One of the many joys of experiencing summer along with our kids is that we get to feel their anticipation of the freedom summer promises all over again. We all look forward to sunny afternoons, fireflies at sunset, and days filled with endless opportunities for fun.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been brainstorming how to celebrate a fun-filled summer as a family. With many of the local summer camps shut down or at limited capacity because of COVID-19, we decided a family summer camp would be a fun way to spend the summer!
In an impulsive moment at a craft store, I grabbed rainbow-themed shirts and our first patch for a Block Family Summer Camp. From there, we asked our kids what kind of adventures they want to have this summer, and Ted and I crafted their ideas into a very loose theme.
Our hope is to create just enough structure to give our kids a memorable summer camp experience without making this too complicated for Mom and Dad (or you and your family!) to keep up with!
In many discussions about how we want to spend time as a family this summer, the word “adventure” kept popping up. Whether it’s a playful game of hide & seek, building a fort in the basement, or a cross country road trip, we look for adventure in all we do. We decided to base our “summer camp” around adventure too, choosing a different theme for each week based on the letters in “adventure.” Each week, we’ll plan one “big” adventure, and throughout the week we’ll find little ways to create adventure in small moments.
Here’s how we’ll focus on “adventure” this summer:
ART
(Rainbow Badge)
Our house is full of creative, prolific artists, and we never seem to have enough space to display all of their great work! For “Art Week,” our big adventure will be visiting the Carnegie Art Museum in Oakland.
At home, we re-stocked some art supplies with watercolors, air dry clay, and coloring tools. One of our favorite crafts is painting rocks for the garden, which brightens our outdoor space and leaves room on the fridge for their other artwork!
DISCOVER our neighborhood
(Ice Cream Badge)
To celebrate our neighborhood, we’ll create a scavenger hunt with stops at the local bowling alley, coffee shop, post office, and Dari Delight: Swissvale’s newest ice cream shop!
Throughout the week, we’ll keep the adventure going with trips to the many playgrounds around our community, and support local businesses like Pub in the Park and Parisi Cafe with takeout meals.
VISIT new places
(Star Badge)
When we started family hikes several years ago, we quickly realized we all love waterfalls, and there are a lot to explore just a short drive from home! We have a few on our list that we’re excited to discover in Ohio and West Virginia, so we’ll check out the weather and plan an overnight van-camping trip to a new place.
Closer to home, we’ll keep our “new places” low-key with a new playground or two, and maybe an easy dinner from a new restaurant!
EAT, eat, eat!
(Fruit Badge)
Cooking has been a long-time love of mine, and I’m excited to share this with the kids. For our big adventure this week, we’ll let the kids meal plan and shop at the Swissvale Farmers Market and My Goodness.
NATURE
(Ladybug Badge)
The week of our Nature badge, we’ll be hosting some good friends with kids of similar ages. With eight kids running around, we expect most of our nature adventures will happen right in our backyard. We picked up an Exploring Nature book, and will let the kids make bug jars, examine leaves, build an outdoor fort, and play outside as much as possible!
TRAVEL, near & far
(World Badge)
Travel lines up nicely with our annual vacation to the beach, which will certainly be filled with adventure! At the very end of Summer, we’re also planning a more extensive road trip out west, so during our “Travel” week, we’ll spend some time planning our upcoming trip with the kids. We’ll let them pick some of our destinations, and share pictures of some of the major sites we’re hoping to stop at.
UNDERWATER fun
(Fish Badge)
We might be *most* excited about Underwater week because our whole family loves water adventures. For our big adventure, we plan to visit the Natural Water Slides in Ohiopyle. We went there for the first time last year and it’s on our must-do list this season as well.
For everyday fun, we are installing a small above-ground pool in our yard this summer, and Ted recently surprised the kids with a Slip-n-Slide that gets a lot of use. We also love Bunch-o-Balloon water balloons for water fights, which encourages the kids to play outside on hot summer days.
READ
(Book Badge)
Truly, reading happens all summer long. Early in the summer, we’ll take the kids to Half Price Books and let them go wild, exploring books they are excited about. Each of them is setting their own reading goals for the summer.
Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream has a sweet reading program, and we hope to celebrate our kids’ achievements with a sweet treat this week.
EXPLORE our backyard
(Daisy Badge)
We’re doing a lot of work in our yard to make it as enjoyable as we can. There’s plenty of room to play here, and the woods behind our house provide endless places to explore. The older kids have been working on creating a natural playground just behind our house, so we’ll help make sure they have the tools and resources they need to make this as awesome as they hope it can be.
Making A True Summer Camp Experience
To help solidify the camp experience, we are decorating coordinated camp t-shirts with an iron-on patch for each week, we’ll include a start of summer bonfire (which includes a ceremonial burning of this year's completed workbooks), and the kids will get to choose camp names. Our oldest daughter is putting together a camp songbook, and we hope to enjoy s’mores as frequently as possible.
