Our Summer Fun Jar

It's week two of the summer holidays and the "What are we doing today Mom?" "Where are we going today Mom?" questions are pretty relentless.  At times it seems like an interrogation.  Good cop/bad cop. A tag team of little people hell bent on slowly driving me crazy.  This week I put the thinking cap on and "Our Summer Fun Jar" was born.  A whole summer of fun, in just one jar, you say? How is this possible?

Our summer fun jar 

Take two energetic children, several A4 pages, a scissors, some colouring pencils and a Kilner jar and let the magic happen.  (My little people need help with the big people scissors).  We sat down and each shouted out our favourite things to do - picnics at the beach, a visit to the zoo, exploring in the National History Museum, putting on sock puppet plays, water fights, taking train journeys, movie days with popcorn & jellies, reading Roald Dahl in the garden - the possibilities are truly endless.  

My son did the writing, while (after trying to decipher her hieroglyphics) my daughter was encouraged to decorate the slips of paper before folding them up and popping them into the jar.  This in itself proved to be a fun way to spend an hour and some of the more optimistic suggestions - such as a trip to the moon and asking Santa for our very own minion - raised lots of giggles.

The idea is that each day one of the children gets to choose the next days activity from the jar and that's how we spend the day.  It means that everyday there is something special planned, ranging from expensive days eating in fancy restaurants wearing a smart tie (courtesy of my eldest son) to toasting marshmallows by the fire pit in the garden before bed (thanks to a sugar addicted me) to painting rainbows on the paths around our house (from the fairy princess that is my 3 year old daughter).  

Obviously there will be days when we need to be flexible due to our "changeable" (ahem) Irish weather or pre existing arrangements but the kids understand that and again it teaches them new skills around planning and negotiating.  

So far this week we've had a rainy day cinema trip and a lot of splashing around in the local swimming pool.  Today it's feeding the ducks in the park.  It's taken the pressure off me to try and entertain and answer questions constantly and it's given the kids a real sense of involvement in how we choose to spend our precious free time together.