The slower pace of summer has a way of inspiring us toward quality family togetherness, regardless of our kids’ ages and stages.
We’ve compiled a short list of some favorite tools that provide meaningful, doable inspiration for greater family connections this summer.
1. The Family Dinner Project: A growing movement of food, fun and conversation about things that matter.
{In their words} Family dinner! We all know it’s a good thing. It’s the perfect time to bond with your family, promote healthy eating and unwind with a delicious meal. But with the craziness of daily life, cooking dinner can feel overwhelming. That’s where we come in.
Even with busy schedules, young kids, or indifferent teenagers, there’s still hope for reclaiming your family dinner! The Family Dinner Project provides everything from “one pot wonder” recipes and involving your kids in food prep to fun games at dinner and conversation starters. Yes please.
2. Start With a Book: Read. Talk. Explore. All Summer Long! 
This is just the coolest. Enter your phone number and Start With a Book will send several free ideas each week throughout the summer, ideas to get you doing fun and constructive things together.
{in their words} Do more reading, talking and exploring this summer! Our summer learning tips provide ideas to jumpstart reading, writing, and simple science activities for you and your child. You’ll receive 3-4 text messages each week, all summer long. We hope these tips will help you and your kids have a summer full of learning and fun!
It’s easy to have great intentions for summer fun and learning with our kids. It’s also easy to fall into a rut and lose our enthusiasm, inspiration, and follow-through. Summer Learning Tips to Go is your personal assistant during these summer months. And it’s available in English and Spanish!
3. Real Simple’s Fun Activities Checklist
When I recollect my own summers as a kid, it’s not the big things that are most nostalgic. It’s the simple pleasures — catching lightning bugs, stopping at an ice cream stand just because, swimming in the um, ditch, at my grandparents house. Yes, it was an actual ditch. {It was also the 70s and we let a lot of things slide back then.}
But it just goes to show that we don’t need to overcomplicate and overspend to create meaningful memories with our kids. Be inspired by the simple things.
Real Simple created a list of “50 Fun Summer Activities” with everything from going to a baseball game to roasting marshmallows. And a bonus? The list is printable so you can keep it on your fridge for those moments when you hear “MOMMMM, I’m bored….”
Because sometimes we simply need fresh reminders of what we already know but may have forgotten.
Fun Summer Activities Checklist
{in their words} Need inspiration for summer fun? Check out our list and see how many you can cross out before Labor Day hits.
We encourage you to pick one or two that you’d like to try and take baby steps toward your goals. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Let’s face it, nothing ever goes quite as planned, especially with young children involved. But moving in the right direction still yields greater outcomes that not moving at all.
What ideas would you most like to try for your family this summer?
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