Today was the last day of school! Oh, happy happy day! We went to the park today with Lydia’s friends, had lunch with their Daddy and then flipped through Lydia’s yearbook on the bed at home. Perfection. I am so ready for doing a whole bunch of nothing! OK, well, maybe not nothing. I’ve got a few things planned. But the main goal of summer is going to be enjoy each other, have some adventures, read lots of books and stay at home 75% of the time.
So, here’s a few things we’ll be doing with our summer…
1. Thriving Family’s 60 Days of Bible Mysteries
This is a free PDF with Bible detective badges, secret codes, mini devotions and more! Asa is waaay into spies right so I’m excited to do this mini Bible study with them. And of course, I’ve already decided we are not doing 60 days of it. But we’ll feel it out and see how many days we do together–maybe 2 or 3 a week?
2. Camp
My daughter is going to camp. Like CAMP CAMP! Eek! Start praying now, friends!
This year’s theme is the Nile River. So, we’ll be walkin’ like an Egyptian! Lydia is excited because she studied ancient Egypt this year–this is like an extended homeschool lesson for her. (I just hope they let me dress like Cleopatra!)
4. VBS
While Lydia is Egypt, Asa will be doing VBS and apparently the theme is Weird Animals. How much more perfect could that be for a 5 year old boy?!
5. Summer Reading Programs
OK, so we already printed off Barnes & Noble’s and Pottery Barn’s summer reading lists so we can earn free books this summer! Our library does one, too but all you get is a free chicken at Chick-fil-a. Yawn.
6. No sports.
We will not be doing gymnastics or ballet in the summer. I don’t even want to do swimming lessons!
7. Reading Playdates
OK. This might be a little of an over-exaggeration (who me?!), but my mom’s church just got rid of all their church’s library books and I took about 3 boxes home with me. (It pained me to leave all the other books there!) So, I’ve invited a few friends over to peruse the boxes and take whatever they want, then when they’re done, we’ll switch them out! How fun is that?!
8. Nothing.
Like no-thing.
9. More nothing.
Seriously. I want my kids to be bored this summer. At least a couple days a week.
10. Armed With Truth
If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen my Armed With Truth pics. These are temporary tattoos of Scripture! My kids love tattoos (the temporary kind of Spiderman and Hello Kitty, not the permanent koi fish and dragon kind) and I love God’s Word any and everywhere I can get it!
We’ve been donning new Scriptures the last few weeks (we’ve got the kids’ pack which is Scriptures from the NIrV and really cool designer pack, too). Lydia’s first Scripture was,
When I’m afraid, I will trust in you. Psalm 56:3
How perfect is that for her? I think I might get her that same one to wear at camp this summer. What an instant reminder, right?!
I’ve also enjoyed having the verses on my arm. Sometimes, when I’m sitting or driving, I see it and it reminds me to stop and focus on the words. Even if we haven’t memorized the Scriptures word-for-word, we’ve repeated them lots of times, talked about each sentence and just had God’s Word a little more a part of our life.
I think these would be way fun at a retreat, camp or for a small group. And of course, Lydia thought I should put them all on my arm at once so I could look like I had a sleeve! Uhm. No, thanks.
So, this summer, I’m thinking if an Armed With Truth verse really speaks to our hearts, we’ll do some activities, or find a song or simply look up the verse in our Bible and make a poster to keep that Word in our hearts.
Wanna add Armed With Truth to your summer adventure? They are giving away a $15 giftcard to one of you today! Just enter to win on the widget below!
Love this picture of your daughter on the monkey bar circle thingy! Lighting is awesome by our Father! I enjoyed this post, and our two boys will enjoy the tattoos (as will I) if we win!
My little tattoo lover is in my lap…Bryan…age 4. 
Thanks for an awesome list – it’s helping me fill a few holes in my list! Like the Bible study and the reading lists (our library only gives away stickers for their summer reading program. Seriously!
). We’ll be doing some “school lite” to keep up a small schedule for our days – doing more art and music and maybe some MANNERS!, swimming, VBS, and our church conference.
Manners. Ooh, I wanna know about this!
a
http://www.amazon.com/Manners-Made-Easy-Workbook-Student/dp/0805437703/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1401413363&sr=8-2&keywords=manners+made+easy
I have this book and it looks fabulous. Elias could probably do the workbook on his own, but Donovan wouldn’t be able to… but I might forge ahead and do some mini-lessons from it, and then a few more years down the line do a real “class” with it. maybe a co-op class? I don’t know.
Hanging out with my three year old this summer. He will go to camp, and we will have lots of pool time.
We’re staying close to home and are planning on enjoying our last ‘free’ summer with my littles – before my first goes to kindergarten in the fall! Beach, water park, picnics, playdates are all on the menu! And thanks for the giveaway – I didn’t know about this company, and I have some kids (and mamas!) who would love these!
I think we’re probably doing too much, but we’ll have several weeks of nothingness, too. My sister is getting married June 7th, Mr. V’s sister is getting married August 9th, so that will take time of course. Mr. V’s sister’s wedding is in Maryland. Next week we’re visiting grandparents. One week Libbie is going to camp here at our school and one week she’s going to girl scout camp. David is going to camp at the preschool one week. All day camps, and we purposely put them in different weeks so we could do some 1-on-1 things with each of our older kids.
We’re also going on a big vacation – Mr. V and I are going four days alone for our 10th anniversary and then my parents are bringing the kids for a few days. SO EXCITED!!
We might do a VBS week. And I told Libbie we could take a special Mommy-daughter day trip. She wants to go a museum.
So we might go to Birmingham or Nashville or someplace and hit up a museum. I really want to take my kids to the puppet theater in Atlanta, too, and I meant to email you about that!!
This post is so timely! I was just telling my husband that I needed something that would let me wear scripture, so God’s word could always be in front of me for encouragement and battle against Satan. Thanks for introducing me to Armed with Truth! Love.it!!!!!!!! Happy Summer!
Love this! My kids adore temporary tattoos! We’re trying to savor every minute of this last summer before our oldest starts kindergarten also.
Lots planned for the summer…..finishing up our HS year, VBS, swimming lessons, t-ball, and a small family vacation. Hopefully there will be lots of time left for doing nothing!
The only thing we have on the calendar are swimming lessons (they last 2 weeks and I got my girls in classes at the exact same time! Yahoo!!!) and Missoula Children’s Theater which comes to the university in our town for my oldest and that is only 1 week. The rest will hopefully be relaxing and fun
We are loving alot of outdoor time in the sun-swings, sprinklers, hiking, & swimming. In there somewhere is camp for big sis & travels to visit with family. The mystery Bible stories looks like our summer devos. Thanks Amanda!
Camp camp and more Camp!!! So excited to be heading back to where i grew up and spent every single summer of my life at and actually be taking my kids!!! Lives will be changed this summer and i get to be apart of it Yeah for me
We are working on writing, taking swimming lessons, and relaxing. The boys will have lots of cold treats and play in the water.
I don’t have a list but I’m planning on spending lots of intentional time with my son. I am pregnant with our second and due at the end of summer. This will be our last summer with just the two of us, he is four years old. I loved your list and will be making one soon to add some of those!
We have a beach vacation planned, but other than that we are hoping to do a lot of work around our house and get some fun zoo trips in!
ooohhh we love tats and scripture tats??? waaaaay to awesome!
Trying to find fun inexpensive things to keep my two and four year old boys busy.
Some camping and a whole lotta nothing – just hanging out and enjoying the sunshine!
Keeping 4 boys busy while Dad is away on a submarine. Some camps, 2 VBS, library programs, and swimming in our pool. Hopefully sneaking some light homeschooling in there too
We are moving this summer, and will be living in a small house for a month or two before we move into our more permanent home, so I will need to be extra creative with our time. Thanks for mentioning the Bible Mysteries activities – my daughter LOVES mysteries, so these will be right up her alley.
I am with you– a whole lot of home time. I hate being too committed in the summer. I can’t wait!!!
Sounds like a great summer plan, wish I had this wisdom when I was a mom of littles. Happy Birthday!
Swimming lessons, camp, 4H gardening, Chincoteague, farm work, time in the woods, etc. The summer goes by quickly especially since the last day of school isn’t until June 13th.
Gardening, eating dinner together on our screen porch, and going camping for the first time with our son’s Cub Scout pack!
Musical theater camp, VBS, gymnastics, spending time with Grandma, family vacation cruise and lots of reading
We have some fun camps planned, mainly art that they don’t get enough if during the year. Both my girls want to try a new instrument this summer, so we are checking into guitar and drums!
Thanks for all the great ideas! Def want to have a Bible study with my kids (so I will check what you mentioned out), good ‘ole DEAR (drop everything and read) time, definite chores we will do each day, and just hanging out being bored also.
Being in TX it’s hard to stay outside a lot b/c it’s so stinkin hot, so anything water related is good. Oh, we also are doing some camps this summer… VBS, WinShape camp, and a gymnastics day camp. 
Maybe a water balloon tennis camp- I think they throw water balloons at them while they learn tennis- not sure… Haha
my favourites are #8 & #9 – that’s what I’ve got written in the kids’ planners as well! Have fun!
Visiting family, community project, vbs, and homeschool because we’re year round
Thanks for the post! I just printed the barnes and noble summer book club form and I already ordered from Armed In Truth because of your post!…but I’d love to win to order more! Oh and we are doing Weird Animals VBS as well. Can’t wait to see what that entails! (maybe a pun intended…)
Love those tats! I may get us some! We are planning to stay home a lot as well! Lots of water play, picnics, reading, friends, and a few local activities are on our list of plans! Thanks for sharing yours!
I love those! And this summer we are hanging out and laying low.
I cannot WAIT.
I’ll be doing some schooling with my kids, day camps, a Backyard Bible club and lots of fun at the pool!
Amanda,
I found you because ArmedWithTruth brought light to one of your instagram photos that you received criticism over being “super-cool” for Christ. I was glad to see many others took the opposite view of the first comment-er and instead are living out Eph. 4:29!
Love how intentional you are going into the summer with your family. Thanks for sharing your life!
Thank you, Heather!
a
Mainly…I’ll be working creating homeschooling downloads all summer…but do plan to spend time with the hubby bird watching!
This summer we are definitely taking some time to relax! I also like to pick a topic for us to focus on for the summer. We’ve done Amanda’s fruits of the Spirit armor of God activities in years past. This year we are going to focus on heaven since my kids have been asking a lot about it.
I just ordered some because I couldn’t wait
We will be doing a lot of swimming in our new pool!
We’re planning a trip to the zoo, the beach, and the pool.
Those scripture tattoos are amazing! My husband and I work with youth and I think of how much they would enjoy them! ….Can’t wait for summer to actually start! We love the pool!!
This summer I’ll be running our family’s cousins camp! 80 people over 4 days! Whew! These would be awesome!
Hey lady! What a fun summer! We are doing swim team, gymnastics and basketball. Reading, math and bible will be mandatory. And I am looking forward to doing some reading out loud with the middle girls. We need a medium amount of structure.
In the past we have been too bored, so I am hoping this will be the right amount.
We plan on visiting a lot of local fairs, zoo and Wi Dells
We are going to my grandmas lake cabin for two weeks
We have a bit of travel planned (headed to the beach for the first time in two years! Yay!) and lots of time spent playing in the yard/pool
Thank you for this giveaway!
going to romania on a missions trip!!!
also, it’s my 8-yr-olds first year at church camp.
(best give-away ever!!)
My oldest has drama day camp. We are anticipating the birth of 3 baby cousins. And hopefully a lot of playing outside
Thanks for the wonderful list. I love the cool tattoos!!
This summer, we will be doing a healthy dose of nada, as well as playing in the kiddie pool and pretending to be gardeners!
These are so cool! I am going to enjoy spending time with my boys and husband!