I adore summer. I love the slower pace and having my girls around me. Plus, the weather is just more conducive to getting out and about and doing more things together as a family! Our family just really enjoys hanging out together and so summertime brings with it a lot of love and laughter into our hearts.
There are so many fun low-cost traditions that we love to do together. My girls really enjoy playing Frisbee in our backyard or going to a park and playing Frisbee in addition to having a picnic. Just enjoying the sunshine and laughing as we toss the Frisbee around really seems to be something that bonds us together. It’s time spent together where the focus is mainly on being a family and I think that’s what draws them to this activity.
We also love to go on walks together. We happen to have a walking path around our neighborhood, but we also like to walk on nature trails and have gone “letterboxing” which was a blast to do. If you’ve never letterboxed before – it’s a walk where you follow clues to finding a box. You can leave your family name or a stamp imprint to say you’ve been there. It’s great fun and you get exercise as well which is a boost. You can go to http://www.letterboxing.org to find all the information you need to letterbox in the United States.
I love summer storms. Whenever one blows through, our family likes to run outside (as long as there is no lightning) and revel in the wind and fierceness of the storm. Sometimes we just sit on the patio and watch but there is something about the mystery of a storm that captures our attention. I remember when I was little, my mom used to huddle us up in a blanket with hot chocolate and we’d watch storms on our back patio. It was a great way to help me see a storm as something cool and fun – never something scary. I started to do the same thing when my girls were very little and we’ve come to laugh and enjoy the storms that blow our way instead of run from them. I love to see them get excited when one blows in and am thrilled that they can’t wait to run outside in it.
The library is another summer tradition that my girls adore. They love the weekly trips we take and have become rabid readers. We’ve enrolled them in many a reading program and they have so much fun getting the weekly prizes with finishing out the summer getting a brand new book. The neat thing about reading is that it can be done outside as well. If I feel my girls are inside too much and it’s so gorgeous outside, I simply have them move outdoors. They have read while sitting on a swing, laying in the grass, at our patio table, and sitting in a rocker on the front porch.
A low-cost treat we like to engage in during the summer is ice cream cones. We discovered that an Arctic Circle nearby had cones for .59 cents. We like to trek up there after dinner or on a particularly hot afternoon and then hit the nearby park for a half hour to enjoy them. It’s something that doesn’t cost much and something that we truly identify summertime with.
Sometimes I think we think that we have to do something that costs a lot or something big in order to leave a memory with our children. But it’s often the simplest things that stand out with them. Some of my fondest memories of summertime include riding my bike with my family in our neighborhood, hearing sprinklers and smelling freshly mowed grass; working out in the yard together, and bowling with grapes on a dock with my mom and sister up at the lake (we rolled the grapes down the dock to see whose went the farthest – it was great fun!). You see, it’s the walks, the talks, and the smells that bring summer into our hearts and captures them forever.
Whatever you decide to do with your children and as a family this summer; just have fun with it. Be creative and be willing to do something out of the ordinary (like sleeping in a tent in your backyard) and you will find that each moment spent creating a memory will be one that is treasured forever.
~ Dionna Sanchez is the Founder of the Emphasis On Moms Ministry. Subscribe to her free monthly newsletter at http://www.EmphasisOnMoms.com/newsletter.htm or visit her blog to get more family traditions ideas – http://alastingfoundation.blogspot.com
