When the heatwave hits....

and everybody is getting tired of the summer heat, here are a few tips for surviving:

1) When the "summertime boredom" hits and the kids are tired of doing the same things, try to ignore the "boredom whine". If you offer solutions all the time, you are not allowing your children to use their own creativity. Offer a suggestion that they go look through their rooms for something to do. If that doesn’t work, give them chores whenever they say they’re bored. (This will usually 9 times out of 10 END THE WHINE at my house. LOL!)

2) Have a planned activity each day that stimulates their creativity. Prepare one activity a day – supplies for a water fight, an art project or science experiment, a hike, etc. Do something that gets them out of the everyday, and triggers their mind to think of something different or unusual so that they can stimulate their own creativity.

3) Get them outside every morning, before the “dangerous sun times” and make them stay there until lunch. There are playgrounds, bicycles, sports and games etc. that can keep them going for hours if they are bored enough to find something to do. We can all use the extra Vitamin D the sunshine offers. You know even if it's raining (and not storming, of course), dress them appropriately, and send them out for at least an hour. Kids can always make puddle jumping, rescue earth worms, and making mud pies a lot of fun.

4) Kids like routine. Create a daily, loose-but-structured routine that gives each day some framework. You can include chores, scheduled activities (meals, screen time, outdoor play, a planned activity, etc.) Don’t over schedule or you’ll be doing them (and yourself!) a disservice. Kids’ lives are so overbooked these days that they never have time for dreaming or self-discovery.

5) Restrict Screen Time. Yes, I said that because if your children are anything like mine, they are drawn to the computer screen and they'll stay there for hours. We have to limit it or it can become addictive, especially in the summer when it's hot outside. And honestly, it makes it so much harder when we start school back, that it is really not worth it. Try and keep “mindless entertainment via a screen” to an absolute minimum. Let kids schedule one TV show plus one hour for games each day, and then let them use the rest for other things.