Family Summer Camp Week 2: Recap!

THEME: Art & Creation

ADVENTURE: Painting Ceramics!

CRAFTS: DIY Lanterns, Homemade Paintbrushes, Paper Plate Jellyfish (We did not actually do any of these crafts this week!  I had a sick kid and that took up two days, so not much crafting off this list for us!)

COUNTING ACTIVITY: M&M Counting Cards

BOOKS: Harold & the Purple Crayon, The Day the Crayons Quit, Jeremy's Monster, Touch the Art Books, The Noisy Paint Box, and Mouse Paint.  (You probably have some great books about art or making things in your home library already!)

OTHER: summer reading sign-up, shop for Father's Day! :)

BONUS: Rainy Day Painting, Dice Day, Coloring, Jewelry Making (Things we didn't plan on, but did anyway and made our week GREAT!)

M&M Counting

I tried to include a simple counting activity for each week of Family Summer Camp.  This week I used some simple and very clear flashcards for my kids to work on counting. 

Side Note: These cards were mixed in with every other dang toy in the house.  It took me a year, but they are all in one place now.  That is the only reason this activity was possible!

For whatever reason, I cannot find the link to these original cards.  However, you can download similar cards for free.  Get them laminated!  It's worth it!

The M&M counting activity is simple:

For older kids: Using a card with a number on it, count out the number of m&ms that equal that number.  My daughter did great with this.  It also gave us an opportunity to talk about how to count things.  Sometimes you easily lose your place when counting.  Putting all the objects in a line might be easier!

For younger kids: My two year old was able to put an m&m on each dot of these flashcards and then count them out loud with me.  She was probably more interested in eating the m&ms than counting, but I was impressed that she could point to each one and count to five!  She is still learning that one to one correspondence, which is critical for math skills.

This is a silly, simple activity.  It took no more than 15 minutes in our day.  It was fun and tasty.  Plus, everyone came to the table when I said, "It involves chocolate!"

Other items you may consider using for counting activities include pom poms, balls of playdough, tiny characters or animals, legos, and small rocks. 

Dice Day

We ended up having nothing specific to do today and nowhere specific to go.  This is very rare for our busy summer days.  I knew that it would probably rain, so I needed a plan to keep my kids from going crazy.  So, I invented Dice Day.

Dice Day is a simple, yet fun way to complete your daily activities and achieve a house jobs/kid needs balance.  I made a list of 20 activities that needed to be done today.  Ten of them were things around the house that MUST be done to keep the house functioning.  Ten of them were fun kid activities and things that we could do together.  Some were short and some were long.  I didn't pay much attention to the length of each thing.  I figured that we wouldn't get to all of them.

Make of list of 20 activities/house jobs and have the kids take turns rolling a 20 sided die to decide which activity to do next!

This went over GREAT with the kids who really enjoyed the M&M counting activity and rain painting.  They were not so happy about making beds or matching socks!  TIP: When the timer goes off - if it is a timed event - just move on to the next roll.  Don't get too caught up in one room or one activity.

Here's my Dice Day Twenty!

1. Make Beds

2. 4 Minute Dance Party!

3. Clean up a 5 minute Hot Spot (Entryway for us)

4. Counting fun with M&Ms

5. Laundry/kids can match socks!

6. Make our own paintbrushes - didn't get to this one

7. Change Bathroom lightbulb - I did do this, but since this house is like a FUNHOUSE my lights are totally not normal and completing this task will require at least one trip to Home Depot.

8. Give Tokens (our reward system) and make new charts

9. Mom: Dishes/Kids: Watch Something 

10. Flashcards

11. Take care of some mail (Mom)

12. Write in Summer Journals - My daughter wanted to skip this one.  I think that I need to make these journals more exciting because she shows NO INTEREST in them.

13. Clean up a 5 minute Hot Spot (Master Bedroom for us)

14. Legos for 15 minutes - we never rolled this!

15. Clean up a 5 minute Hot Spot (Dad's Office for us)

16. Make a video for Aunt Gracie - sorry Auntie Gracie, we never rolled #16

17. Paint Toe Nails!!!

18. Write a letter to a cousin - never rolled this one either!

19. Fold Laundry while kids read new books

20. Sidewalk Chalk OR (if raining) Watercolor Rain Painting 

As you can see, we finished a good number of these and had lots of fun.  We never rolled a few numbers and a few got skipped.  Surprisingly, the only things left that we didn't do were fun things!  I had enough time at the end of the day to make dinner and sneak in an extra load of laundry.

I love Dice Day because it keeps me going and I don't get too bogged down in one thing or one room.  I really wanted to be sure that in the midst of tidying up and straightening things, that the kids got my full attention at some point.  I think that we are all better for it!

Use this list or make your own!  I think that you will find that having fun and getting things done can both happen in the same day!

I would love to hear from YOU!  Do you do anything like this?  Would this work for you?

Family Summer Camp: Week 2

Weekly Theme: Art & Creation

Weekly Adventure: Ceramics at The Bee's Knees!

This week is all about art and creation. There are many directions to take this, but I chose to stick with art and artists. 

For this week we are using the awesome Touch the Art books to see and explore different kinds of art. 

We are also reading some silly books and some more educational books. 

Mouse Paint is a favorite with my kids. Three mice teach about simple color mixing. 

The Noisy Paint Box tells the story of Kandinsky, the father of abstract art. I love the illustrations in this book!

The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, Jeremy's Monster, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and The Day the Crayons Quit are a few others that you might already have on your bookshelf!