"Mommy Camp" Support Thread

amother

Red

Mon, Jul 03 2017, 8:54 pm

What a great thread!!! anon b/c I've discussed this IRL.

I have found that themes are extremely helpful-theme song and all!
eg: around the world/ around the year/ occupations/ colors/ numbers/ 39 melachos....
It helps make the corresponding activity cool by virtue of it's connection to the theme.

A schedule for the day is a must.

Big calendar on oak tag for everyone to see is super helpful and visual for the kids.

Reach out to other Mom's in your community that have done this. They are often a wealth of information. I've collaborated with two who were more then happy to give over info on free/ inexpensive/ expensive ideas.

And most importantly...lower your standards. And try to treat yourself to cleaning help. Even 2 hours on a Friday for your bathrooms and floors can make you feel like a queen.

Amelia Bedelia

Mon, Jul 03 2017, 8:57 pm

lattemom wrote:

Just wanted to add that Michaels craft store has a morning craft program on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays in July. I did it with my kids today and they had a great time. Its $5 per child and there is a different theme each week with different projects on each day. The program is for a full 2 hours of making 3 projects with an instructor. Just wanted to share Smile

The Monday, Wednesday, and Friday programs are the same, or can you take advantage of all three each week?

happy12

Mon, Jul 03 2017, 9:04 pm

I miss those years of mommy camp. Today I went with my daughter to prospect park. We saw mommy camps there and we reminisced how those summer were the best summers, better than when she went to sleep away camp. My children are too old for mommy camp but looking forward to do it with the grandchildren.
A schedule is definitely necessary but we set activities for the week then decided the night before which ones to do the next day. This way it was very flexible based on the children's moods.

lattemom

Mon, Jul 03 2017, 9:07 pm

I thought that they would all be the same but its actually different crafts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The instructor showed me her book with the upcoming projects and they are different for each session. Today they did those tiny bead things that you iron (something I would probably never let in my house Smile

), an Olaf snowman from Crayola clay and then decorated a journal page with paint and glitter glue. Again, happy I wasn't cleaning that up in my house.

amother

Chartreuse

Mon, Jul 03 2017, 10:15 pm

Wow, thank you all so much!! It's great to hear so many people are doing this & so many wonderful ideas!

I set up star charts (thank you OutATowner for that idea!) so that was really helpful B"H for motivating davening, summer homework, cleaning up, and good sibling interactions. I set up a daily rough schedule (thanks all those who mentioned it), which is so good for me to have some sort of plan - I had it in my head before, but put it all down & posted it up so it's great for kids now also.

I love the scavenger hunt idea and even just letting kids pick out treats when grocery shopping together - this should make things a lot easier & fun for us all.

Today our trip was the library. They have ipads for older ones to play games & younger ones did coloring sheets. And we got some more books - B"H older ones enjoy reading and I hope to read more to my younger ones in the summer now that more time. Kids won some prizes for reading programs, so that was nice for them.

Just wanted to share also, below are a couple of reading programs that some of you might want to do -

https://www.barnesandnoble.com.....hlon/

https://www.tdbank.com/summerreading/

If any of you have kids who enjoy puttering around on the computer (my oldest is one of those), a good idea that we did last week & I"YH hope to do each week is a short weekly newsletter that we email to grandparents & aunts/uncles & cousins on Friday - some of our features are - what we did each day, favorites of each person, a short dvar torah, pictures, and you can customize it & put in any other columns that kids are interested in doing.

Hatzlacha to all of us to use these weeks to have happy times & make good memories together with our families!

amother

Chartreuse

Thu, Jul 06 2017, 5:55 am

OutATowner wrote:

How is everyone doing?

OP Here. For me, some days are pretty good, other days I feel overwhelmed. Short trips every day out of the house are great to even simple places like shopping. But I'm trying to figure out what things to do to make things easier in terms of housework. I added some household chores, like washing dishes, cleaning up to the star chart & that is helpful - get some stuff done & keeps kids busy, out of trouble. Star chart is a great motivator. Only issue I'm having is that there is competition between my oldest 2 kids who can get more stars & I'm all for some "healthy competition", but this goes somewhat further than that - in general there is a lot of sibling rivalry between those 2. Any ideas?

sped

Thu, Jul 06 2017, 6:14 am

OutATowner wrote:

Today we made sticky sand and went to a sprinkler park.
I know it's only July 3, but don't forget July 11 is 711 free slurpee day!
I want to get my kids a craft they can work on incrementaly that is not too messy or many pieces..like a weaving loom for DD. Any ideas for 6 year old boy?

My ds sewed and stuffed a felt teddy bear around that age. He really loved it. I found a kit in a craft store. It was real sewing work, took time but the progress was noticeable and he was so proud of the results.

Iymnok

Thu, Jul 06 2017, 7:25 am

amother wrote:

Let them combine stars for a joint prize.

OutATowner

Thu, Jul 06 2017, 8:02 am

I tell them that the chart shows good middos, and if they are going to use it for the opposite I have to take off stars (which I never said for anything else). I didn't have to take any off. Also, if kid1 says "I have more..." and kid2 doesnt answer, kid 2 gets a star for making shalom by nor answering back.
We speak about making shalom a lot . We spoke about it a lot by parshas korach and conrinue. If someone is meager or makes shalom they get a star.
Hope that makes sense...breakfast time! Smile

amother

Black

Fri, Jul 07 2017, 3:50 am

Joining...

We have a newborn (!), 1.5 year old, and a 3 year old and live in Israel.

Here are my ideas so far:

Skype dates with grandparents (they read to them) and other relatives
Baking
Exercise
Bathtub swimming
Waterballoons
Building obstacle courses or forts
Building things from cardboard boxes and painting them (2 sep. activities)
Destryoing styrafoam
Rest time!

And lots of trips and playdates:
Library
Old age home
Gymboree
Mall (pet store, fish tank, gymboree)
Beach
Factory Tours
Zoo

And I'm still debating if I'm going to relax my no screen time standard and allow some educational videos (National Geographic, instructional videos, etc.).
I don't really want to deal with them begging for videos all day long or after summer is over, but I may need it for my sanity...

cozyblanket

Fri, Jul 07 2017, 11:28 am

Can I join in anticipation of having my kids all home in August?

I need to plan.

The ideas on this thread are great, but my oldest DD is a young teen and if she doesn't like where we are going, she will insist that we go without her. I want her to come with us most of the time because I don't know what she would do all day at home. Almost everything you all mentioned is out of the question because she doesn't want to do most of that. We did the Michaels project camp one day and she came and got to pick out something from the store to buy, but she won't go for that a second time.

Planning our days is about 800% harder than it used to be. I spent the first week of summer planning things with her so she would actually attend, but I can't imagine how we will survive on her terms for a whole month. I am pretty worried.

Do any of you have a teen? or everyone has kids under 11?

amother

Violet

Fri, Jul 07 2017, 11:55 am

cozyblanket wrote:

Hi!
I'm totally with you on this. Weve been doing this for years and all my kids love but this year
My dd age 14 opted out. We debated and debated what to do about it and in the end she's going to camp and we are doing without her. At a certain age teenagers don't want to hang out with their little Siblings all summer. Good luck with this!

I know you want her to come along but is it a problem to allow her to choose to chill some days when she's really not interested? Pushing her may ruin the whole dynamic of your summer as the mood won't be great with a sulky teenager all day.

cozyblanket

Fri, Jul 07 2017, 12:02 pm

amother wrote:

Not so simple to leave her alone all day. If she really has something else constructive to do, that would be fine with me. But that is often not the case.

jewish613

Fri, Jul 07 2017, 12:14 pm

cozyblanket wrote:

Not so simple to leave her alone all day. If she really has something else constructive to do, that would be fine with me. But that is often not the case.

I have no experience, but just some questions: What does she usually enjoy doing? What are her friends doing? Is she participating in Camp Mommy by choice? Is she happy to be left at home for the day or would she feel resentful? If she could decide how to spend her ideal summer, what would she choose to do with her time?