Summer - Vacation Ideas

If you are a parent you are probably thinking of what to do with your kids over the summer? Here are some ideas as to what you can do with your family over the summer holidays.

If you are working throughout the summer you will need to have someone watch your children. If you are lucky enough to have a relative that you trust to do this and is willing to do this then this is great. If you are like the rest of us who have to consider daycare and daycamp options here are some tips.

Summer daycare is great if you can find someone available and that has availability. If not you may want to consider your local parks and recreation daycamps. It does cost for these but you may be entitled to financial assistance depending on your income.

I was a day camp counsellor back in the early nineties. It was fun for the kids and the counsellors. The day camp that I worked at was really safe and the kids were well looked after. It is a good option for the working parent. The camp I worked at charged extra for every 15 minutes the parent showed up late after 5:00 PM. So you will have to mind the hours or it could become costly. Get to know the counsellors and ask your children often how they are liking the program and provide the park your feedback. This way they can design the program more effectively. The park I worked at went to various locations throughout the city for swimming and activities.

So what about the time you booked off this summer to spend with your kids. Well if you are like most of us, you probably only were able to take a week off. So what to do in this week where you can spend quality time with your kids and also feel rested to return to work the next week. Good luck if you can accomplish both. I would suggest taking a 3 to 4 day vacation to a cottage if you can afford it and then on the last couple of days stay at home and do the clean up. Laundry is always plentiful when you return from vacation so you do not want to spend the night before you return from work doing laundry. Plus if you do not stay during the weekend you might find it cheaper.

A lot of people cannot afford to go anywhere on vacation this year with the way the economy is. So they are spending money on their homes to make them more comfortable and liveable from within the confines of their own back yards. So if this is your situation you can still be creative, turn your back yard into a camp ground or movie theatre, try to go to the beach a couple of the days and have a movie night when you get back.

If you are a condo or apartment dweller and don't have a yard, what about visiting a parent or relative that does and tent it? Or rent a campground at a provincial park for under 20.00 dollars a day in most cases.

If your kids are really bugging to go somewhere and you can afford it you should check out some theme parks or cottages that are kid friendly.

I hope this helps a few people out there, summer vacation is great in theory but our society does not make it easy to spend quality time with our children. I unlike my mother was not fortunate enough to have the choice to be a stay at home mom or not. I have to work full time and I try my best to still give my son the time and creativity he needs to learn and grow.