Welcome to summer!! A beautiful, laidback season with lots of sunshine and late, warm family nights. As a mama, summer is both something to look very much forward to AND something that needs to be carefully planned in order to preserve the sanity of all involved! I have always shared ideas for how to get your kiddos outside, cooking, and doing fun arts + crafts + games, but this year I’m taking it further. For my first summer with five kids, and two being very active toddlers, I’ve created themes for our summer days! For each day of the week, I’ll have a fun theme around which I’ll plan art activities, select special books to read, create themed recipes, find a themed show, and more! This not only makes our summer days anything but mundane, but it also helps so much with planning our fun.
First up, here are some basics that I always try to have on hand…click the picture for details. :)
Next, here are the first 20 themes I’ve planned! Now, for my family, we will be doing one theme per day - the toddlers wouldn’t be able to stay engaged with a whole week on one topic. But, if your kids are older, you can certainly adapt this: select a few themes that you know your kids will like the most and add some extra themed fun to do one per week!
Here are details on the first three themed days.
Pirates: this one started with a pirate ship I scored off of FB marketplace! My teenage son had this incredible pirate ship when he was a toddler and I have been low-key trying to find it again. Well I did - so we have pirate day!
Art/Craft: painting island scenes, learning how to draw simple pirate ships
Show: Pirate Treasure by the Backyardigans (if your kids are older - Pirates of the Caribbean)
Food: Pirate’s Booty puffs and pirate juice - 50% cranberry juice + 50% water, squeeze some fresh oranges in, and add some frozen strawberries!
Game: treasure hunt - hide some fun treasure you know your kids will like, write out clues to find it, and go hunting!
Mickey Mouse: we love Disney here, but I think no one in our family loves it like my oldest daughter! She inspired this one, so we are going to learn all about the history of Mickey and Disneyland!
Art/Craft: Make-a-Face Mickey art, draw a roller coaster, Toodles art - draw Toodles then put these in each of the four parts: favorite food, favorite person, favorite animal, favorite place
Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, YouTube shows on how Disneyland was created and what early Mickey looked like
Food: Mickey Mouse pancakes, homemade dole whips (follow me on Insta for the recipe!)
Game: Mickey matching - use memory cards to match the characters, Minnie and Daisy wooden dolls
Trains: we just started watching Chuggington, so my girls are excited to learn more about trains!
Art/Craft: drawing trains (I’ll link some great YouTube videos for this on my Insta)
Show: Chuggington, informational videos on how trains work and where they go
Food: choo-choo sandwiches (sandwiches cut into train car shapes with a black olive smokestack - use any flavor sandwich your kids like and watch for ours to be shared here later!)
Game: wooden train track building, Follow the Leader choo-choo-style :)
Links to the items we are using will be posted on my ShopMY site soon…
I am SO excited to create some fun summer memories with you all!! #themeddaysofsummer