Summer Camp At Home

I wrote a free summer program for our family.(Because honestly, who can afford *real* summer camps with more than one child to pay for?)

It's the Summer Camp at the Home. I wish I could think of a clever acronym for it (like SNAP, so we can have a 'snappy summer', but that's just not happening. Let me know if you think of something.)

Through this program our children are happily engaged in reading, exercising, serving one another, creating art, and memorizing scriptures.

What's the trick? Bribery. 

At the end of summer we are celebrating with a family trip to Schlitterbahn. It's the world's largest water park (I'm not exaggerating, look it up). I've wanted to take our kids there for years. I just needed a reason to justify the tickets.

Here's the deal: they earn points by accomplishing certain tasks each day. The tasks are listed on a handy dandy chart I made. (Don't worry, there's a link for that farther down!) Whenever they start to get whiny and say the dreaded B-word (Bored) I hand them their chart and suggest they pick something fun to do.

Points for the previous week are counted each Sunday, and they are given a fresh new chart to track their efforts during upcoming week. I keep tabs on the cumulative scores each week so they can see how close they are to their goal.

We have four areas of focus:

Physical- bike riding, exercising, yoga, outdoor play, etc.
Spiritual- reading scriptures, memorizing scriptures, developing character through service
Mental- reading books, learning new things, constructing, practicing music, developing new talents
Social- serving family members, writing letters to relatives and friends, teaching siblings new talents

I made a copy of our chart here so you can use this idea with your own family. Feel free to save it on your computer and modify the chart so it fits your circumstances.

Anyone who reaches their summer goal will go with the family to Schlitterbahn. I already have a sitter arranged for Diego that day, so any children not motivated to reach their goal will stay home with the baby. How's that for incentive? 

The goal? A whopping 4,000 points.

The first week Sarah earned 680 points. Matthew was aghast to discover he was trailing by 50 points. Competitive soul that he is, he spent the evening memorizing scriptures so he could take the lead. His total last week was 755.

I think they are well on their way to earning their tickets.

On an unrelated note, Diego learned to clap this month.

It's his favorite thing to do.

Playing "Pat-A-Cake" makes him laugh every time. His innocent and sincere laughter is so adorable.

 I love watching his chubby little hands move.

Look at those fat fingers...I can't resist kissing them every day.