Summer Vacation Ideas

Well, my kids are officially out of school for the summer! We decided to not send the kids to summer camps this year.

It has been nice to have my son in preschool five mornings a week and my daughter in preschool two mornings a week. Those two mornings when they were both in preschool were wonderful.

I was able to go grocery shopping by myself, go to Doctor and Dentist appointments and come home and clean. I can't believe how quickly I was able to clean the house when the kids were not there!

I am looking forward and dreading this summer at the same time. I am looking forward to sleeping in and not rushing around in the morning.

My son and daughter will both be able to go into the play area at the gym together. It will be nice to join the reading program at our library with the kids and take them to the parks and pool.

Also, we will be saving a lot of money on gas and tuition. Our preschool is 15 minutes away on a good day.

I am not looking forward to grocery shopping with kids, Doctor's appointments with kids and non-stop parenting.

I see that a lot of the parents around me are signing their kids up for summer preschool or summer camps and I feel like one of the minority since I am giving them a summer vacation from school.

I did sign them up for a couple summer programs like Tae Kwon Do and Ballet. I hope things will go well this summer vacation!

We got into a routine by the halfway point of summer vacation. We went to the library each week and spent about an hour there picking out books, playing with other kids and attending library programs.

We also went to the gym a lot. Luckily, our gym has an awesome children's center. They let the kids stay for 2 hours each day. I was able to take a fitness class or workout on my own, take a shower and get ready for the day before picking them up.

They would be worn out from playing with all of the other kids on the big indoor playground. An extra perk was that the whole place was air conditioned. It gets so hot in Virginia (or anywhere for that matter) in the summer and it is nice to find a cheap place to play and have fun.

We did have a family member visit for 3 weeks. During that time, the kids went to the museums in Washington D.C., visited the Appalachian mountains, tour an underground cavern and explore our area like a tourist would.

Luckily, our neighborhood has a family friendly swimming pool where all of the stay at home Moms and kids can cool off and have a good time. It's not far from our house. We were there so often that my kids are like little fish now! My 6 year old son was even on the swim team for our neighborhood!

We did make a few family trips out to visit with family in other parts of the country. Without summer vacation, we would not have been able to do half of what we ended up doing.

I was happy when school started up again. We were starting to run out of things to do and the kids need more structure than I gave them during summer vacation. They were happy to see their friends when school started up again.

Next year, I will have to plan my summer vacation the same way. We did not fill up our schedules each day. We just relaxed, explored and visited family. That is what summer is all about!