It’s August, can you believe it?

This summer has certainly flown by. There is still a good month left for us to enjoy the lazy days of summer. However it is around this time, as the summer activities come to an end, our minds often drift to thoughts of fall preparation.

The back to school ads are in full gear, fall sports registrations are due, and as parents there is a mixture of great joy and sadness. We often look forward to the next big thing, but we hope we have spent enough time enjoying the present.

Will your child be attending school for the first time in the fall? Will they be attending a new school? If so maybe some of those fall thoughts are also accompanied by the great fear of the unknown. Remember you are not alone, there are plenty of other parents are feeling the same.  

This year to help transition from summer to fall, and be sure that we have captured all of our summer memories along the way, we will be doing some things to ease back into routine. I hope you can borrow some ideas and implement them with your own families over the next few weeks as well.

Scrapbooking

I love to scrapbook and blog. However I am no different than most parents out there - I have hundreds of pictures of my children literally waiting to be used.

Once upon a time I was great at snapping those pictures, printing, passing them out and creating albums. Somewhere between one and three kids I fell off the boat so to speak. So this year my kids are going to help me. We will be creating our 2011 summer photo album together. If I can guarantee one thing, I know my children will hold me accountable to completing this task. Walgreen’s is always a great printing option.

Morning High Five 

I owe this thank you to a dear friend of mine. Remember we are easing into fall. This one is all about routine. Select five things that your children must do when they wake up:

1) Make bed

2) Eat breakfast

3) Clear table

4) Get dressed

5) Brush teeth and hair

At the end, mom or dad will check to see that all tasks are completed and give them a big high-five for a successful morning.

Let the summer reading continue

There are not any organized reading programs (at least not that I know of) for the month of August. So we will be creating our own to keep them reading. I will be tracking 20-30 minutes of reading a day for my daughter and we will then pick a weekly agreed upon prize such as adding 15 minutes added onto bedtime. Then there will be a grand prize for all her hard work. Likely ice cream!

Lastly, we will be hitting up the local school deals at CVS, Walgreens and Kmart. Who doesn’t like a new box of pointy, sharp crayons? There is also a major shoe shopping trip in my future to Connies Children Shop and Payless here we come!

Although it seems as though summer is wrapping up quickly, take some time to sprinkle in fun with business and capture those last few lazy days of summer memories with your family.

I would love to hear about your favorite summer time memories with your family on the Patch or at amamajourney@gmail.com!