As summer draws to an end, most families have run through the traditional summer fun activities like camping and swimming. Here are some fun, inexpensive ideas to boost creativity and finish out your summer with a bang.
Backyard Fun
Use whatever you can find around the house/garage to design a family-friendly obstacle course in your backyard. Take turns going through it and give prizes for the fastest going forward and backward. You can use pillow cases for potato sack hopping, a broomstick across two chairs for a limbo stick, and a rope laid in a straight line that they must walk on like a balance beam. Add carnival games for fun like tossing balled up socks through holes in a poster board.
Theme Dinners
Have special nights where your meal centers around a particular theme. Have the kids come up with ideas and help with decorations. For example, a Fiesta night could include stringing up Christmas lights, and serving Mexican food with ribbons tied around the handles of serving utensils. A Wild West dinner could include eating beans and hot dogs outside, wearing bandannas and boots. For Backwards night you could wear your clothes inside out, eat your pudding with a fork and say each others names backwards.
Broadway at Home
Have your kids prepare a simple play based on a favorite story (using costumes and props from around the house). Invite some friends over and charge a quarter for admission. Provide popcorn and enjoy the show!
Community Service
Find a place where the whole family can work together as volunteers (serving food to the homeless, visiting the elderly in a nursing home, etc) or have a car wash, yard sale, or other fundraiser and donate the profits to a charitable organization. Divide the money up and let each child choose the recipient.
Scavenger Hunt
Have a list of items or descriptions (like white circle, blue rectangle, etc) that kids have to find and bring back. For a treasure hunt, hide clues and treasures around the house and follow a map or decode clues to find the next location. Parents or kids can design the scavenger hunt and come up with fun prizes (inexpensive treats like popsicles or coloring books). For young children use simple picture clues instead of words.
For more cheap summer fun ideas or to submit your own ideas check out the blog carnival at http://singleparents.about.com/b/2009/07/07/cheap-fun-blog-carnival-for-august-2009.htm
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Taking Care of Your Home
1 Corinthians 14:33, 40 says “God is not the author of confusion” and “let all things be done decently and in order”, but we need to have the right priorities.
Put into your jar rocks first (connecting with God, feeding our spirits), pebbles next (relationships with other people), and sand last (everything else). Sand will fill the cracks between rocks and pebbles but put sand in first and you won’t have room for the rocks (the most important things). These tips on taking care of your home will hopefully help you get more organized and find more time for the important things. Enjoy!
Tips for Organization & Housecleaning:
* SIMPLIFY! Delete, purge, give away, sell, toss, or just say No
* Look at your schedule and pick one thing to give up
* Use a calendar or planner and fill in activities for the month; review weekly
* Make a master list of action items for the month (gifts, phone calls, supplies, party planning, etc)
* Keep bags handy and already stocked with essentials (pool, church, car rides, babysitter,etc.)
* Keep a gift shelf (along with cards & wrapping supplies)
* Pre-purchase cards for the year and bargain shop for gifts throughout the year
* Keep lists : honey-do’s, items you’re saving for, prayer requests, returns, etc.
* Group like things together (errands, tasks, items)
* Lay out whole outfits for your family the night before
* Take pictures or scan your kids artwork or send these “treasures” to relatives, soldiers, or nursing home residents along with a handwritten note from your child
* Keep one “special box” for each child’s keepsakes - it goes with them when they leave home
* Do something with each paper/mail immediately (read, file, trash, etc)
* Break your housecleaning into small tasks and be consistent about doing a little at a time. Don’t expect the whole house to be clean all at once when you have kids and no housekeeper on staff.
* Clean the shower while taking a shower (multitasking).
* Deep clean one room each month (from baseboards to ceiling fans). Reorganize closets, underbed storage, toy baskets, etc. Use 3 garbage bags -Trash, Giveaway, Sort and put away.
* Create an annual schedule for tasks (i.e. garage April & October, light fixtures Jan & June)
* Swap kids with another family so you can do deep cleaning uninterrupted
* Have a housekeeper come twice a month to do heavy cleaning (have a list that is detailed with what you want done)
* Clutter is the biggest enemy of organization.
* Use hooks for kids stuff that can be used/worn twice before washing(pajamas, towels, etc)
* Fold sheets and put them inside the matching pillowcase
* Get kids in the habit of making their beds each morning when they are young. Use sleeping bags or easy linens so they can do it themselves.
* Leave items at top/bottom of stairs for kids to take as they go. Anything left after bedtime goes in “time-out” for a week.
* Use household charts. Taking away a favorite activity as a consequence is good because it teaches that work comes before play is allowed. The entire family is a team and cares for the house.
* When putting away groceries have one child wash the fruit, another open the snack boxes and put them in lunch size containers.
Put into your jar rocks first (connecting with God, feeding our spirits), pebbles next (relationships with other people), and sand last (everything else). Sand will fill the cracks between rocks and pebbles but put sand in first and you won’t have room for the rocks (the most important things). These tips on taking care of your home will hopefully help you get more organized and find more time for the important things. Enjoy!
Tips for Organization & Housecleaning:
* SIMPLIFY! Delete, purge, give away, sell, toss, or just say No
* Look at your schedule and pick one thing to give up
* Use a calendar or planner and fill in activities for the month; review weekly
* Make a master list of action items for the month (gifts, phone calls, supplies, party planning, etc)
* Keep bags handy and already stocked with essentials (pool, church, car rides, babysitter,etc.)
* Keep a gift shelf (along with cards & wrapping supplies)
* Pre-purchase cards for the year and bargain shop for gifts throughout the year
* Keep lists : honey-do’s, items you’re saving for, prayer requests, returns, etc.
* Group like things together (errands, tasks, items)
* Lay out whole outfits for your family the night before
* Take pictures or scan your kids artwork or send these “treasures” to relatives, soldiers, or nursing home residents along with a handwritten note from your child
* Keep one “special box” for each child’s keepsakes - it goes with them when they leave home
* Do something with each paper/mail immediately (read, file, trash, etc)
* Break your housecleaning into small tasks and be consistent about doing a little at a time. Don’t expect the whole house to be clean all at once when you have kids and no housekeeper on staff.
* Clean the shower while taking a shower (multitasking).
* Deep clean one room each month (from baseboards to ceiling fans). Reorganize closets, underbed storage, toy baskets, etc. Use 3 garbage bags -Trash, Giveaway, Sort and put away.
* Create an annual schedule for tasks (i.e. garage April & October, light fixtures Jan & June)
* Swap kids with another family so you can do deep cleaning uninterrupted
* Have a housekeeper come twice a month to do heavy cleaning (have a list that is detailed with what you want done)
* Clutter is the biggest enemy of organization.
* Use hooks for kids stuff that can be used/worn twice before washing(pajamas, towels, etc)
* Fold sheets and put them inside the matching pillowcase
* Get kids in the habit of making their beds each morning when they are young. Use sleeping bags or easy linens so they can do it themselves.
* Leave items at top/bottom of stairs for kids to take as they go. Anything left after bedtime goes in “time-out” for a week.
* Use household charts. Taking away a favorite activity as a consequence is good because it teaches that work comes before play is allowed. The entire family is a team and cares for the house.
* When putting away groceries have one child wash the fruit, another open the snack boxes and put them in lunch size containers.
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