[USER]

Parents working from home while kids home for summer.. how are we keeping these kids entertained without tv and constantly on gaming? Also, snacking all day..

it’s day 1 here and needing to plan the next 12 weeks!

Budget friendly activities for them to do ar home. Thar require little to no adult help. I work 730-430 and have to actually work.

They’re 9 & 11 so pretty self sufficient for most part.

[MiMi]

Rock painting, puzzels, teaching them hoew to cook and putting them on a snack budget. I bought mine each a snack box and would give them 10$.

On Sat we would go to Dollar tree and they could get their own snacks and drinks for the week.

I kept apples, oranges, and bananas out for healthy choices and juice boxes and and a tea, lemonade or koolaid pitcher in the fridge at all times.

[Jennifer]

It’s summer vacation, I’m ok with my kid being on screens as much as she wants.

I want her to enjoy one of these rare times of life where she can be unstructured and truly has nothing to do

[Nancy]

This might not be frugal but not super expensive either. Trampoline. We had one for my kids at that age and they were on it all the time.

Trips to library. Backyard camping. Bird sticker book where they get to add a sticker of the birds they see.

Kids cook books. There are cookbook with recipes for each state – fun to make recipes of states you’ve been to or will visit or have friends/family from.

[Angela]

I am a professor so I struggle with this! My key research time is the time when there’s no school. What I have done is

(1) set aside time for activities with you every day, so they aren’t deprived of time with you.

(2) set aside time when you have to be left alone every day.

I use a ticket system: you get to interrupt x times, every interruption costs a ticket, prizes for how many tickets you can hold onto.

(3) lots of trips to the library.

(4) whatever summer camps you can afford. Our church has several that are very affordable.

Good luck!

[Eulonda]

Popcorn, air popped is best (if you have one) peanut butter and crackers. Age-appropriate chores (for sweet snacks not money) like individual little Debbies, or pop sickle, or icecream.

Crafts, games, books, learning about ther own back yard, bugs, plants ect.

Plant a small garden. Take your brakes, lunch with the kids, keep up with them, enjoy the summer with them.

Show them you miss them when they are in school.

[Diane]

A jump rope , hula hoop & badminton set kept mine entertained (outside) for a few hours.

I also involved them in gardening and crafty activities like cross-stitch, coloring, baking/cooking as well as card/board/puzzle games that were aimed at enhancing learning skills.

I limited “screen” time, but allowed some and of course they had daily chores (both inside and out) that kept em fairly busy.

[Brenda]

My ADHD child’s Psychologist advised me to make a summer schedule to keep her busy and it made our summer so much smoother and enjoyable.

It took some planning and gathering of supplies, but we did Theme Weeks where everyday she had at least 1 activity related to that theme to accomplish.

One week was Insect Week. I bought a book and a magnifying glass and throughout the week she found insects, drew insects, researched insects, did an insect related crafts, made bug looking snacks and watched A Bugs Life.

Every week she did something related to the theme everyday and sometimes on the weekend we did a related family activity.

Get a big poster board and get your kids involved in picking out themes and brainstorming fun activities to match.

You will need to add on a few as surprises to keep their interest.

Some other themes we did were a week of birds (painting a prebuilt birdhouse was a hit), the flag (July 4th week), chocolate (the tastiest week), the beach, fish, flowers, we did a green week (her favorite color), rocks..,

This really saved my sanity during the summers, but most importantly she loved it.

Now 10-15 years later she remembers some of the activities and I believe it really fostered her love of nature.

That summer taught me that having a schedule they know about in advance, keeping them busy and reassuring them they are good at something are major keys to success for kids with ADHD.

Enjoy your summer!

[Annie]

Eating times set and enforced. In my house:
Breakfast – anytime before 10 am
Lunch 12-1
Snack 3-4
Dinner 6-7

And a snack before bedtime or during family movie time.
And my boys have chores to do before electronics.

30 minutes each outside play, room play, and reading; Learn-to-type lessons, a page in summer workbook; and household chores like emptying the dishwasher, taking out trash, wiping down a bathroom.

[Robin]

I remember I read a lot of books I picked out from the library and we sometimes cooked for ourselves. Best meal was Mac & cheese with cut up hot dogs and green beans from a can.

I also loved my pogo stick and trampoline. We did vacation bible school at church for a week.

I liked drawing/painting/coloring too. We’d usually watch a movie or TV (1-2 ep) together as a family in the evening.

We had an above-ground pool set up in the front yard and made slip-n-slide with tarps.

My sister is only a few years younger. I miss those days we played together like that.

[Jennifer]

Rethink your mind set. You do not have to entertain them all summer. They are not guests in their own home.

Allow them to stay up a little later than a school night, and sleep in a little later.

Have a chore chart for any chores for the day.

Allow them to play outside while you check up on them.
Allow them to be bored which will entice creativity. (Maybe they will build a blanket fort, paint and create..etc)

Sprinkler and hose play.

Grandma 2 days a week. Invite f
Their friends over 1 day a week.

[Michele]

Let them do electronic in am until lunch. That will make them any to get up in am.

Prep snacks night before and outside from 1-3;30, snack then plan to do something together once your done work

[Stephenie]

I think I still had a babysitter at 9 (at least during the summer) – but I think I was on my own at 11. I spent a-lot of time reading.

Mom usually dropped me off at the library for 1-2 hours one evening a week or on Saturday to exchange books.

I also established relationships with neighborhood animals that were either allowed to roam or got out.

Mom didn’t get me my own dog until later – but then she got me training books and videos too.

[Lacquement]

Have you heard of strewing?
It is where you casually leave an activity out for them to find. You could modify it by calling them to it, and starting them off during your break.

Connect 4, Snakes and Ladders, Lego, playing cards, Uno, home made play dough, bubbles,puzzles, cartoons on t v ( older kids enjoy regressing a bit, as a destress), balks to bounce, throw, kick, play basket ball, watering the garden, planting, building forts or shelters out of scrap, camping or a picnic in the garden.

Making popcorn, toasted sandwiches, mini pizzas, box cake mix or muffins, as an activity and a snack.

Fruit, jello, yogurt, chocolate pudding, hot dogs.

I let ours game at will, they take breaks as needed.

[Paula]

My granddaughter has been at my office this week. I had a lot of empty clean boxes I was saving. She used them and art supplies to set up a restaurant.

She made a menu, pans and food out of paper, a cash register, stove, refrigerator, freezer, etc. it entertained her for hours.

[Helen]

Have a schedule that clearly identifies the portion of the day that you need them to be self-sufficient. Use the rest of the time to provide them with resources and connect with them.

Ie mine are younger so they have less self-sufficient time but in the connection times are trips to the library to enroll them in the summer reading challenges, art store to choose some updated art supplies, book store to choose a magazine or book as a treat.

Organise fridge to identify what stuff they can grab as a snack, ie have a designated shelf.

I just spent some of my evening last night searching the Steam store to identify games the kids would like added to the Family library, and will present those choices to them today, as alternatives to just playing Minecraft all summer.

Look at community happenings, identify events in times that are okay for you and put them on a calendar that they can see.

Ie I’ll be putting up the $0.50 movies at cinemark on the calendar.

Identify what places the kids can walk to independently around you.

Biggest thing is communication when you’re not working and showing interest in what they do or don’t do. Not to criticise but to be interested in their thoughts.

[Loretta]

What I did was shift their sleep schedule so they can wake up later…that gave me about 2.5 hours of focus work in the morning.

Puzzles, board games, and backyard fun.

Sometimes you can go to the library where there are events they can participate in and you can continue working there.

[Laurie]

Our parents never entertained us, we just played. We made Barbie houses out of record album cases, played “school”, used our imagination.

Give kids an opportunity to use their imagination. “Go play” is an adequate direction while you’re working!

My grandkids love Lincoln Logs, coloring, etc.

[Author]

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