Summer Calendar for Child Activities

It's my motherly job to fill in activities for Emily's 12 weeks of summer vacation.  When you have an only child who is social, it can be difficult to have a fun summer.  You have to schedule playdates, because you are not guaranteed the children who live on the block will be home to play outside.  Plus, the Austin, TX summers are brutal and playing indoor is safer most of the time.

So, like the past 3 years, I've created a calendar template and shopped for fun things for her to do.  It takes hours to plan and organize, and this will be the first year I don't hit up my group of friends to sit her during the day while I work in the mornings.  This year's summer calendar will be much easier for me.

So far we have three major activities, a family wedding, a week of church day camp, and a week of overnight Christian camp.  Plus I'll add in the annual favorites, like VBS volunteering and art class at Laguna Gloria.

My activity brainstorm  list for last year looked like this...
Bake goodies and deliver to elderly neighbors

Bike/walk  trails in Austin   http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/trails.htm

Bird watching

Camp in back yard

Clay bead project  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ5v8wY2mV8

Go to overnight camp for a week

Kayak or canoe

Learn Spanish

Make a craft and sell on etsy.com

Make and serve a formal dinner to parents

Stargazing with planetfinder app

Swim Barton Springs

Take a painting class  http://theartschool.amoa.org/

Try geocaching  http://www.austinexplorer.com/Default.aspx?Category=Geocaching

Email/skype friends

Visit a farm or ranch  http://www.boggycreekfarm.com/pages/tours-of-the-farm.php

Visit and research Texas historical markers, take pictures, document

Volunteer at food bank, soup kitchen or animal shelter for a day

Volunteer at VBS

TX Nature Challenge

Something new this year is the actual physical calendar.  I used the MS Word 2007 calendar creator.  There is a quick helper for it at http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/how-to/Pages/create-calendar.aspx

I've put the three known activities on it and will use it to fill in the rest in pencil as summer draws near.

If you have any additional activity ideas or suggestions, please send them my way!!