This is where my giveaway comes in. I have a 2.1oz tin of Watkins Lavender Hand & Cuticle Salve to give away to one of my readers. This lovely salve smells soooo delicious and just one whiff of it can start the relaxing that is needed on these action-packed summer days! I love to put this salve on at night, not just on my hands and cuticles, but I also put it on those rough spots on my feet because I love to go barefoot in this warm weather.
How can you win this natural Lavender Hand & Cuticle Salve from Watkins? Simply leave me a comment with an activity that you do/did with your children in the summer that they loved, or an idea for adding some responsibilities to their daily routines that are FUN, but in reality, they are actually helping around the house! Am I fishing for ideas????? YOU BET! You may comment up to three times for three separate entries into the draw (I need LOTS of ideas!!).Anyone in Canada, the US or Paraguay can enter to win.
Contest will close at 4:00PM Daylight Savings Time on June 29 - my kids' last official day of school and the moment they will be home for the summer.
Contestants may enter more than three activity suggestions (PLEASE), but a maximum of three entries will be valid for the draw. For those of you who lurk and don't want to comment publicly, you may e-mail your suggestions to me privately, knowing that I may refer to some of them on future blog posts.
Good luck! You may start sending your ideas NOW!! Ummm, I mean, you may enter the contest at any time. Thank you.
25 comments:
We love the summer but... kids do get bored quickly and what always works is water. Not just in the swimming pool, we also do squirt bottles and I'll give them buckets with water and soap and an old cloth or paint brush and they're at it alllll day!
P.s. I love lavendar!!:)
my kids love to hang up laundry and take it down (not that I have time to line dry often) -- and love to clean the bathroom with Watkins T&T....don't enter my name in the drawing, okay?
I'm getting too old to remember what we did on those long summer days! It seems like it was another life time ago. One thing I do remember is that we signed up for the summer reading club at the library. There were activities and prizes for reading which is always something I want to encourage. If your library doesn't do anything like that, make up your own contest. It got my kids into the habit of writing down what they had read and the author. They still enjoy looking at those lists today. Lilly
I left a comment and it got lost. Let's try again. It's hard for me to remember what we did on those long summer days. It seems like it was another life time ago. We always entered the summer reading club at the library. They had activities and prizes for reading which was always something I wanted to encourage. It also got my kids into the habit of writing down the books they had read and the authors. They still enjoy looking at those lists today. If your library doesn't have that kind of contest, make up your own. My kids also spent hours playing with Legos. Hope you enjoy the summer and all your boys activities! Love, Lilly
Let them play "mom" for an hour or 2 in the morning. Have them make a list of what a mom does during that time (pick up shoes, socks, books; sweep; straighten out the backyard toys, etc.) and let them "work" at it. They shouldn't have any problem making blond brownies :) or just something simple like jello or even finger jello.
Another thing I learned from my mom: everyone should pick up and put away 15 things (or 10, or 20 depending on what's on the floor).
Have them help pack a picnic lunch to eat on the deck, or under the deck, or out under a backyard tree.
Allyson and Luke loved making "potions"! I got them a cutting board, butter knives and some spice bottles at the thrift store and they would go about the garden and yard, picking, categorizing, chopping, stuffing the bits of green into the bottles and adding a little water and then shaking them up for the potions to work.
You have to remind them to empty them out at the end of the day, however, or they can get quite foul.
We used to rent a movie and make popcorn, rice krispy treats, chocolate chip cookies, and then make tickets and invite the cousins over to our "theater". Luke loved to sell the goodies and tickets ( for rock bottom bargain prices) and then turn off all the lights and watch the movie together.
As far as work goes...if the radio is on...good and loud...cleaning or picking up goes much better :)
Recently my daughter Ruby (7) was wanting to earn some money, so we gladly paid her .50 per bucket of rocks she would gather out of the potatoe patch. She loved it...and she earned some quick cash!
She is also a budding "scientist" and wants to know how things "work". We are doing different "experiments" this summer. Putting flowers in a vase with food coloring to see if it will turn it color...etc. I think I'll make her document her findings in a science journal :)
We would also have scavenger hunts, not only at home but at unexpected places where sometimes they would need to interview someone to get an answer. We went to Sea World often, and I set up a hunt there that included talking to several people about their jobs and how they got them- what they wanted to do with their lives. It was a lot of fun- taught some listening and interviewing skills, brought up subjects that we talked about as far as my children's future employment/education and gave us all an opportunity to look at a familiar place from a different perspective.
I also made up a treasure map and buried treasure in the back yard (gold chocolate coins in a tin chest)and that gave some ideas of map reading and making, the concepts of directions and scope- plus it was great fun to watch!
And- I just thought of this one- Robin paid Jordan a penny for every weed he pulled up in her brick walk and flower beds. She identified the weeds she wanted pulled gave him a bucket and a pad of paper and pen and let him work at his own pace and figure out how much he was owed.
He reminded me of this chore this summer when he tried to get Aidan to pull weeds. Two is too young, however for the concept of pull this - not Everything!
When we were kids we used to put our bathing suits on and run in the rain.
Do a foot soak. Get little tubs, put marbles in them and soak your feet. The kids love it.
For my nieces and nephews I was their teacher and said that we could do a field trip if they were good. So before I did the field trip we wrote out a list of all the things we needed. We also had ground rules. Our field trip was as simple as taking a walk around the block and finding things and writing them down.
Another field trip can be going to Rockway Gardens.
For vacation time (Christmas, march break, summer), I make a list of possible 'chores' such as playing piano/violin for 15 min.; helping mommy (can be anything like set the table, do dishes); cleaning for 15 min. (dusting, vacuuming, washroom, toys); taking care of the baby for 20 min.; listening to a story on tape/CD for 20 min.; read a book; do a page of 'homework'; etc. This can be anything that you find valuable for your kids to spend their time on (another one for us is playing outside for 20 min.). The kids can do each of these only once a day (not read three books or so). Then I have a box filled with prizes (little toys, small candy) that have different values (5,10 or 20 points) and our girls get a point/sticker for each completed chore, then they pick their prize. They love this game and it gets them to do useful things during their free time. They also learn to save up for bigger items, at least the older girls, our four-year-old still wants immediate gratification (candy for 5 points :-)
Irina
Red Cross Summer Swim program...I volunteered, they took lessons. As they progressed, we stayed longer so they could volunteer with the younger groups.
Went to visit Schley cousins so they could all play. Or Schley cousins came to visit them.
Gardening...including planting seeds, pulling weeds, etc.
made up fantastic stories as we stemmed green beans. One would start a story, stop in the middle of a sentence, then the next would add their portion to the story, etc. It was fun.
Reading was always fun when they climed on the barn beams to read.
Played tag on the barn beams
(and nobody broke any bones!)
made up fantastic stories as we stemmed green beans. One would start a story, stop in the middle of a sentence, then the next would add their portion to the story, etc. It was fun.
Reading was always fun when they climed on the barn beams to read.
Played tag on the barn beams
(and nobody broke any bones!)
how about doing corn for the freezer outside (at grandma and grandpa's) and ending with a water fight that grandma started! Fun for all
climbed trees with their friends.
played in the "fort" of evergreen trees. Lots of laughs. rides and bike a thons
Yea! I still have time! We told the kids that cleaning the toilets was a job for responsible people ONLY. There are chemicals and it can be dangerous. They seemed interested...
So we told them they could clean the toilets but only if they didn't tell other kids, because we were pretty sure other parents weren't letting their kids clean toilets.
They still clean them, although they are totally on to our ways at this point.
Whenever someone fell and cut their lip or anything near the mouth area, we gave them a popsicle. The ice takes the swelling down and they are usually pretty distracted by an unexpected treat. (Not sure if this idea fits the categories--would you also have to have a slightly dangerous activity planned to make sure there's a cut lip??--but this was one of our best!)
Bubbles were always soooo sticky and messy. And they always spilled. Summer is bubble time--we just did them in the bathtub. This really worked for me!
Our kids enjoyed an occational "camp out" in the back yard. We would put up a tent, make popcorn, S'mores, and tell silly stories. If the weather wasn't conducive, we'd set up camp in the family room. Lots of fun, either way!
When the children were a little older, I let each one plan a meal and then that child and I would cook it together. It was fun for them (more work for me), but we tried some new recipes, or made their favorites, and they were so pleased with this accomplishment! Sometimes things got rather involved, such as making sushi. I reserved the right to veto certain requests like fillet mignon and lobster!
One year, one of the kids asked which tree potatoes grew on, so I decided to plant a little vegetable garden with them. They would take turns watering. Also, once we planted giant sunflowers and they grew to be enormous (8-10 ft)! Those are such sweet memories now!
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