It's nearing the end of the school year, but the teachers seem to still be going full-tilt. There is a fun fair tomorrow night, various school trips planned, a second Scientists in the School session, hot dog and pizza lunches, Father's Day craft event, report cards...
It happened that Tyler turned 5 years old! We went with a small contingent to Chuck-E-Cheese! We put all the tickets towards a toy hammer, and have a stash of tokens left for another time.
We keep a running calendar and the summer weekends in particular are filling up. I'm doing something new this summer, taking five weeks off without pay so I can spend more time with the kids on educational activities, give my mother in law a break, host my own mom for a few days, and be able to do some daytime sight-seeing in our own city. The kids are a tad young for long days at camp, and I'd rather invest in them on my own rather than outsource it, at least for half the summer. It did somewhat give me pause to recognize exactly how much it costs to have 'free time' rather than paid time for part of the summer, but we've always said that time is worth more than money. It applies for more costly house/shorter commute, vacations, occasional convenience purchases, and time spent with family.
I'm thinking about a three-family vacation, perhaps some standing weekly play dates, water and sand play in the backyard, science activities, outdoor art activities, reading and writing activities, dress-up activities, Lego, fort-building, and some purging and cleaning up of the house!
The trick in some cases will be devising activities that interest both of them, or can be adapted up or down. I feel like I'm experimenting with home-schooling in that I would like to have a schedule and some curriculum/subjects that can be covered, even some larger multi-day projects. More to come!