Intentional Summer

I have wanted to do this post for so long but have hesitated.One because I am far from being a perfect patent and I don't want to be just another mommy blog acting like I have the perfect life or know just the right way to do something.And also my ideas are not,and will never be Pintrest perfect!But the Lord has laid this burden on my heart to share with others. in the middle of the school year I was having mommy guilt for not homeschooling.I felt all the cool Christian moms were homeschooling and I was sending my kid to school,so he was away from me so much of the time.However,After prayer I relaized public school was where God had him(I know it is different for each fam so no judgement here)but what I could do was make the most of each time I spent with him so I became very intentional on Alexs school breaks!I created a theme each break based on a bible truth and whatever aLex happened to be into!The point was to have something creative to teach the Wors and be intentional with my time with aLex.i strongly believe this applies to every mommy out there!Whether stay at home,working.homeschool or non homeschool family!Lets be intentional together! these idea are not pintrest perfect.they can take as much or as little time as you have,They are almost all cheap of free or dollar tree ideas lol.I am going to be posting our theme weeks this summer if you would like to go along.I am also posting some themes from our other breaks.I have a six year old boy,a two year old girl,and a almost one year old girl.Basically my process is thinking of what my kids are into,coming up with a little activity and sometimes snack to go along with it,and planning our week with that in mine! I would love others,whether non working,working,homeschool,traditional schooling families to join with me!Feel free to use any of my ideas,and if you have trouble thinking of ideas and your kids are not into the same thing,please email me or message me at humbertfun@yahoo.com.Tell me what your kids are into and I will be glad to help you come up with some ideas!if you participate,please take pictures with hashtag #intentionalsummer! because I am not technological and am having a hard time posting pics with my blog i am going to be posting the pics that go along with this week on my Instagram which is HUMBERTFUN and my facebook! my main goal in putting this out there is to tell you YOu can do this.dont let excuses like it has to be perfect,or my kids won't care,or it takes to much work or money keep you from being intentional!It WILL be worth the few extra minutes,and even keep your kids better entertained and less fighting with each other lol. my two year old daughter is playing this morning and turned to me and quoted word for word the verse we have been focusing on this week!That makes it worth it!I will be posting details on here each week and pictures in Instagram and facebook! FOr our kickoff this summer we did Octonaught week,which happens to be something my kids are into.It is a show on Netflicka that sea creatures make creature reports on different creatures in the ocean.So we made Octonaught week and changed the theme song tochristian reports instead of creature reports.We talked about what a Christian looks like.Our theme verse was john 13:35 They will know we are Christians by our love.We focused each night and during the day on our Christian report,how people will see the characteristic of a Christian by the way you love others. for the fun things each day,We went to the aquarium one day and let Alex take pictures with his play camera to make feature reports.(this would require extra money from you but we had a season pass)!we also played in the fountains at Coolidge park and talked about the creatures spouting water there.The next day we did the free option and I took them to the pet store while grocery shopping and we looked at the fish and lizards and birds.The next day we played in a new $10 plastic pool I bought for the summer,We also made octoscopes with toilet paper rolls.wE were going to make creature report books one day,but ran out of time.Out big family activity on Fri night was using one dollar nets from dollar tree and going to find tadpoles in the local creek.we caught two lol...and a plastic Dino.Funtimes. every night we do a bedtime snack and talk about the theme and the verse for the week.if your kids were not into octo aughts you could do this same week just focusing on under the sea.like a under he sea theme,and focus on making reports on the sea creatures,then say..Now we are going to make reports on not just what a fish and shark and turtle look like.but what a Christian looks like!By showing our love. this week we already had Lees summer tennis camp for Alex so I just rolled with it and made i at sports theme week!Our theme verse is 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight,I have finished the race,I have kept the faith.We have talked about perseverance as a Christian and how to make godly choices even when it is hard.Each night we have done something silly.Monday night we had a dizzy baseball race and involved some of the neighborhood kids.We just spun around on baseball bats and raced each other,One night we took our basketball goal outside and played family basketball.We have also had family races to and from the car.For snack at night we played baseball with string cheese and grapes.every night we have a family snack and that is when we recap the verse and what we are learning that week.Today we are going to have silly Olympic games with our apartment neighbors.I plan on the fly so will give more details later lol. Other themes I have done in the past is super heroes of the bible week.we talked about different Bible stories where people did supernatural things.we made super hero capes.We went to Cooke and explored and looked at different rocks and talked about Jacob sleeping on a rock and wrestling with Angels.we went to an apple orchard and talked about Adam and eve and their temptation and how God gives us super power now to stand against satan.We Bought super hero figure sat dollar tree and his them around house and found them we did a Frozen theme one week and focused on 1 cor 13 and what true love is.we made snowman sugar cookies.We made snowman pancakes.We made fake snow with suave shampoo and cornstarch.we had a frozen movie night.And we went iceskating(this is when iceskating rink was in chatt). pirate week as my favorite.We focused on Ps 119:11 I have treasured your word in my heart.wE talked about how important it was to treat Gods word as treasures.we dressed up like pirates.We searched for treasure in our sand and water table.we went to the aquarium.we read books about pirates.we ate chocolate gold coins.We had a pirate party with friends where I hid little dollar tree bags of treassure on the people playground and drew a map to it on sidewalk chalk.The whole party cost less than $10 with prizes and everything and was a blast.The last thing we did was a family scavenger hunt to find a new bible for each of our kids. I hope this gives you some ideas to work with.You can do this!Lets be intentional and watch God move!I will continue to update over the summer and put pics on Instagram and facebook.Feel free to share this!I can't wai to see what God does.