School has ended and I have the “Well, now what?” sort of mentality. Our state has turned to a safer at home but normal summer activities are limited and/or closed. Our library is closed but is open for a drive-thru pick up, so we are hitting our summer reading lists hard.
We are lucky to love near so much designated Open Space, so we are exploring in our own backyard. Most of our hikes have been within 20 minutes of our home. It gets hot pretty quick so you need to make sure you hit the trails early.
Some ways we have found to keep the kids interested is go on a stick hunt. My son loves to find a good walking stick. We also found some online scavenger hunts that you can print and attach a clipboard and pencil.
My five year old enjoyed being the line leader and that seemed to buy us some more time. It ‘s tricky hiking with children. For the most part, my older girls seem to do fine as long as they are not too hot. And don’t forget to bring water bottles. The kids enjoy a good water break every so often,.We sometimes bride them with a treat after the walk, like a stop at the local donut shop.
The pools have not opened and we are not sure when they will, hopefully, July 1, but until them, it’s water fun in our backyard. Water balloon, spray guns, water slides, if it gets them wet, they love it.
We are still doing a bit summer school so we don’t suffer from the summer slide too much.
You definitely have to be creative this summer, it will be an outside the box summer. Every day, I’m looking for creative things to do, places we can go that are open and safe.
