If you’ll be keeping your kids home this summer, you can look forward to lots of memorable days (even if they’re not perfect!) of mommy camp.
Whether you just need to entertain your children between camp and school, or whether you’ve decided to keep them home for an entire half of summer as I do, there’s one important thing to remember. It’s not about, “Oh, this is my dream and it’s going to be a blast.” Rather, “This is going to work.” There will be days where your kids are kvetchy or fighting like crazy. Tomorrow, though, will be better. It’s not about perfect, idealistic days. Rather, it’s about having fun times that they’ll remember. They’ll remember their fun times with you, but they won’t remember the fights with their brother.
In my family, the oldest two boys go away to sleepaway camp for the second half of summer, but all the rest of the kids, age 11 and under, are home with me. My kids love having a time of year when there’s less structure and they’re more relaxed and not running to catch buses.
I don’t work during the summer, so this works for me. But in order for me to have the energy to keep my kids entertained all day, I must start the day with 90 minutes of swim time without the kids. That time is therapeutic for me. During this time, there will be help at home to watch the baby and my oldest daughter is in charge of doing an activity with the kids. Then, once I come home, we’re on the go. We’ll usually go out to one place each day.
Note that if the oldest child is old enough, appoint her/him as the “counselor.” She’s in charge of planning some of the activities and helping you out (it doesn’t have to always be with a smile). Most preteens will love the privilege and responsibility of being “in charge.”
Here are some of the things we do:
(Note that I live in Lakewood, NJ, but you can find similar ideas and activities in your own hometown.)
*One morning, we go to the beach for sunrise. The kids don’t even need to get dressed, they go in their pajamas. The girls just throw on a skirt over. Then, they enjoy hot cocoa and cereal bars. If you can’t get out early, sunset time also works. It’s beautiful and the beach is empty at those times.
*Overcast day? That’s the perfect time to visit a sprinkler park (most people don’t go when it’s cloudy so you’ll have the park to yourself). I like to visit Jackson Sprinkler Park and go to the Jackson library on the same day. They’re right next to each other.
*I’m not such an arts and craftsy type of mom, but we will do a lot of food projects. One day is pizza day, and the kids make their own dough, assemble their pies, and then eat them for dinner. My oldest daughter is mostly in charge of doing the food projects with the younger kids.
*A visit to the fire station is a great outing for younger kids. Call ahead to see when it’s a good time to visit.
*On one day we visit iScream Kids and play games, climb in the jungle gym, and enjoy ice cream.
*We’ll rent a pool sometimes and go swimming. This is most fun when planned with neighbors.
*One afternoon, we’ll have a pajama party at home. The kids will get into pajamas and we’ll roast marshmallows, cuddle up with blankets, and read stories.
*One day is school supply day! The kids actually love this outing.
*You can do lots of fun things with shaving cream and sidewalk chalk.
*If you’ll be doing Mommy camp for an extended period of time, it’s nice to get away for a few days for your “grand trip.” We go upstate to the Catskills for a few days.
*If I see good deals on new toys or games, I’ll put them away and save them for the second half of summer.
*When we have a picnic in the park in the evening for dinner, my husband will join us.
* There are lots of parks we like to visit. Here are our personal favorites in the Lakewood area. If you live in New York or Northern New Jersey, you can find more recommendations in this post.
Atlantic Farms (when it’s not too hot)
What are your favorite mommy camp activities?
Thanks! Great ideas!
1.Tie dye, we do it outside in bathing suits.
2.My kids have made a “restaurant” for supper. They plane the menu. Type it or draw it up. Take orders and execute. Paninis, pizza, eggs, ice coffee, chocolate milk… things they can prepare themselves.
3. I buy blank canvases at Walmart and a bunch of the 50 cent acrylic paints, definitely a fave!
4. And a 1000 count puzzle is great to have out for tweens and teens, I love how much comraderie it brings.
Wow love some of those ideas! Here are some things we’ve been doing: swimming (have a kiddie pool) once a week well go to a big outdoor pool which is a big treat. Other water activities outside like painting with water, coloring with chalk and then spraying water on it, ice cubes. Today we painted outside and then washed down with the hose (in pajamas!) Sand is fun, before water time like that it washes right off. Lots of cheap amazing savings type of crafts and puzzles and coloring books keep them very busy. Also take them out every day, even the grocery is a trip.
wow!!! I’m so impressed!!! Usually, I send my kids to camp and go back to sleep!!!! I think I’m going to try this next year!!! When my kids are home in between school and camp I usually tell them to go to a friend or play outside for fifteen minutes with them!! I know I sound like a lazy mom but I do make supper lunch and breakfast, go shopping with my kids etc!!! maybe I need to hang out with them more!!! thanks a ton!!! you really helped, me!!!
I actually did camp mommy this past summer with my kids. I will treasure every memory of every day of the summer ( ok, I won’t say every minute of every day :)!) I know not everyone can do it the way we did but if you can, it’s the most unbelievable thing you can do for you and your kids! We literally had a regular camp: theme, breakouts, daily schedule… We put our hearts and minds into it and it was more than worth every bit of time and effort. BEST summer ever! Just saying 🙂
Just clicked on the Atlantic farms link. Seems like it’s shut down:(
another cute idea to do wtih kids of almost every age is to make homemade ice cream.
each child should get their own.
use two ziplock bags, one large and one small.
in the large one put two cups of ice and i T kosher salt
in the smaller bag, put 1/2 c heavy cream and vanilla extract or another flavor. seal the small bag.
place small bag inside large bag and seal large bag.
then each child takes their bag and shakes and shakes and shakes until their arms hurt… and slowly you will see the heavy cream turned to delicious soft ice cream. great activity that everyone loves. then, everyone gets to eat their own ice cream, straight out of the bag!
I too keep my kids home from camp and we have a song, theme, breakouts, etc. It makes it so much more exciting to do mundane things if it is part of a theme. For example, new York day we had bagels for lunch. Pick your own sandwich. But it became a highlight of the day. It also helps a lot if you know before the week starts what you will do every day. Also for breakfast lunch and supper and keep to some sort of schedule so the kids know what to expect next. So if one activity is not working for one child, that child knows to look forward to the next activity. I also have the older children make a scrapbook of what we do every week so that the memories last forever and it’s a great night activity when the young ones need to go to sleep.
My kids beg me every year to do mommy camp and the older ones are sad to go to sleep away camp because of the FOMO.