Brainstorming for your Fun Summer! {with printable}

Welcome to 5 Days of Fun Summer Planning!

This week I’m soo excited to be joining with 21 other bloggers in 5 Days of Mothering & Homemaking! There are some amazing series’, so please take a moment to check out the home page.

Fun Summer 2012 is upon us, and I’d love for you to be a part of this series that I’ll run all summer!

I love everything about summer:  the heat, the freedom, the possibilities, days filled with nothing-to-do, ice cream, popsicles, and friends.  I don’t want to miss possibilities for my summer because I’ll only have these kids for a limited time.  I want to make sure our summers are filled with memories.

So let’s get started.

Today we’ll brainstorm for our summer.  (Here are ideas from last summer’s brainstorming session)

1.  Print up this brainstorming sheet.  If your kids are older, print one for each of them too.

My friend Kara at The Chuppies has a printable available with more specific brainstorming questions…you might want to print that up and merge it with this!

Getting the kids involved makes them more likely to get excited about our plans.  It also lets them know that they’re valued and their input is important in our family.  Also, it takes the pressure off me to figure out everything we’re doing this summer.

2.  Have everyone write down their ideas for the summer.

The printable is divided into 3 sections:

1.  Fun (what kind of fun would everyone like to have?)

2.  Learn (what are some things everyone would like to learn, individually or as a group?)

3.  Home (what are some things that need to get done around the house?)

If you have smaller children, just have them call out ideas and add them to your list.

3.  Brainstorming is a safe zone.  Anything anyone throws out gets added to the list.

Everyone will want to participate and will feel confident as long as their ideas are accepted as valid ideas.  This means that if someone says Disneyland and you live in Russia and there is absolutely no way you are all going to pile on a plane and head to Anaheim, that’s okay, add it to the list.  This does not mean that everyone’s suggestions will be happening, just that this is a safe spot to dream.

Explain that the children can come up with any idea and write it on their list.  I tell my children this and then add:  I will try to make your ideas happen, but we won’t be able to do all of them.  If you have a budget, this is a good time to gently remind them of this.

4.  Collect everyone’s ideas and dismiss children.

Review the ideas and select the ones you think are most likely to happen, and ones that you can make happen with just a little bit of sacrifice on your part

Come back tomorrow as we talk about our summer goals!

Take a moment to check out the 5 Days of Mothering & Homemaking:

* for more posts in this series, please see the Fun Summer 2012 page

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