Summer Activities for School-Aged Kids

[ReneeW]

What kinds of summer activities will you have your school-age kids do during break? Are there any that you found to be either a waste of time or specifically beneficial?

I can't believe that registrations are already in full swing! If we want to get our kids into activities we'll need to sign up soon.

So far I only have my kids signed up for some fun field trips here and there. I would like each of them to do something physical/sporty, I just haven't figured out yet what that will be. My biggest challenge is that I work on Mondays and Wednesdays and a lot of sports camps go Monday through Thursday, so they'd miss at least one-fourth of the days (Wednesdays would be impossible--my in-laws could take them on Monday, I could on Tuesday and Thursday) so it has to make sense to pay the full amount and only get three days of activities, and that's if the other days aren't rained out or the kids don't get sick etc. Anyway, I don't want to overschedule, but I think it'd be nice to have ONE athletic activity.

[onlyoneboy]

DS1 goes to summer school and participates in the local park and rec program through the city. The program is 6 weeks long monday-friday every afternoon. He rides his bike to the park where it is at, about a mile from his daycare.

[ladyandrearose]

So far we are going to use DD's after school program for the summer. It is 150 a week and it includes tennis and swimming lessons and a weekly field trip all included in the fee. The bad part is that it doesn't cover the whole summer. We are looking at maybe the YMCA for the last two weeks. We will keep up with karate for the summer and probably adding in a "weapon" form and sparring to regular classes.

[deannemdm]

Parks and rec around here have daily (or 4 day a week) activities but also has some sport stuff that is one a week for 4 weeks also (or more depending on the age). What aarea are you in? Community centers also have sutff going on. Ours has swimming lessons for full 2 weeks or 8 times once a week. My daughter also used to (when I worked) do kid's choice. all day stuff all week, but you can just sign them up for certain days too. Well rounded activivties through out the day also.

[ReneeW]

I am so, so excited because my 5 YO, who has tons of energy, has FINALLY decided that she wants to try soccer again. Yay! For the past 2 years she has insisted that she does NOT want to try any sports, which has baffled me because she's very physical. She LOVES to run, she LOVES to kick, so I was like ... how can you NOT want to do soccer? She was kicking a soccer ball around the yard yesterday and she came up to me and said, "Mommy? I think I do want to try soccer again." (She tried when she was 3.) I very calmly just said, "OK, I'll look into it," and inside I was doing leaps of joy! There are so many options for kids to do soccer, so I know that'll be one of the activities we do this summer.

I'm in Carver County, but we do a lot of stuff in the Minnetonka school system too since we're close. It's nice to have two school districts and community ed programs to choose from.

[sarahisis]

Michaels offers kids camps and kids classes for painting, scrapping and cake decorating I think... might be something fun to check out.

[apryllraye87]

We have a pretty packed summer. DS will be going to Summer Trek during the day. It's $35 a day and they learn about a different country each week. On Wednesdays they have 'Wheels on Wednesdays' so he gets to bring his bike or rollerblades and they block off the parking lot. Thursdays they go to the HS to swim & Friday's they go on field trips (included in price of program). He also gets breakfast, lunch & a snack while he's there.



He'll also be playing t-ball on Monday & Wednesday evenings. One week each month he'll spend at the cabin with his grandma & grandpa for 4-wheeling & fishing.