[contrary1]

being an old activity director, I make up a calendar for the summer & start taking requests for activities around now. (current kids can't do this with me, but others over the years have come up with some great things)

We take suggestions .........(most have to be in the No Money Fun catagory, some can be Wishful thinking type activities too, as it is fun to include a surprise if the budget can accomodate it.) and then we scour the local papers for activity calendars. Combining them to come up with themes or focus activities for the different weeks/months.

A favorite for all of us was to pick a country to highlight each month. We actually did this year round for a long time........... The big event was a family meal (extended family too) for a potluck affair with food matching the country chosen. During the month the kids worked on some research first, then came up with decorations, music from the library and anything else we could dream up. We had some amazing events over the years. Kids learned something and were absolutely driven to top their last months efforts each time. Fun too, to see the rest of the families getting involved.

Gardening has always been on our list here too............our most successful has been giving each kid a "salad" garden.........actually a huge planter on the deck, with their names attached. Then, we had a salad, courtesy of Amy on Monday, Josh on Tuesday, etc.... They had fun with this idea.