Family Summer Fun Plan!

My oldest just finished kindergarten, so our family's very first summer vacation is upon us. The thing I'm most worried about is spending the whole summer vacation in front of the TV and computer. A perfectly timed email from The Power of Moms gave a great example of how to avoid the couch potato summer, and we made up our family summer fun plan.

We started with a summer bucket list--a  list of all the things we want to do, all the places we want to visit, all the things we want to learn (and for my sake, all the areas we want to reorganize this summer), including experiences that no summer would be complete without:

Then we worked on our plan for our own Do-It-Yourself Summer Camp, creating themed days of the week. Our days are:

• Make it Monday: arts and crafts
• Talents Tuesday: learning new things, science experiments, music
• Friends-day Wednesday: playdates and outings with friends
• Thirsty Thursday: Play at the pool or lake or in the sprinklers, get slurpees
• Fun Fridays: trips, movie nights, game nights

Also part of DIY Summer Camp, we also came up with activities the kids need to do every day, like reading and writing practice (my 6-year-old writes stories or journal entries, or practices his full name; my 3-year-old does letter worksheets from Confessions of a Slacker Mom; my 2-year-old . . . mostly runs around ;) and chores. We also came up with a list of their favorite fun things to do, which would go great in an "I'm Bored" jar.

Everyone is excited for our summer plan, and I love the flexibility and structure it offers. I have ideas for fun things to do everyday all ready to go, and I can plan ahead for them.

What do you do in the summertime?