Back in May, I published this post (42 Things and Counting) about my attempt to create a little fun around here during our first experience of year-round schooling. Basically my goal was to try to inject a little fun each week into whatever our summer school schedule would be. We knew that we wouldn't accomplish everything on our list, but I was aiming for half of them.
We have done a whole bunch of things on our list of 42 items. We:
- Did our big two-week driving trip out west in June;
- Went to a couple of fairs/carnivals and enjoyed all of the rides;
- Went glow bowling;
- Fed the ducks and the geese;
- Did a pizza picnic lunch in a park (and a couple of other picnics);
- Went to a movie matinee as a family (Madagascar 3);
- Went on a city bus ride (funny how much the kids love that);
- Enjoyed ice cream and gelati at a few different hotspots in the city;
- Did the bumper car thing;
- Went to the zoo;
- Swam in a bunch of different pools and splash pads;
- Spent a week at the cottage;
- Went on a train ride;
- Went to the beach (a couple of them);
- Dip-netted for fish and water bugs at a local environmental centre;
- And a number of other things that are not coming to mind right now (and I'm too lazy to go and get the list from the fridge!).
In the coming weeks, we'll cross off a few more items:
- A scavenger hunt later this week;
- Ziplining next week at an annual h/school visit to a pumpkin farm; and
- A trip to a marshland a couple of weeks from now.
There were a number of things that we didn't do, for various reasons:
- The week that strawberry picking was at its best, we were away for a few days and so we just didn't do it. That wasn't a huge loss, to be honest, because I still have dozens of jars of strawberry jam in the freezer. The best part of that would simply have been the experience of us being down on our knees picking fruit and helping the kids to understand more about where our food comes from.
- We also didn't attend the outdoor theatre production that I'd wanted to take the kids to. I tried, way back in spring, to organize a few others in my family to go to this production with us but it just never materialized and so we left it on our list for next summer.
- Geoff didn't end up camping in the backyard with the kids for an overnighter, ostensibly because the boys tried sleeping in the basement for a night first and they didn't even make it past two hours, but really because we were too lazy to set up the tent.
- We got the fishing license but (Geoff and the boys!) never went.
- We didn't go frog-hunting in a local marsh, mostly because I'm a little squeamish and because the idea of frog-hunting sounded a lot better than the actual doing of it. Snakes I'm good with; frogs not so much...they hop.
- We didn't end up seeing an IMAX show, mostly because it seemed like too much effort to go downtown on the days when I had planned for it, and because an at-home movie day in PJs sounded somehow more appealing.
- We didn't go on the river taxis (yet - this may still happen) because the few times we were in the area, they happened not to be running - as recently as two days ago.
I'm very glad that we made our Summer Fun List. That was a first in our family and it won't be the last. Not only was it a great go-to list on days/weeks when we were looking to do something fun, but seeing it on the fridge every day was a great reminder for me to be deliberate about planning something every week that we could do together just to be fun or silly or carefree.
Two thumbs up for Summer Fun Lists!
Next up: The Creation of a Winter Bucket List! Any suggestions??
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