Champagne Split 10: Top 10 (or more) Fun Summer Activities for Kids

In this episode, we dive into our favorite top 14 summer activities to keep kids entertained and engaged. Whether you have your kids full-time or part-time during the summer, these fun and creative ideas are perfect for making the most of the sunny season.

From enrolling kids in various camps like theater and art, to ensuring they spend quality time with cousins and extended family, we've got you covered. We also discuss the joys of library visits, movie outings, and exploring local attractions such as botanical gardens and caves.

Join us as we share these delightful summer ideas and ensure your kids have a memorable and fun-filled season!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Music.

(00:29):
So we're going to talk today, because we love the top 10 list or top 10 to whatever
list, depending on what kind of role we get on, about what it is that we can
do with our kids for the summer.
What were some of the fun things, especially when our kids were younger,
that we would do to entertain them and us when we had them?
So I don't know about y'all, but I don't, I know everybody's a little bit different,

(00:53):
but I don't get my kid full time in the summer.
It's week on, week off. So I really have to think about when he's with me,
what we're doing to make the most of the fact that I have to work,
you know, but also I want to make sure he's having a good summer.
So one fun thing that he gets to do are camps right now.
So number one camps. My son is doing theater camp.

(01:14):
He gets to go to art camp in a week and he gets to go to art camp again.
And he loves doing that stuff because it's lots of different activities that he enjoys. always.
And again, it's a good opportunity for him to do things and make friends while
I'm at work. So yeah, that's a good one. Yeah.
Okay. So I used to love to make sure that my kids had time with their cousins over the summer.

(01:36):
So in my, especially when my sister lived in the United States,
we would make sure that there was a time that I could travel to her or she could
travel here instead of my parents.
And we would just make sure that the five, my three kids and her two kids had
that time to bond and spend some time together because I you know just and we
would spend time with my parents so just family time just taking the time to

(01:58):
kind of bond with your extended family,
that's a good one I used to because
it was so hot when I lived south of here we would go to the library and do library
story hour checkout books and do a summer reading list and whatever it took
I know my daughter likes to get a little satchel with her name on it and put

(02:21):
her books in her book bag.
Well, and I know that our library right now is doing a challenge.
There's a book challenge they've got for the kids.
That's a good one. Summer reading.
Okay, so number four, my son at least. Like, during the summer,
a lot of kids' movies come out, I think, because kids have more time. And he loves the movies.
So he already, he memorizes the dates that they come out so that we know when

(02:46):
to go. So we'll go to the movies as soon as we can.
And that's a good activity for if it's too hot or rainy to be outside.
Okay. I would make sure that I always took my kids to whatever we have around
us. We would go to the botanical gardens.
We would go to, or we're close enough, we'd go see Rock City.
We would go to, what is it, Cathedral Caverns.

(03:08):
Any of those naturally, whatever the, you know, that kind of place,
I'd make sure that we, you know, we would go and take a day trip and go do that.
They'd come home exhausted. It'd be fabulous.
Put them to bed early. It was just fun. Okay.
Every summer, I spent massive amounts of time at the swimming pool.

(03:28):
And then the mothers would do movie night at the swimming pool.
But the best thing that the mom posse did was we would bring their pajamas.
And at the end of the swim day when we'd order their dinner,
we would take them into the shower, shampoo them up, rinse them off,
put them in their pajamas.
They could watch a movie and we would take them home. They'd be completely worn out.

(03:50):
That's great. It was fun. That's full service.
That's great. It was fabulous. Okay, so number seven, I guess I have.
We're close enough to the beach that running down to the beach for a weekend is completely doable.
So we actually did that a couple weeks ago, and I'm lucky that my parents have

(04:12):
a place that we can go visit.
I can't go for like a week at a time because I don't get that much time off
work, but it's easy to run down for a weekend. So we're doing that a couple of times.
Yeah, spending time on the water. The water in the summer is great.
Yeah. Okay. I spent a lot of time because I was that weird kid who really tried
to encourage my kids to play pretend over the summer.

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We would go on snipe hunts. We'd go look for fairy houses.
We would, you know, find little acorns or stones and draw little pictures on.
We would make fairy traps for their bedrooms because my daughter had a tangle
fairy that would tangle her hair at night.
And so we would do things to try and catch the tangle fairy before her hair got tangled.

(04:56):
And I mean, just really sort of play in that little kid pretend world.
I would put myself down there with them and I would like, oh, what do you think?
And really try and pull out some imagination out of them. That was fun for me, I guess.
And it didn't cost anything. You know, you'd be right in our backyard or I'll
walk down the street or where we go swing on the swings. We could do that sort of thing.

(05:18):
Sounds good. We would always chase the ice cream truck.
We made a game of it. A couple of times a week, they would find all the loose
change wherever it collected, and we would chase down the ice cream truck. And that's a fun summer.
I would say, I'm number 10, I guess, now. Don't overschedule.

(05:41):
Like, let summer be a break from routine when you can, when you can.
Like, it's okay to be lazy sometimes because the school year,
especially if you're a working mom and you're a single parent and they're going
to activities and they're going to daytime.
When you can, it's okay to be a little bit lazy.

(06:03):
Like, that's all right. And to not have an overschedule. Hey,
building a fort in your den, watching it all day with my top,
which I believe he did a couple weeks ago with my daughter. Yeah,
I wonder if she learned that.
But, you know, we would do that. But for rainy days, no matter where you are,
a fort that covered our entire downstairs with every chair and blanket that

(06:24):
we had and hair ties to hold them onto the chairs and all of these things. That was just fun.
That's a good lazy summer thing to do. All right. So I have a number 11.
Okay. So I always, during the
summer, would take my kids, because I was a teacher, up to my classroom.
It was sometimes the only time they saw, and my kids were, my boys were older

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when I started working, but my daughter was kindergarten.
But it was, they got to see where mom worked and that mom did work and got to see my environment.
And when I was still married, I would take them to go see their dad at work
and to take him lunch at work.
And so they can see this is where dad works and
this is what he does because you don't have that kind of time during the school
year but I felt it was really important for them to

(07:10):
see the working environment and that this
is a part of what we do so we can have the things that we have and this is what
we have and I just it's a time where things are a little bit slower and you
might can now Lauren you have your kid at work all the time but not everybody
may can do that and so I just think it's an important time where even like we
even went to where my dad worked and would take them up there.

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And you know what I mean? It just was just another time to show them a part
of what that business world looked like.
My daughter used to come to the shop with me. She loved it. She used to always
say, Mama, when you die, I want you to run the shop.
Okay. Let's frame that a little nicer.
That's fun. Do you have a number 12? Are we good?

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You know, when I liked, when I had a massive garden, I loved to give the watering
duties and the sprinkler or the watering can or the hose and just have like a fun water day.
I water my garden all the time, that kind of thing, just to slow down.
Oh, playing in sprinklers. Yeah, playing in sprinklers and the water. It was just fabulous.

(08:18):
So what I'll add to that kind of from the garden is that number 13,
summertime is a good time to give your child new responsibility.
Because you've got some slow down time. So like we have a dog in our lives now that just happened.
And so we're trying
to get her acclimated to the house and she's

(08:39):
a great dog but she chases the cat so it's a puppy so
i made my son i put her put him
on dog duty and said you need to watch where she goes in the house and if she
tries to get the kitties clap at her like so just just little new chores or
responsibilities well i think saying that i think i taught my kids to do laundry
over a summer yeah because i was i was home with them because i was a teacher

(09:01):
and i had more time with them and they had more time.
So they, they, that's a great time to introduce new chores because you don't
just throw a kid a chore and say, go do it.
You give them a chore and then you model and you're there with them to say,
okay, well, let's try it this way.
And so that way, when you're backing, everybody's running 90 to nothing again,
they know what they're doing.

(09:21):
Yeah. Well, I have another one. I don't have no idea what number we're on.
You're 14. You're 14. Cause we can't end on a 13. No.
Well, I taught my kids to cook.
They do everything, chopping, you know, sauteing.
They know how to. My kids can both fix whatever meal you might want.
They can fix it. Well, if they get a little older, they're old enough to research

(09:43):
recipes they may want to try.
That's true. But my, well, my son started, you know, Montessori school.
So at three, he was already chopping vegetables. He was my sous chef.
And then, you know, my daughter has kind of followed suit. But the summertime
is a great time to do like a meal plan with them to say, this is what we do.
You go to the grocery store, get the, just the ingredients, come home, teach them how to do it.

(10:08):
It can be something as easy as like noodles or.
Well, and to help them in the grocery store to go shopping.
Yeah, so they know the cost of things and then how, how much time it takes to
get the ingredients, do the meal prep, cook the meal, and then of course, clean up after.
Well that's so when i was i probably i
had to have been kindergarten my mom had a little had

(10:30):
these little cards like index cards with
pictures on that she cut out of magazines like with colgate on
it and my she'd give me the card at the beginning of the aisle
and i had to go find the item on the card you know it
just made it meant that she could do that whole aisle
of everything she needed and i'm still looking for that colgate you know what
i mean it kept me busy and it gave me a it also taught me something and I felt

(10:55):
like I was being helpful yeah so anyway all right well okay well I hope that
y'all have a fun summer we'll have to do an adult fun list at some point I guess without the kids,
oh yeah all right y'all have a great week,
thank y'all for joining us for Champagne Sunday,
see you next week girls see you next week.

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Music.