School will be out in 2 weeks,WOW this year has flown by. However, I am probably just as excited as the kids are that Summer is here. Now that my kids are school aged I miss the times of care free play with no bed time, no sports/dance schedules, no homework. I just get to spend a lot of time with the kids, who are growing so quickly and now 10 and 7.
The kids and I have been thinking of ideas to write our Season’s Family Fun Board. I started this last year with the kids and we change it with the season; Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall. On our Family Fun Board we add everything that we want to do during the Season. For Summer we add all of our favorite Summer Activities, and I schedule them out through out our Summer!!
Here are some of our Favorites that were done last year! Zoo, Water Park, Go Karts, Nature Walks, Wii Competition, Painting, Movies, Lunch with our Great Grandma, Sandcastle Competition, Decorate our road with Side Walk Chalk & Paint, Fly Kits, Flea Market Treasure Hunt, Weekly Library Days, Science Day, Build Forts, and much much more! Sit down and brainstorm with the kids what they want out of their summer and get to planning!
Now to build your board you will need to assist the kids but everyone as a family sit down and decorate the board or choose the pictures you would like to add.
What you will need:
- 1 piece of Plywood ( my husband is a Carpenter, so there is wood lying all over his shop.)
- Trim
- Nails
- Hammer
- Chalkboard Paint
- Paintbrush
- Paint (in your desired color for the trim)
- Chalk
Choose your wood to be your desired size. I painted the plywood first with the chalkboard paint, and then the trim with the color paint you have chosen. Nail the trim to the edges of the Board to create a framed chalkboard. Make out a list of “to do’s” with your children. Mine really enjoyed coming up with ideas to do over the summer. We also explained that just because they are going on the list does not mean that all of them would get done. This takes the pressure off the big stuff that kids add to the list like water park, which some may not have a water park near, the money, and/or the time.
I wanted to add a little more decoration to our checklist so I decided to go through all the family portraits that we have had done and all the kids pictures we have bought and took out wallets from the time they were born all the way up to now. I placed them in order from birth to now and mod podge the pictures of the kids down one side and then family pictures of my husband and I and the kids on the bottom. I am very happy with how our checklist turned out!! Get Creative when you make your Checklist and decorate to your style.
Isn’t that such a fun idea!! The best part is that you can customize your own board for kids of any age. I made a similar one last year, but I love how she used chalk! Don’t forget to go check out what else Kari’s been up to on her blog Raised Southern. Thanks so much for sharing Kari!
What a great idea! The chalk is perfect for crossing off finished items, adding new ones, or changing your mind halfway through the summer and making some major revisions. 🙂
I swear I love chalk more than I should for this very reason!