Keeping Busy

 I've had the interesting discussion with many teacher friends about keeping our kids busy during our summer vacation.  None of us grew up in a generation that entertained kids as much as kids seem to require today.  My mom was a teacher and was home during the summer, but I remember many days of being told to "find something to do".  The little entertainment I did have usually involved a camp or going to the community pool, not my mom driving me and my sister around town. 
So I've left a lot of room in our schedules this summer for completely unscripted "hang out" time.  The kids now spend most days of the week finding something to do with their toys or exploring the backyard.  I've gotten out my fair share of Play Doh, watercolors, art supplies, and yarn (for Jason's "projects").  I've kept the big expensive activities to a minimum, like our trip to the Children's Museum.  We went last week with our friends Emma & Sam and I wasn't too sure that the kids would have enough to do to justify the cost.  Behold, the kids ran around for 3 hours while Marianne and I parked it on a bench and gossiped away.  We followed that with lunch at McDonalds and lots of PlayPlace time and our day was complete!

playing "dentist"

"construction workers"

In honor of Jason's lost tooth, he stole the teeth models from the dentist area!