Prepare for summer with a summer box for your kids. This surprise will get kids extra excited for summer, all while influencing them to have the type of summer you want them to have.
Summer is SO CLOSE! I’m equal parts excited and terrified.
I love having my kids home with me–more time to make memories, to laugh with them, to teach them, to play. More flexibility. More watching their creativity and imaginations at work. More hearing their voices and giggles. More learning from them.
But it can also be really hard. It’s harder to get housework done. To take time away to blog or write or practice self-care. And where we live, it’s REALLY hot all summer. And by about July, even the pools are too hot to swim in for long. It’s like an outdoor bath.
So we all start to get a little stir crazy. And then comes the irritation and fighting and all that jazz. Add in the later bedtimes, the days full of play, and the pull for technology, and I’m a little bit scared.
Excited, but scared.
Planning for Summer
I like to go into summer with a plan and also gear my kids up for equal parts FUN and productivity. I want my kids to enjoy their summer. To spend hours upon hours playing. But I also want them to do chores, to read, to learn, to be active, etc.
This year, I decided to introduce a summer box–a box full of fun goodies to get them extra excited about summer, but to also encourage the type of summer I want them to have.
Our box had new swimsuits, flip flops, and pool toys to encourage getting outside every day. It had a fun new game to encourage family time. And it had books and workbooks to encourage summer learning and reading.
Besides the game, these were all things I was going to get anyway, so I figured why not make it a fun surprise for the kids? It went over great!
The Summer Box
Want to create your own? Here are some ideas of items to put in your box:
- Pool toys (these are by far our most used pool toys)
- Sprinkler toys (we got this inflatable water slide one year and it was actually really fun)
- Water Guns or Water Balloons (these are the coolest and most efficient water balloons ever)
- New Swimsuits
- Goggles
- Books (my second grader is obsessed with the My Weird School series)
- Workbooks (the Summer Bridge ones are my favorite)
- A new game (here are some of our family favorites)
- New Lego set to keep little hands busy
- Box subscription for the summer months (like Bitsbox, Kiwi Crate, or Little Passports)
- 4 Weeks to Read (for kids ready to learn to read)
- Season passes to a fun local venue for the summer (like the aquarium or children’s museum)
- Tickets to an event or day outing
- Announcement of a fun vacation or staycation
What are some of your favorite activities for the summer?
Britney is a wife and mom with a passion for helping other women see the good inside of them. She loves podcasts, polka dots, and dancing around the kitchen with her family.