Summer isn't over...even if summer break is!

 Just because your kids may be heading back to school this week it doesn't mean summer is over!

Take time to play outside together during these last days of summer even in the midst of homework, and organized sports teams, and school day responsibilities.

A spoonful of sugar always makes the medicine go down more smoothly.  Especially when that medicine is Algebra, Chemistry, or spelling lists.

Here are five things to do after school this week to make the back-to-school transition a little more fun.

1. Go for a whole-family before bedtime bike ride.  It doesn't have to be far, even a few laps around the block. Talk to your kiddos about their first few days in their new grade, as you pedal together through the neighborhood.  Kids open up more when they are involved in a fun physical activity than they do just sitting and talking.

2. Walk to the neighborhood ice cream parlor for dessert. Ice cream doesn't end when school begins! Or use that bike ride mentioned above to get there!

3. Make a hopscotch course down your sidewalk and have your kids write as many names of classmates in their homeroom as they can in the spaces. Have them tell you a little about each one as they hop onto their name.

4. Have one last water battle!  Make the sponge bombs I shared on my Fox and Friends segment a few weeks back!  They're fun to make with your kids and even more fun to throw at them.

5. DIT: Do it Together! Make these fun and healthy Apple Sandwiches together, from cincyshopper.com, as an after-school snack and then throw a blanket down outside on the lawn, grab a delicious chapter book to read aloud and have a snack picnic under the sun. Don't forget to play the "what do you see in the clouds" game!

Our kids feel stress and angst along with their excitement for a new school year and there is nothing quite like pops of purposeful PLAY to help ease those back to school jitters, and get them to let you in on how they're feeling about the whole thing.

Be Well Played,
M