Good Day Sunshine

“I need to laugh, and when the sun it out, I’ve got something I can laugh about.....” Good Day Sunshine – The Beatles

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I don’t know about you all, but keeping the kids occupied while we are working is a huge challenge. I struggle so much with ‘mom guilt’ for telling them 100 times a day, I don’t have time for them and for the countless hours they are spending on electronics. I do try to maintain some sort of structure everyday. I am waking them up in the morning for breakfast before I start work and to discuss what our day looks like. They each have about 3 chores a day they have to complete and they are required to get ready for the day before any technology (tv included) is turned on. Even with all of this, it still seems like there is a large portion of the day they are just staring at a screen. In the coming weeks, I'll share some of the things we have done that has worked and some of our major fails. It's important to remember, everyday is not going to be a successful day, but to not let that drive how we handle the rest of the week. Start each day with the thought of "today is a new day!" Don't get down on yourself for feeling like you are drowning some days, Call and talk to your mom and dad friends out there, I promise, we are all experiencing the same emotions, the same challenges, and supporting each other will help us get through it!

I thought I would share a couple activities we did last week that got the kids excited and did not result in heavy sighs and eye rolls. I’m always happy to get ideas from others out there surviving the summer along with us! Drop ideas below or share if your family tried either of the activities!

The Selfie Challenge – This would require a pad or a phone or some sort of device that can take photos. My kids each have their own, so this worked splendidly. I came up with a list of required selfies. It was a pretty random list from taking a selfie of yourself upside down, or during your reading time or outside playing. This actually required them to DO all of those things. Which was a sneaky way of doing them without me begging them too. At the end of our day, we all sat down and looked at all the selfies. It really was fun, and they had fun telling us about each picture. I have attached the checklist I created for anyone who wants to print it to use at home!

Selfie challenge.pdf

Download PDF • 94KB

The Case of the Lost Lemons – This activity, literally was made up as I made breakfast and I was looking around the kitchen wondering what in the world they were going to do today. I sat them all down and gave them each a (fake) lemon. Any fruit or toy or whatever you have laying around would do. I told them they would each take a turn to go outside and hide their lemon. Then each of them would have to make a map from their room to the lemon. It could be a treasure style map, where X marks the spot. It could be a series of clues or riddles that got us to your lemon, etc. Each of them took a different approach. I have to say I was most impressed with Luke who made an X marks the spot map, but had it in pieces hid around the house, then once put together you could follow it to his lemon. Which by the way, he dug a hole in the backyard, and I had to give the hubs ‘the look’ so he wouldn’t lose his mind about the new divot in the yard-LOL. It was 100% worth it, to see them get excited about what they put together and another way to get everyone involved.