Comfort Wool Co.: Smart Summer Challenge

I hope no one minds what I'm about to begin doing.

I'm going to ...gasp... use this blog for some personal posts as well. Don't hate me. Please. Continue to read along and I promise to sneak in some yarn porn here and there.

This week has been the first week my kids have been home from school and that I have subsequently been off of work for summer. There are ups and down to this teacher gig. An up is summers off...a down is so much down time that you want to pull your hair out and run naked through the streets screaming just to relieve the boredom.

In case you hadn't heard, it gets HOT as H-E-Double Hockey Sticks here in Virginia. We are talking well into the upper 90's or worse, 100's. We have two cars, both black, both with black leather interior. Enough said? Getting into the car with three kids is enough to make you....never mind...we can't speak of that in polite society.

So, in past summers, what we have found is that the busier we keep the kidlets, the happier everyone involved will be. We've also found that sometimes we have to brave the heat of the car for sanity. This summer, I decided to get creative.

First, I made a calendar of events in my city that were either free or cheap. I picked events that were age appropriate for both a 5 and a 3 year old. I picked ones that were fun and educational. And above all, I wanted things that would expose them to new experiences.

Here is my calendar which will show you all of the events I planned for July and August. I've found that either August is a slower month in terms of events or places just haven't put out events/dates for that month yet. I'll keep updating it as we go along the dog days of summer.

Keep in mind, this is a work in progress. Blank days just mean there was no big single day event. We fill those days in with park visits, pool visits, play dates, or free museums around town!

(For the good stuff, hit the blue arrow to see July and August.)

The other thing we are doing is the "Smart Summer Challenge" Each week, the author will be posting new themes for the week. This week was "You on the Map." Today, we mapped out bodies. Tomorrow, I'm thinking we will map our neighborhood. Luckily, the author made up a fancy calendar with ideas for the summer! We'll be picking and choosing as we want to get out of the house as much as possible. But we went ahead and mapped our internal organs. First, we took a trip to the library to get a book about the human body. Next, we cut out our organs...construction paper. Don't panic.