Mary Angel

(6/2023) Can you believe summer break is right around the corner? For some of you it is already here. The kids have been chomping at the bit for over a month now, and parents have been scrambling to figure out what to do with summer break. After all, when kids are home all summer, they can get extremely bored and then there is no telling what might happen.

My youngest has been chomping at the bit waiting for summer break. At least twice a day for the last month and a half I have gotten a countdown of the number of school days left until summer arrives. She is in high school, so the concerns are a bit different than when she was in elementary school. When my kids were in elementary school, I was a stay-at-home mom and I home schooled some of them. The younger they are the more supervision they need during the summer.

When my kids were elementary school age, I would try to find camps for them during the summer. I wasn’t always the best planner and often the camps they wanted were full by the time I realized it was camp registration season. I never could wrap my head around the idea of registering for summer camps when there was snow on the ground. In their defense, most camps need a head count to begin the hiring process for camp counselors and aides. This lack of planning on my part didn’t always mean that there were no camps to be had, but more often my kids would be trying something they had no interest in. This was both a blessing and a curse.

In the process of playing camp roulette, my youngest discovered that she liked to cook, but not bake. As much as she loves science, she couldn’t stand the precision involved in the science of baking. She much preferred the creative outlet of adding new herbs and spices to an old recipe and tasting the outcome. I will say, as much as she didn’t care for baking, her family loved to taste test the experiment of the day. My other daughter discovered a lifelong love of baking. Because of her baking camp she still bakes whenever she is stressed or wants to bless a friend or family member. Her chocolate crinkle cookies are the best this family has ever had.

My youngest son was forced to take a construction camp, or nothing, so he chose the only camp available. I still have the table he built in my dining room. It could have used a little more TLC, but he had a blast and I love having things my children made fill my house. It doesn’t hurt that I am a Mickey Mouse fanatic, and it is red! My oldest son was always interested in theater and books, and those camps were usually available. We sat through a many a play in our day and they were all very well done, especially considering most camps are one to two weeks at most.

Because I was a stay-at-home mom for most of their young lives, I always felt like I had to have activities for the summer. Although one week out of every summer was always our family staycation, I always wanted there to be more. This is where day trips, Groupon, and rides in the car would come in handy. I am a big fan of the day trip. No hotel expense and everyone gets to sleep in their own bed. Many of my earlier day trips were purchased through Groupon, although they are few and far between lately. The Turkey Hill Experience, Pride of the Susquehanna riverboat cruise, and Frederick Keys games were some of our favorites. Several trips were made to the Army Heritage Center, as the kids could run off some of that summer energy and it didn’t hurt that it was free (although we always made a donation).

What about the other fifty days of the summer? For many years we had an above-ground pool. We loved to have friends over and spend the day in the pool. Indoor play dates on a rainy day were a blast for the kids and moms as well. I am not sure the kids would agree with this, but I always had my kids do at least one math workbook over the summer. If it had been a year with any struggle, I might throw in a grammar or reading workbook as well. I just felt it kept their little minds current on the topics they would need the following year.

When the kids were all in elementary school, my parents lived in Delaware, so we would always schedule two or more weeks throughout the summer to go visit them. Apparently sitting in Meme’s living room watching television was way more magical than sitting in their own living room. It didn’t hurt that my parents’ internet was amazing compared to ours, so the kids could all be on their Nintendo DS handhelds at the same time. Even my husband would sneak away from work for a long weekend and bring his Playstation to get in some serious Black Ops game time. All kidding aside, they were memories my kids still talk about and will have for a lifetime.

There are a ton of parks, waterfalls, and hiking trails in our area, so there is no lack of outdoor activities to take the kids to. Even if it was raining, we would still jump in the van, and drive to local waterfalls just to enjoy the sound. One or two rainy days during the summer, I would pull out my dollar store purchases and make a ginormous plastic wrap ball full of fun for the kids. Although I learned about this at a birthday party, it was an all-occasion invention for our family. If you have never seen this game the prep is easy and can be as inexpensive or as expensive as you want. You start with something small and possibly odd shaped, and you start wrapping the plastic wrap around it. As you keep wrapping you add other things. This can be small candies, bags of gummies, stickers, small paperback books, matchbox cars, gum, anything that can be molded around an ever-growing ball of plastic wrap. If you want you can periodically cut the plastic wrap and restart it in a different spot, just to keep things interesting. When you have it as large as you want it, it is time to start the game. The first person starts to unwrap the ball (NO TEARING ALLOWED) and at the same time the next person is rolling two dice. When the person rolling gets doubles the dice and the ball shift positions. The game keeps going until all of the prizes are found. At this point the trading begins. This whole process can take up to one or two hours and then if you have crafts built in as prizes there is more entertainment.

I hope some of these ideas will help to give your family a memorable summer break. I know summer break can be both exciting and exhausting, so make sure to take a little time for your own mom’s time out!

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