Five Friday Faves - 8.22
That's a wrap on camps, and now school year prep
After nine weeks of camp, we are done. Just a few more random days off before we are officially back to school.
As a first-timer navigating summer with a school-aged child, I found myself overwhelmed by the options, the costs, and the logistics. In an ideal world, school -with consistent hours and aftercare - would be year-round, but (unfortunately) that is not our reality.
This year we tried five different camps, and while I am glad we explored, I am already planning for next summer. While everything is still fresh, I want to outline what worked, what did not, and set calendar reminders for registration windows so I can prepare with less stress.
Here are a few takeaways from this summer:
Plan for transportation. Pickup times and long commutes created the most stress this year. One camp ended at 4 p.m. with no aftercare, and another was a long drive in Boston rush hour. On one day, the work-to-camp-to-daycare-to-home route took two and a half hours for my husband. Next year, we will plan ahead for support and find someone we trust to help with transportation.
Schedule downtime. We will block one or two weeks with no camps so my son has time to rest. This will require sitter or nanny support, but I think the unstructured time will be valuable and was something he asked for.
Let him lead. This weekend I’m planning to stack rank the camps with him to understand what his favorites were so we can plan accordingly.
Hopefully next year will feel a tad less frenetic, and we’re eager to get into the school year!
Prepping for the school year always comes late here since we don’t get our teacher assignment and supplies list until two weeks before school. I can’t wait to go pick out his school supplies and let him pick his folder and pencil case. We’ve already gotten new backpacks, refreshed our lunch situations, and I’m ready for some school supplies of my own! Here are some of our favorite school tools!
Toting things - We got each kid a new backpack this year - I don’t think this needs to be an annual thing, but my son’s was a tad small and very dirty from the summer, and my daughter needed a bigger one. We landed on this for him and this one for her, and they’re so cute. We also refreshed our supply of these Packit things that keep snacks cold during the day for my kids. We love our Omie lunch boxes, but like having auxiliary snack containers so they don’t need to go into their lunchbox for those.
My school supplies - I’m a .38 girly all the way, and I love the variation in color of these fun pens! I also LOVE the feeling of Moleskine paper. I’ve been using these notebooks for years, and love the unlined ones the best. I have big handwriting and like not feeling confined. I’m sure there’s something to dissect with a therapist.
ALSO - Check out the Pepper Books Summer Boxes we’ve are live! We have already sold out two boxes, and have three awesome summer boxes, as well as some western and sports boxes you can’t miss.
What’s for Dinner?
Sunday - Salad Nicoise with Seared Tuna
Monday - Skinnytaste Beef Tacos
Tuesday - Turkey Patties with Cauliflower from What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking
Wednesday - Food trucks at the Police Open House - such a fun event in our town
Thursday - Takeout Indian - if you’re local, Shanti is the best!
More A Day In Her Life:
ICYMI - This week Lauren Makler was on the podcast sharing her days as a co-founder and CEO of Cofertility. Her passion for helping families and remaining committed to being present for hers was really tangible in our conversation! This is a great listen!
One Year Ago - A Day In Her Life with Tamara Hinkley
Two Years Ago - Mini-Episode about Food
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The camp debrief with kids is so helpful! And so good to do it immediately, while things are still fresh. Also, isn't it WILD how few summer camps actually provide workday coverage? This summer, I gave my older kid a bullet point list of "33 Things To Do Before You Tell Mom & Dad You're Bored Because We Will Give You Chores To Do." It was very helpful on half-day camp days!
Would love to hear more on how you’re getting your kiddo to rank camps! Mine keeps saying “I dunno!”