Summer Vacation at Home - Try a Home Vacation This Summer

With the price of gas and the constant feeling of being on the move with school, work and family obligations, for some of us, staying at home can be the best vacation. The chance to really relax and enjoy the home that you work so hard for all year might be the vacation you need. Can you imagine being on vacation, and not having to drive anywhere or do anything? No preparation, no packing, no worry about what you forgot, no scrambling to get the dog to the kennel. Cancel all appointments, lessons, obligations and don't answer the phone. Just stay home and vacation. I love to go away and I actually love to drive to new places and plan and pack. But I have, twice in my life done the home vacation and I'm doing it again this year.

When my kids were young and the budget was tight and I was exhausted from work and all the running around, I did the home vacation. Rather than spending money on a hotel or a beach house, we did a day trip to an amusement park and bought a slip in slide and a patio set for the yard and turned it in to vacationland. With really little kids, it's easy. For older kids, the concept of home vacation sounds like no vacation so you have to present it correctly. If you really need to keep the cost down, or just really want to relax and enjoy some family time, plan some home based activities. To make this work though, the parents have to be in vacation mindset. Do not do chores or home repairs while you are on vacation. Don't talk on the phone or make appointments to get the car serviced. Sleep late, then get up and have whatever you have on vacation for breakfast. Make pancakes every day during your vacation week, if you want. Then head out to the yard and, sit in the sun, read a book, play with the kids, have a picnic and eat ice cream every day. You can plan to have a camp out in your back yard, or maybe let the kids sleep on the pull out couch in the living room all week.

If you want to plan some day trips during you week off, begin planning well in advance and involve the kids in the planning. You can start by making a list with them of all the things you have wanted to do but never had time for. Look around your house and your community. Is there a trail you have always wanted to hike or a local theater you have always wanted to go to? Have you always wanted to go tubing or horseback riding? Once you start looking around and talking, you'll be amazed. Start with your community, county or state webpage for the calendar of "things to do". You can generally pick out the free or low cost events from the more expensive. Check the local newspaper and simply start paying more attention to what is in your own backyard, so to speak.

Another really great thing about the home vacation is the opportunity and time to do some normal everyday activities with your family. You can teach your kids how to play a marathon game of Risk or Monopoly and stay up really late. If you have been promising to teach your child how to sew or how to use the video camera or fly a kite or work with clay, or anything at all, now is the time. Take a day or two to follow through on those things that will really out last the week long vacation. The chance to relax, appreciate each other, spend time with each other and play catch up, is really what vacation is all about. Don't forget to take pictures. The home vacation album could end up being the best ever.