Making Summer Plans

Now that school’s out for my kids, it’s time to figure out what we’re doing this year. The homeschooling part I already know, and with the unused parts of the textbooks sent home with my daughter, I won’t even need a lot of supplies. It’s going to be great practice.

Obviously, there’s more to summer break than just homeschooling a little.

My husband wants to do some camping, at least with the two older kids, maybe the whole family. Depends on how much sleep deprivation he can talk me into, what with our youngest not being terribly cooperative about sleeping in unfamiliar conditions. She will insist on cosleeping if I take her camping, I have no doubt of that.

I don’t mind too much, except the last time I tried that on an air mattress I hardly got any sleep at all. Just not firm enough to relax with a baby.

No doubt the kids will be playing outside a lot. That means lots of sunscreen use. I suspect playtimes will move to mornings and evenings rather than afternoons as the season heats up.

We have plans to go visit old friends during the break too. They’re near where family lives, so the driving for visiting combines nicely, really limiting how much I spend on gas for the car.

A big focus is on teaching everyone to keep comfortable without cooling the house too much. I don’t say keep cool, because that’s not the precise goal, and tends to lead to too much air conditioner use.

I’m thinking a solar oven may be a good science project this summer. If we do a good job, it might get into some pretty regular rotation for cooking. I hate heating the house up by cooking at this time of year.

Most important, we just want to have fun!