My baby sister got married last week, and the wedding planning made for a crazy start to the kids' summer break. I spent almost the entire week hanging out with her, which meant that my dearest had the kids. Needless to say, the house has been neglected sorely and the kids were ready for some summertime fun.
We didn't have the cash to send them to camp or swimming lessons or anything else that kids usually do during the summer, and they had cabin fever pretty bad by the time the wedding was over. I had to come up with something fun for them to do and still get the house clean in the meantime. This is the first (and probably only) time I will blog about practical parenting -- not because my plan was so great, but because it had so many unexpected benefits. Here's what we did:
HOW TO TURN YOUR HOUSE INTO A SUMMER CAMP FOR YOUR KIDS
I sat down with the kids and told them that, since we couldn't go camping, we would turn our house into a summer camp. They were very exited about this. I made a sign with the camp's name on it, and listed the camp counselors (each child was a counselor) along with the individual cabins they were in charge of. I divided the house into six parts, and each part was a "cabin". Each of the kids had a list of what to do to get their cabin ready for camping.
The house was divided into cabins as follows:
Kitchen
Living Room
Playroom
Kids' Bedrooms
Kids' Bath and Hall
Laundry Room
My truck was a bonus -- to be turned into the camp bus.
We all worked together in each room, starting with the kitchen. The counselor of that "cabin" had a list of goals they would check off as we went along.
Goals:
Name your cabin and make a sign for it
Supervise clean-up (the other children would have to listen to the counselor, and get everything picked up)
Clean-up game (I came up with a game that also involved getting one thing done in each room -- in the kitchen, we poured soapy water on the floor and sock-skated; in the living room and playroom, we set up a bucket to toss items into as they picked them up; in the bedrooms, they divided into teams and raced to see which room got done first; in the bathroom, I put about two inches of soapy water in the tub, they got into swimsuits, each got a washcloth, and they soaped up the bathroom while they played in the water -- if you try these, make sure any soap you use is safe for their skin -- I used just a tiny bit of anti-bacterial hand soap.)
Just for fun activity (we did different things for each room here, too...I tried to make it fit the theme for the room...Kitchen -- camp snacks, living room -- campfire songs, playroom -- build a tent out of blankets and team-building activities, bedrooms -- set up sleeping bags, bathroom -- well, they tossed their washcloths through a little bathtub basketball hoop, laundry room -- make S'mores...doesn't fit the theme, but it was the last thing, and they really liked the S'mores over the stove. note: I didn't let them do their own marshmallows, because I didn't want to set a precedent for playing with the stove.)
"Camp-it-up" (Each counselor got to decorate their room to make it look like camp. The oldest drew pictures of daddy-long-legs and taped them to the wall, the living room has a S'more maker that looks like a campfire -- not plugged in, BTW, etc.)
Here is what happened...
1. The entire house was cleaned in two days. This is a HUGE deal at my house. Added bonus for mom -- they stayed occupied while it got clean, so I didn't have to worry about them wrecking it. Most of the time, I clean one room, and halfway through room number two, they have managed to cause both a fire and a flood in the first room.
2. They got to work on leadership skills. Added mommy bonus: I didn't expect this, but they each began to take ownership in their own cabins. They don't want anyone making a mess in "their" room. I must say that this worries me somewhat, because I now have five children (the little guy is unaffected by this) running around saying "Don't mess up my cabin! What's wrong with you? Go play somewhere else!", which sounds disturbingly like their mother.
3. They worked on being a team during the team-building activities. Added mommy bonus: I just thought this would be a fun thing that kids might do at camp, but they took it seriously, helped each other out, had fun together, and guess what??? They are getting along. Still. Nobody has been choked, hit, bitten or thrown off the roof all day. They are even having conversations and making up games together. Here's something for you: While they cleaned up after dinner last night, they kept each other going by singing the campfire songs from the night before! It was like Little House on the Prairie or something. Dorky but effective -- that's how we roll.
4. They are having fun creating their own camp experience, even though it's inside (it's really too hot for them to spend much time outside). Added mommy bonus: They stayed in bed last night, because they were zipped into sleeping bags!!! I should have thought of this sooner. You are not allowed to tie your children to their beds. However, you ARE allowed to zip them in! Before I start getting a lot of comments about what would happen in there was a fire or how mean I am to not let them have 8,000 drinks after bedtime...they were ABLE to get out of the bags, but the bags just made it more fun, and they didn't WANT to.
6. The "camp snacks" have taken on a life of their own. Now, every meal must have some element of camp food, which has made meal time more fun, and has made them try foods that they wouldn't normally try -- even stuff we eat all the time becomes delicious when you put the word "camp" in front of it. Last night, we had Camp Pork Roast. No, this is not a real thing you would probably eat on a camping trip, but hey, it works. Added mommy bonus: They all want to help in the kitchen. Sometimes this is great, and sometimes it just means that I trip over a kid every time I turn around. But, when they all line up at the bar to watch or help, I get to pretend I'm Rachel Ray.
So, our house looks like camp for the rest of the summer, the kids are happy, it's clean, I'm happy, and we are having a lot of fun together. All I wanted was a little help getting everything picked up, but I'm having a blast playing with the kids, and they are going to have a special summer experience without breaking the bank!
