I first want to thank Meredith for asking me to join her community and allow me the opportunity to share a little part of my world. With that …
It has been a long Winter in Pennsylvania, with too many missed school days and enough snow for even the toughest moms to raise the white flag. And after 4 years in the U.S. Army I’d like to think I am pretty tough.
It is no wonder that about this time every year I start thinking of Summer and one of my traditions is to give it a theme. The theme is fun for building activities around and introduces the kids to new things. My two kids are 6 and 8; great ages for play without the “Mom you are embarrassing me” to have started yet. To be honest, I am dreading the day either one utters those words.
Working as a software consultant in the high-tech industry I introduced my kids to technology early and they love playing games on their iPods and Nintendo 3DS and even reading books on the Kindle and the Nook, but I want our Summer to offer the nostalgia of catching lightening bugs, drive-in movies, kick the can, and tire swings. Some of my fondest memories growing up the youngest of 10 kids were the summertime games of flashlight tag and chasing after that Coke can with my brothers and sisters. With all of that in mind, our theme for this year is Throwback Summer.
What I realized as I started brainstorming throwback activities is that I don’t need to wait until Summer to kick-off the theme. We can start now! With the warmer weather, it was 60 and sunny yesterday, it means we can head outside for play. So I bought a Mason jar from the thrift shop for 25 cents and a package of sixty popsickle sticks from Michael’s for $3.99. I added some rice to the bottom of my jar (because the jar is taller than the sticks and wine corks didn’t work) and I wrote fun activities on each popsickle stick and placed the jar right within reach of little hands. So when the words “I’m bored” or “what do we do next” are groaned I can direct them to go grab a stick and make something old new again. I added a variety of indoor and outdoor activities, some that need supervision and others that are independent play, but most of all they have to go along with the theme of Throwback Summer.
What I realized as I started brainstorming throwback activities is that I don’t need to wait until Summer to kick-off the theme. We can start now! With the warmer weather, it was 60 and sunny yesterday, it means we can head outside for play. So I bought a Mason jar from the thrift shop for 25 cents and a package of sixty popsickle sticks from Michael’s for $3.99. I added some rice to the bottom of my jar (because the jar is taller than the sticks and wine corks didn’t work) and I wrote fun activities on each popsickle stick and placed the jar right within reach of little hands. So when the words “I’m bored” or “what do we do next” are groaned I can direct them to go grab a stick and make something old new again. I added a variety of indoor and outdoor activities, some that need supervision and others that are independent play, but most of all they have to go along with the theme of Throwback Summer.
I look forward to playing our way through the sticks and introducing Donovan and Camryn to games and activities I loved as a little girl. And when one is really fun I will be sure to include you guys as well.
Aryanna Hunter is an Iraq War veteran, mother of two, member of The Truman National Security Project, President of One Push Up, a non-profit organization designed to empower veterans out of poverty, and writes from her blog A Broad Sense
That's an awesome idea I'll pass this along to my daughter who hears that quite a bit
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