Monday MomTrepreneur: Family Vacations
My vision is being able to snuggle all morning, bake cookies, take walks, read some books, play a bit of pretend, color together... You get where I'm going. But as your baby arrives, your picturesque dreams of being a mom changes. We need to work sometimes, we can't sit and color all day, there are times when we can't read even the shortest book because are eyes will shut while reading the first page. We're out of ingredients and just don't want the extra mess... Life happens and it's just too hard!!
I send my kids to camp. There are moms who don't and I think they are amazing. But in my home, Backer kids go to camp!! I do try hard to take a family vacation each summer, though. I feel that kids do need a separation and a change of scenery. So I decided to go to our home upstate. WITH NO CAMP. I was so nervous being home with the kids all day... But as the days went by, it was more and more fun! We spent great time together and our kids really had the time of their lives. I wanted my children to play outside, have fun in nature, and learn that we don't need to spend a lot of money to have a good time. These days, our children are so addicted to TV, they are growing up in a world so different than the one we grew up in. It makes me the happiest when my children are out of the house playing outdoors. The week was wonderful. Here's a couple things that we did that I hope you can try!
Made a compost pile!!
This was on our first day.. Still a bit antsy, I had to think quick!! We grabbed a shovel, had a fruit picnic, threw our peels in the hole and made a compost pile. It was a great science lesson!! Although, my 4 year old could not comprehend the concept that it would take months to turn into soil. We had to check our hole every morning!!
Visit a Farm!!
I wanted my children to get a real concept of how the food grows and how delicious the produce is when it's straight from a local farm. We even found a place to cut your own flowers. A beautiful field of farm grown flowers. Each kid got to select and cut their own flowers.
Help out on a farm!!!
There are so many upstate. We found one that was so kid friendly and let the children do the work!!
Swimming in a river!!!
We drove to the Delaware river and spent hours outdoors fishing and "cliff" jumping.
Grab a fishing rod!!
My 2-year-old daughter, 4, 5, and 9-year-old sons and 11-year-old daughter love to fish. It's a great family activity. And if you hate fishing, swim in the lake!!
The children love collecting firewood and sticks and twigs. My 4-year-old loved to break the sticks! It's a really fun activity!!
We wanted to get chicks so the kids could play and feed the animals and learn about responsibility. But they were out of chicks, so we bought rabbits instead! They all had so much fun carrying the rabbit around and building different homes for the bunnies!
Shaindy