Anyone else dislike the chaos/non-structure of summer?

I will say, that this year, we chose not to sign the kids up for anything extra ahead of time. Last year was a tipping point for us, where it went from fun to too much.

We have several places around here that offer day events, and you can typically sign up fairly last minute for those (We can decide a week or two in advance instead of months in advance.) so we'll keep an eye open for that type of thing. But no week long camps or classes. No activities that have me driving 3 hours a day just to transport a kid back and forth.

And I am feeling relieved about that.

So I've been scouring the internet for places that somehow we haven't managed to visit yet in the general area, and we'll keep them on stand-by for days when we feel bored.

No, I've always loved the break from school schedules and my kids were never into summer activities for the most part. Blissful.

I was always a little daunted by it and our standard school vacation in summer is 6 weeks not 12!!!  although we have more breaks in the school year than your system does.

Can you plan some trips out all together rather than them all doing separate things? All that driving would make me fed up too. Then get them on board with some 'cookery at home' days - they could each choose something to make and you can shop together for it all. Let them have their fill of tv with a back to back movie day then turn it off for a few days. Do you have a garden? Could you get some inexpensive new garden games/toys?

I like the break from school activities. I like the kids around most of the time but about half way through the summer I do start wishing for school to start.

I LOVE SUMMER!!!


Summer is staying up late playing every night. Swimming every day with snowcones on the way home. Endless time with friends. Being lazy. Fireworks every Friday. It's the beach and road trips and family time. Summer makes me feel like a kid again. It's like a fairytale - no work, no responsibilities. It's like my family exists inside the magic bubble Galinda floats in at the beginning of Wicked. And the real world can't touch us.

To me summer is the embodiment of everything that is good and pure and innocent.

I have some seriously strong feelings about summer, lol,
I look forward to it all year and then get a little depressed when it's over.

My dd's are 16 and 12 and are really independent when it comes to keeping themselves occupied ... I used to put them in day camps but they put a stop to that a couple of years ago because they just weren't enjoying them anymore ... no biggie to me - saves us money to use for vacation  

We will be on vacation for almost three weeks this year so that will take up a chunk of the summer ... the rest of the time the girls will hang out with friends and with me (I'm a SAHM) ... they really want to learn how to cook so that is a goal  

I'm just looking forward to not making lunches for a couple of months  

We originally just had DD signed up for a two week long safety camp which was only a couple hours a day, but it got cancelled. The preschool teacher sent out an email right before school ended letting us know about a summer adventure club for kids that's run through Early Childhood Family Ed that I had initially dismissed due to the cost, but DH said to sign her up. Once we did the math, we could send her there more hours for less money than it would cost us to have our teenage sitter come for 18 hours a week, and this program is run by preschool teachers.

It's basically set up like drop in daycare only we picked our days ahead of time. She'll love it, I'm sure. They have field trips the kids can go on that she would enjoy, and we can decide how long to leave her there each day. We drop her off in the morning, they entertain her during the day with activities similar to what she did in preschool only it's less structured. She can play with her friends, have lunch there and we pick her up when we want in the afternoon. We're thinking she'll be there most of her scheduled days (2-3 days a week) between 9-3 or 4, depending on what's planned for the kids that day, similar to what her school schedule will be in the fall. We figured it would be a nice transition from half days at preschool 3x a week (which just ended) and all day, full day kindergarten which will start in the fall.

She's a pretty social kid, so having a whole summer with nothing at all going on would get old for her fast. This is a nice compromise that will give her lots of options without us having to shuffle her back and forth to a bunch of individual activities.

I love an unstructured summer, but don't find it chaotic. I love easing into the day and we usually have an idea of who is going where, needs a car or ride. I miss the days when the kids were younger and we would head to the beach for the afternoon.

As great as this sounds, it would never work for our family. DH and I both work from home and I still need to get certain things accomplished pretty much every day. Our kid is a night owl and it's close to impossible to get her into bed and sleeping at night at a decent time as it is, and she's a poky slow starter in the mornings too. She would stay up until midnight if we let her, and that's just not going to happen here.

Once school starts (AUG. 31st!! which seems crazy early to me, growing up we never started school until after Labor Day) she will have to be up and moving early enough to be ready to catch the school bus at 8:00 am. I was thinking we are going to have to start bumping up her bedtime starting in June or July already just so she will be used to going to bed at 8:00 pm by the end of summer.   It will be a challenge, especially with it being light outside so late in the evening.

I was glad DH said to go ahead with the adventure club thing a few days a week because our kid loves being around other kids and she did very well with the structure of preschool. If she was stuck here all week long with me working on and off, she would be bored stiff. We have a lake home that we go to a lot on the weekends, so this schedule gives us the flexibility to extend a few of those into longer weekends and do other family things on the days when she's home with us.

We get out for the summer May 29th and go back August 17th so eleven weeks off.

I don't drive, I'm a SAHM, and we're rural so we don't do a ton of summer activities out of the house so summer is a more relaxed, less scheduled season for us - sleeping in (alarm goes off at 640 during the school year); later dinner time; later bedtimes...

Mornings are for housework/yardwork and reading and any summer homework that needs to be done. After that I encourage the girls to play outside before 11am (we're in Florida - 11-2 is indoor time)..this is when I scrapbook or sew or have mummy-time. Once a week Simon takes the girls to the $1 summer movie.

Afternoons - family game, arts and crafts, computer time, indoor play, a family movie or an episode or two of a TV show (we have netflix not cable/dish/over the air), baking, this is when Cathleen hides in her room and writes usually.

We do go to the county pool nearly every day from about 430 until it closes at 7 (we go earlier on Simon's day off (but not usually much earlier than 3 which is when the daycare groups leave) and miss it entirely on his late shift each week - he works 7-4 usually) so that gives a nice structure to the day that everyone looks forward to and the exercise/fresh air helps as well.

Dinner is late-ish - 8 or 830 and Annabelle'll take her bath while I cook and go to bed soon afterwards - we aim for 9 or 930 for bedtime for her in the summer (she's the only one with a bedtime) - I'll read her a bedtime story after dinner . I go for a walk then - about 5 miles - and then veg. Simon joins me. Cathleen and DH have computer or TV time.

We have some new friends and I think we'll probably spend a morning at their flat once a week - probably in the pool - and have them over here once a week as well. Probably going to try and plan it so one of those two days falls on Simon's late shift to break up that day a bit.

So just enough structure to prevent chaos but plenty of downtime as well.

That one came across my facebook feed too. It sounds awesome - if you have a kid who will enjoy that all summer long. It lasts a couple weeks in my house, at most. Even all you can watch TV and play dates get old for my dd. It's just how she is. She seems to always be looking for adventure and novelty.

Last summer she begged to go to day camps almost every week so that she could play with other kids and do new stuff. This year it's all about wilderness skills camp (day camp). She's so jazzed. I don't know squat about wilderness skills so it's a win win all around. She gets something fun to do, I can work half time, she knows she will get up in the morning and go to a fun and healthy activity and not sit around watching TV and getting all hyper on me (excess TV is so bad for her as an individual).

I could sing and dance, I love summer so flipping much!

However, I don't work and I have one very independent, very laid back, very enjoyable 13 year old to spend it with. She's the easiest person ever. If you want to lay in the grass for the entire day and chat, she's your girl. If you want to plan something and go crazy all day, she's your girl. She loves being with her friends. She loves being with me. She loves being alone. She's entirely stress free. But I can completely understand having more than one child, different personalities, different family obligations, different activities, etc. There's no way summer can mean the same thing to everyone.

My daughter does do a week long service project in June, goes to a sleepaway camp for a week in July, and we go on vacation for little over a week and have another mini vacation in August, so she's got some things scheduled throughout the summer. We also volunteer one day a week at an animal shelter, so it's not totally free of activities.

I have mixed feelings about this summer. My kids are 15 and 18 and I'm working part-time now. DS will sleep half the day away and stay up super late. DD has a lot going on. We then have a small family vacation planned and I think DH is taking them somewhere also for a long weekend.

By August, DS is in band camp and we'll be getting DD packed up for leaving for college. Her high school time has been a roller coaster so I'm excited but nervous to send her off into the world to try her wings.