Busy Playing: Summer Fun Daily Planner

I let my kids have ice cream for dinner tonight!  Bathtime and pj's was never so quick, who knew all I had to do was tell my kids if they got ready when I asked them to, they could have ice cream for dinner?!  This is all part of my summer fun plan ;)  Today's activity was ice cream for dinner!

Instead of paying over  $2,000 to send my three boys to a summer camp for just two weeks, I told my husband I could do it myself for less than $300 for the summer for all of the kids.  I sat down, made a list of ideas and supplies I'd need to go along with them.  I got the supplies and then have been trying to figure out how to get everything done before the end of the summer.

I've had ideas in my head for weeks, now I have to make sure I do all these fun fun things with my kids before the summer is over.  I was inspired at first by these "mom I'm bored jars".  I even had pasta for dinner a few nights, just to empty up a sauce jar and I was working on a salsa jar next.  I planned to have three jars, one each for where to go, what to do, and things to make.  However, given my current situation: living between two different states, having most of my craft supplies in cardboard boxes in a truck container, in a storage unit somewhere until my house is done, I felt as though I could not handle the complete element of surprise as to what was going to be pulled out of those jars each day.

One of the blogs I enjoy reading, pinkandgreenmama, had a post up recently about a smart summer challenge she was sponsoring along with two other blogs, one which I had never heard of, teachmama. For the smart summer challenge, there was a suggested calendar of an activity a day- I didn't use their activities, but what I did like was that teachmama printed out the calendar and put post-it notes over the day's activities so her kids were surprised each day when they peeled it off.  This was exactly the inspiration I needed to come up with this:

I bought the desk calendar at Target for $8.00 (I was going to make my own on paper, but with five kids and my crazy life right now, the desk calendar is a gem!)  Oh, and today, I conveniently went into this teaching store, Chalkboard that I keep driving by- OH MY- I was going to use post-it notes to cover up our activities, but I found those irresistible ice cream shaped cut outs instead- perfect for a hot summer month!

Each day we have a planned activity, I know about it and will be prepared, and the kids will still be able to have that element of surprise each morning when they flip over the piece of paper to reveal something fun and exciting.  For today, ice cream for dinner.  For tomorrow:

Other activities will include trip to aquarium, bring buckets of water and watering cans to the playground, whipped cream fight, go mini golfing, write a letter to someone, make sunprints, make glo worms, go on a picnic, build a solar cooker, the possibilities are endless!!!  I am now keeping track of things I want to add to next month's calendar.  I can't wait because I got the dolphin shaped papers for August- oh how I love cute shaped paper! :)