Summer Day 3: Buddy Up

I always used to hate it when I was told to buddy up. To me that says, find a friend (good luck since you're a stay-at-home mom) who you can stand to be around for long periods of time, who has the same schedule and the same priorities you do... and tackle whatever you're tackling together. Won't that make everything super easy?? Oh sure, if you can find this miracle person! Well, I'm feeling super blessed this summer, because I have! She's the mom of another kindergarten student, wants to do fun things over the summer with her son, likes my kids, wants to work out together, and has my same schedule. What?? The stars have aligned!

Yesterday morning we met at the lake front downtown. We walked the babies in my double stroller while the boys rode their bikes. After about an hour we were getting really hot so I invited them over to our house to play in the kid wash (see earlier blog post for how to make this super fun water toy). Several Popsicles, a slip-n-slide, a giant bouncy ball, and a Little Caesars hot-n-ready later... it was nap time and we had to cut the visit short. I've been so worried about keeping the kids occupied till midday, and here I am running out of time!

I had a plan for the summer. It was a pretty good one. It involved me playing with, teaching, and entertaining the kids. Alone.

For this one day at least, buddying up made my whole plan a moot point. I would've been fine taking care of the kids by myself, and if this is what you're doing, you will be too. But if you're lucky enough to have someone to call. Don't hesitate! If it doesn't go smoothly, try again. Call someone else. Don't worry about the other mom will be thinking about what you're wearing, you not-so-clean house, you child screeching like a dinosaur whenever they get excited. Instead think about the good, old-fashioned play your child(ren) will be enjoying...

and enjoy it.

Summer Day 2: How to Salvage a Less Than Perfect Morning

This post is actually for yesterday. I'm still trying to figure out when to blog my day. At nap time when the day isn't really over yet? At bedtime when I'm so wiped I can't write anything that doesn't turn out sounding grumpy? Probably the right answer is to work on it during the day and just finish, edit, and publish at the end of the day. Any bloggers reading this? Do you write everyday? When do you write and what's your "process"?

Anyway, yesterday morning I was completely useless. I stayed up half the night (like a dummy) AND had a sinus infection. My poor kids played by themselves, mostly on pbskids.org till almost 11 when I was finally really alert and moving around. By that time it was only 2 hours from nap time. So I regrouped and made lunch (leftover pizza). I quickly googled activities to wear kids out and scanned a couple of articles while they ate. Then I remembered an awesome blog post I saw on Pinterest. 20 Ways to "Reset" When the Kids [or in my case the parent] are Having a Bad Day.

I knew I needed to get a lot of energy out if the kids were going to sleep. So went took 30 minutes outside and here's what we did:-First, I taught the kids how to do jumping jacks-Then we played a game where I shout the name of something in the yard (ex. slide, vegetable garden, swing, steps, etc) and they run to it as fast as they can... Then run back.-Last, I rolled a giant bouncy ball to them, and when they caught it they had to yell out the name of an animal (you could use colors, places, or whatever) and pass it to someone else

When we came inside, I made the oldest (age 5) jump on the bed 30 times while I put the baby in the bath and got a book to read. He said, "But mom, I'll get tired!".

It's good when we understand each other. : )

My Summer Homeschooling Experiment: Day 1

In my mind today was the first official day of summer. The start of the "summer semester" in the Minton house. My blog reading over the last few months (since there actually was no blog reading before the last few months) has opened my eyes to many different types of moms who manage their homes in many different ways. One example is homeschooling. I usually put homeschoolers firmly in the off-their-rocker catergory... I suppose some of them may be. But many of my new mommy role models are incredibly normal, except for being AWESOME, and guess what??? Almost every single one homeschools! Well, I'm one of the most undisciplined people I know, so I'm not about to try anything stupid right away.



But... Summer is very long. And just today my 5-year-old was diagnosed with ADHD. The easiest way for me to cope with nearly 3 months trapped in the house with my 3 kids also happens to be the best summer scenario for them too. And to keep myself organized and inspired I'll be attempting to imitate my favorite homeschoolers. I'm not sure I'll succeed. In fact I'm likely to fail multiple times a week. So I guess I'll learn along with the kids then. : )



Boy, I sound very boring this evening. Possibly because it's the middle of the night and I should really be asleep. Oh well, better get on with it. I hope my adorable kids in the pictures make up for my lack of wit in this post. I'll work on that, ok?



Day 1 didn't really start with a bang. Before nap we managed to clean up our girl's room a little (which I made a mess of when I organized the oldest's room over spring break, lol), eat some watermelon, and our big accomplishment was playing with our "rainbow rice". Found the idea on pinterest from this blog. We used old Easter egg die and vinegar in ziplock bags to color rice, about a cup in each bag, let it dry overnight, and used it for sensory play. The kids had a field day for about half an hour. Mixing it, burying things in it, throwing it in the air and down the slide. Making it was almost as interesting as playing with it and made no mess at all! My only suggestion for other mommies trying this is that if you want to do patterns or color mixing or anything cool and educational... Set it all up before their little eyes touch it.