“MOM! What can I do?? I’m so bored!!!!!!” hits about midsummer around here. Despite the numerous water parks, movies and excursions (not to mention vacation) we have been on, about 6 weeks into summer, kids want to shake it up a bit.
This year, a few moms & I planned ahead to trump this “bored” state of being by creating our own Neighborhood Summer Day Camp.
Before school was out, we got together one afternoon and discussed the details. Between the 4 of us, we each decided to take a day and plan a fun event together on Friday. With our kids being from ages 8-12 and both boys and girls, we had to ensure our activities would interest all kids involved. We developed a loose schedule, each picked out a theme for our days (so there would be no duplicates) and went home to plan what our day would look like.
Each day one house hosted “camp” from 9 -12 and the only rule we gave ourselves is that we needed to provide structured activities for the kids during that time (no tv!!). My friends came up with some pretty amazing ideas!
The house that had a pool, utilized her Camp time with fun swimming activities. The mom who loves to scrapbook had the kids making forts out of paper towel rolls & newspaper and baking bread. One mom had all the kids bring their bikes and took the kids out Geocaching all morning- there were tons just in our neighborhood! And another mom did a Dance off using the Wii that the boys even seemed to enjoy! On Friday, we took a field trip to a living history farm and had a picnic lunch. We finished off the fun week with a trip to our favorite swimming pool.
Some other great ideas for Summer Day Camp could include:
- Olympic-themed games/crafts (Our Quirky Mommas have been coming up with some great ones too!)
- Neighborhood Photo Scavenger Hunt
- Acting out your own skit, complete with performance for the parents or movie-making
- Lego creations
- Traditional Camp Crafts: God’s Eye, friendship bracelets, clothespin people
- Sprinkler Fun
- Board Games
- Have a Theme for each day (countries, colors, sports, etc.)
The idea of a Neighborhood Summer Camp can be used for all ages. Story time and songs for little ones to volunteering at the local food pantry for teens. You can even jazz it up a bit with custom t-shirts or hats!
There are so many great benefits to working with your neighbors and putting on a Day Camp. Kids get out of the house and try something new each day. They get to spend oodles of time with their friends. And moms get some free time too! We all enjoyed it so much that we are contemplating putting another one together before the end of the summer!
The Quirky Mommas have more fun ideas to include in your own summer day camp:
About Rebecca
That’s so great that they have so many kids to play with and such fun mommas who will help!
Mari
Great ideas!
Awesome! So many fun ideas. You are lucky to have so many energetic moms who will take that on. I’ve been doing Camp Mom once a week with friends this summer and it has also been a lot of fun… but a lot of work! Especially with toddlers and preschoolers. I will need to remember this idea for when my kids are older.