This may be one of the last uninterrupted summers that I have with the girls.   At first, I began to  panic at the thought of an entire summer with no camps and only one planned week at the beach.  It seemed (ok, and still seems) daunting.  How many trips to the pool or playground or library could we possibly do before they were sick of it, sick of me, sick of the same old routine?  Jason and I had thought about camps, but with two tuitions to pay, a fence to build, and many other household expenses looming large, we wondered if camp was really worth the expense.  But, what I really liked about camp was the opportunity for the kids to get outside, to socialize, and to learn something new.  So, I looked around at what camps were out there for children, thought about what TV programs, books, music, and activities the children like, and considered what kinds of days the kids like to have at school… and realized, I can do camp.  We can do ” camp” all summer long.  Granted, our camp will also have a “laundry hour” and “mommy needs silence” time… but if I approached each week with not only a routine but also with a new focus each week… a theme for each week… we might just keep from going stir crazy!

I’ve only begun the planning, but come May 31st, the girls are all mine, all summer.  My goal, then, is to have a basic daily schedule of events (including times for me to get things done that *I* need to do), but also a general, weekly calendar that focuses our attention on topics we already like or that we haven’t already considered.

So far, here are the themes I’ve come up with:

• Farming/Growing/Gardening
• Reptiles/Amphibians
• Entomology/Butterflies
• Birds
• Architecture
• Oh, Pioneers!
• Dinosaurs
• Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
• Fairytales
• Beach and ocean life
• Pets
• Orchestra
• Theater
• Chinese culture
• Sign language
• Spanish
• Your body
• Swimming

Assuming that I have about 10 weeks to plan for, I’ll have to whittle this down a bit as we get closer in.  Some of the extended projects that we were planning this summer include growing some vegetables (we’ve already begun a few seedlings on our deck and in the windows) and planting a butterfly garden.  We have the butterfly garden seedlings in the kitchen waiting to be put in.  We have  pool membership at the neighborhood pool, too, and the girls have asked for swim lessons.  Of course, that means Pippi needs to be potty trained… and that’s a whole other story!  Perhaps today, the girls will help me brainstorm ideas.  I have a folder that I’ve been stashing lots of flyers and circulars in as I see them around town with ideas for puppet shows, places for nature walks, free community events, etc. that might help me to plan dates and times for certain themes.  As I focus my plans, I’ll post them… I think the next step is to think concretely about the resources we have in the Washington, DC area and listing the ones that would be useful for 2 and 5 year olds.

There is so much to do in the Washington area that it is overwhelming to try to list it all or to choose between one thing or another.  Each month, I’ve tried to make lists of calendars and events to help me choose the best activities for the day/week.  Here are a few of my “go-to” calendars to choose from, in no particular order:

• Washington Parent: http://www.washingtonparent.com/calendar.php
  The Washington Parent magazine is fairly ubiquitous.  Free of charge and often found in the entry area to malls, grocery stores, and community centers,  it offers several articles per month ranging from how to handle bullies to selecting a name for your child.
• The City of Rockville: http://www.rockvillemd.gov/events/index.htm and http://www.rockvillemd.gov/events/thisweek
  Rockville offers its residents a wide variety of events and community activities which are either free to the public or require a small fee.  For Mother’s Day, the city is throwing a tea party for children 2+ and their mommies.
• Washington Family Magazine: http://www.washingtonfamily.com/page/Places-to-Go_
  Much like Washington Parent, Washington Family magazine can be found free-of-charge in locations such as your supermarket, the community center, the coffee shop, or the post office.  According to the blogs on the site, this section is new and it lists many of the places where you can go adventuring in DC.  It isn’t a calendar, per say, and I’ll do a list of “places to go” in a future post, but it did include a link to one of my favorite places as a child: The Children’s Theater in the Woods at Wolf Trap…(This summer includes performances by Dinorock and Steve Songs… family favorites)
• Nick Parents Connect: http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/calendar/washington-dc-usa/2009/5/1
  Maintained by the TV network Nickelodeon and promotes free events to parents who live in cities, such as Washington DC. It displays only one day at a time, so you’ll need to play around with the date feature a bit, but it has a surprisingly large collection of free events in our area.
• Smithsonian Institute Calendar: http://www.si.edu/events/
  A comprehensive calendar of all the museums and centers that are part of the Smithsonian Institute, this calendar can be narrowed to focus only on events appropriate for children.  You can select the day, narrow your search, and find precisely when the zoo keepers feed, for example, the giant octopus.
• WETA: http://www.weta.org/local/calendar
  Events in DC according to its local public television channel.

There are more, but I’ll start with this for now.  I’ve tried listing calendars that draw mainly from “free” activities.  One of the key features I’ve learned about keeping busy is that it can get pricy if everything you do costs a little here and there.  One way to cut down the costs is really to focus on those places that have lots of payoff for very little money up-front.  This way if someone throws a killer tantrum or falls asleep or gets you kicked out of the facility, at least you aren’t out the extra cash!