were once out of print, however, Amazon has them and we still have a copy of both.
The Wind in the Willows; Illiad, Odyssey, Aeneid (the Fagles translations) are all thrilling - and meant to be read aloud (especially the first two).
I love these! When I was a kid, we had lots of unsupervised play, but we lived in a ridiculously small town with lots of woods to tromp around in. My father also read out loud to us frequently—still a favorite activity!—although as we got older, siblings were allowed to choose their own book to read to the family. One sister read aloud “The Mass of Brother Michael”, which was very inspiring and beautiful!
We also played poker, although we tended to prefer non-standard games like “Low Hole”, “Baseball”, “Deuces, Jacks, and the Man with the Axe” because they had wild cards to improve the hand. :)
We spent plenty of hours constructing and playing in forts of various kinds, although my mother did not like those so much because it often meant a mess left under / in the trees that ruined the grass.
Some great books to read aloud are…
Summer of the Monkeys (written by the same person as Where the Red Fern Grows) - this book will have parents and kids alike rolling on the floor laughing until they cry.
Flood Friday, Strawberry Girl, and any other books by Lois Lenski. They’re geared more towards middle school but they’re funny enough that enough highschoolers will enjoy them.
You can download free “scavenger hunt” lists online, or make your own. The kids take a walkie-talkie and a digital camera and go through the neighborhood finding the objects. When they do, they take a picture of it. The walkie-talkie is in case they see bear.
When I was a kid in the 4-5th grade age, my parents made me take a bicycle safety course, then told me that I could cycle anywhere in the neighborhood as long as I didn’t cross the 4 major streets that surrounded it….This kept me busy for close to half the day all summer long, especially since the local park was in that area. I just had to check in about once an hour or so and come back for lunch unless given permission to make a picnic lunch. :) Of course, that spring semester, my dad and I also rebuilt the used bicycle that I was riding on (it was an old 3-speed. Do they even make those anymore?).
Also, on my own initiative, I pushed our lawnmower around the neighborhood and asked people if they wanted me to mow their lawn….I earned a little bit of spending money that way!
And, I remember spending a lot of afternoons at the library….I couldn’t go by myself, but as long as I could convince my older sister to go, we could hop the bus to the local library anytime we wanted.
Blessings,
Ruth
I lol’d at the “weird little wobbly doodads.” Can’t wait until my kids are old enough for that - oh, and until we have a yard where they can go to do mud painting and hammering. The Great Brain is a good book I had never heard of until I was an adult, and then enjoyed greatly.
is 4 years old and 18 months too young to drop them off somewhere and leave??????? Just kidding…...kind of…...
actually mud painting sounds like it might buy me some peace and quiet this afternoon since the naps did not work out as I had hoped and prayed.
Little House on The Prairie series - have the older ones take turns reading for the group.
If you have enough kids and old clothes / stuff assortment they can direct their own play - and film it on a cheap camera. Since it has to be a surprise for mom and dad, they have to do it without your help (best part!).
Buy an ice cream maker at a garage sale and put them to work.
Pay them pennies/weed that they pick out of the garden.
Discipline for sibling fights: Empty out their dresser drawers on the bedroom floor and have them clean it up TOGETHER - solves two problems at once. They are best friends again when finished - and the drawers got cleaned out.
RE: #8—Story Time: Dairy Queen and the two sequels are excellent for teens. As a long term substitute teacher, I did this book with 6th graders for their reading class. It has an excellent story line that the kids really get into—Sports for the guys and love life for the girls, Be prepared mom & dad, it does deal with issues that they will come face to face with in junior hi and high school. An excellent and fun read. Get the two sequels, they are great as well. Sorry, I don’t remember the name of the sequels or the author. :(
Great ideas! I’ll definitely be using some of these! Re: #9: I have done the version here: http://thebutterflyjungle.blogspot.com/2010/06/fireworks-t-shirts.html with my son, and it was so easy it should be called Tie Dye For Cheaters. We didn’t really go for the fireworks look (although that’s pretty cool, too!), just covered the shirt in colored blobs. Now he’s outgrown it and wants to do another!
Book suggestions. Anything by Roland Smith. They are fun and really exciting (even for adults). They also usually involve a boy and a girl so both genders can relate. Other good books for teens are the Alex Rider series (especially boys). Girls, classics like the Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, Pride and Prejudice are great.
yay books! Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea series; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Life of Pi; The Princess Bride. If mysteries are a favorite, there’s loads of Agatha Christie, and Ellis Peter’s Cadfael series is great, too. Also, for what it’s worth, the best car trip we ever took was one that involved a recording of The Hunt for Red October—all of us (ages 49, 43, 12, and 11, at that time) were enthralled for hours.
Games: Tripoley!
Books: Treasure Island; The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
Foucault’s Pendulum, The Name of the Rose, The Island of the Day Before. With Spongebob breaks in between.
find some cheap pots at goodwill and use them as dye pots.
I don’t have kids, heck- I’m not even married, and I love reading your column!
Thanks for making me laugh.
Almost any kind of cooking - older ones can do it unsupervised. When we have the grandchildren over, they make pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs - as well as the old staple cup cakes and cookie cut outs (double shot, because they need icing afterwoods).
We have a big old plastic table we can put up under a tree outside, and hose off after the cooking; only the finished trays need to go inside, so the kitchen stays clean.
The plastic table also comes into play for all kinds of painting.
One of our favourites was making castles - save any shape of cardboard packaging, including the rolls from inside kitchen papers. Let the kids put them together using masking tape and glue, then papier mache over the top, then paint. The result can be as ornate or as simple as the child wishes. One of ours made an amazing black dragon with cellophane fire.
A packet of tall growing sunflower seeds and a packet of climbing bean seeds will make a private den, with a bit of water and some patience. Mark out a circle about 4 feet across (bigger if you’re ambitious). Dig over, or get the kids to dig over, a twelve inch strip with the circle as the inner edge. Get the kids to plant the seeds in the bed you’ve just made, two beans for each sunflower. Put the groups six inches apart at the closest, and up to 12 inches apart. Don’t forget to leave a space for the door! Once the sunflowers are over child head height, get your child to tie wool or light string across the circle from one sunflower to its opposite. Show them how to train the beans across the circle.
In six to eight weeks, they’ll have their own private leafy den.
Or, if you have access to some long bamboo canes, skip the sunflowers and make a teepee.
Yesterday I took my 3 youngest to a really large pet store and let them look at the fish, puppies, lizards, bunnies, rats, hamsters, etc. They loved it. This one won’t work though if you’ve got a child who’s likely to whine for something - none of mine even asked for a goldfish.
I’m laughing at the homemade pizza idea. My younger kids love making pizza. All I have to say is don’t plan on making that pizza the grownups’ meal too, unless you’ve got much more sanitary children than I do.
If you’ve got a handheld GPS (about $50) take the slightly older kids geocaching. Tremendous fun www.geocaching.com.
My kids tell me that some cell phones have GPS’s in them too.
We did #2 a lot—water painting. Mom gave us a whole bunch of paintbrushes/paintrollers and buckets of water (sometimes mixed with soap). We “painted” the siding on the house and the deck… years later did I realize that it was a sneaky way for her to get us to clean the house and the deck…smart mom.
Another thing we did was “soap skate” My mom would take out a floor rug that needed cleaning, put it on the driveway and make a sudsy mess with a hose and soap. We’d “skate” and slide on it in our bathing suits—it would become a great slip -and -slide… and secretly my mom was getting all her rugs clean :) So fun… yet so sneaky ;)
Librarian says: If you can’t find the books you want at the library, and you’re strapped for cash, write down what you want, go to the reference librarian and ask about inter-library loan. There may be a fee involved (budgets are tight) so ask about that up front, but it’s usually free. You’re paying for the library through your taxes (even if you’re a renter, indirectly). Might as well use us!
We’re fortunate to be able to do camps and other activities with the kids. But, I remember most of these activities from when I was a kid. Of course, my children barely believe that, when I was a kid, I had to spend the entire day outside (in 100+ degree heat)making up things to keep myself entertained.
FOR CHILDREN THAT CANT READ YET .... I READ A FEW OF THEIR PICTURE BOOKS INTO THE COMPUTER ... I SCAN THE BOOK COVER INTO THE COMUTER .... I COPY EACH BOOK I READ ONTO A CD .... I PRINT A CD LABEL OF THE COVER PUT IT ONTO THE CD THEN THE CHILD HAS A BOOK TO LOOK AT ALONG WITH THE CORRESPONDING CD THAT HE OR SHE CAN LISTEN TO
Crime and Punishment is an amazing book. How did I miss this, English major and bibliophile that I am? I could easy see reading this one to teens.
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