Week two of summer vacation and we’ve remained busy AND ‘unplugged’.
It was a crazy but we had an amazing week at VBS (vacation bible school). Our days started off with pbj sandwiches and bananas at the tables out front of our church, which happen to be beside a gorgeous water fountain. Sounds lovely but realistically, this is Southern Louisiana y’all and it’s HOT!
Getting Ready for VBS. It was hot waiting by the fountain.
Hot yes, but well worth it for all the fun waiting behind those big glass doors. If you’re looking after children this summer and want a memorable, inexpensive, adventure, consider VBS one of your local church.
Since the theme at our VBS was ‘Camp Lead-away’, I decided to continue the camp activities at home in the afternoons.
Who knew a bucket and tossing marshmallows could provide so much fun? With minimal arguing, they took turns practicing eye/hand coordination for hours.
Part of our summer plan is to serve others. We can’t expect kids to have empathy and have a servant’s heart once adults if we haven’t taught them as children. Our first project was to bless our 80-year-old veteran with homemade chocolate chip cookies. Baking is a great time to learn about fractions and telling time.
After baking a few pans of cookies, they were bored, so they decided to make cards thanking Mr Tony for his service. I continued baking and assisting with spelling when they were stuck.
Mr Tony was so overwhelmed with the kids thoughtfulness, he was in tears. One hour, that’s all it took to bless a very kind yet lonely senior in our community. The kids take away from their visit was that they want to bless lots more people because it makes them feel good making others happy! The world could certainly use some more of that.
Owl crafts were a huge hit this week and they were so proud of their cute accomplishments.
In between we did lots of reading, math, word search puzzles and scavenger hunts all printed off sites I found FREE on Pinterest.
To wrap things up, I suggested we all spend 15 minutes cleaning. Ok so 8, 9 and 10-year-old don’t clean perfectly BUT they had great fun, cooperated the entire time and were super proud of their accomplishments. If we don’t train them up, can’t expect them to know how to clean once teens. My motto has always been ‘a family that works together has time to play together’.
Things I Was Reminded About This Week:
- When kids are tired, don’t fight it; stop, let them unwind and catch their breath. Well rested kids make for happy kids!
- Serving others is often more of a blessing to the ‘giver’ then the ‘receiver’
- When picky eaters won’t eat their breakfast, give it to them for lunch. If they still won’t eat it, don’t worry, by snack time it’s ‘the best sammich they ever had’ 🤣
- Laughter is always the best medicine.
What are we up to this week? Hint it involves stickers, project boards and lots of creativity and conversation.
Have a blessed week and I’ll return with updates from Week 3.
What did y’all do last week? What are your plans for this week?
