Who says you need to ship the kids off to Summer Camp in order for them to have some campy fun?

Check out these tips for some at-home backyard fun-camp activities!

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Pull all of the end-of-the-year info together in one place – all those school newsletters, daily notes in your kids’ agendas, the PTA e-mails, the invitations, the rainbow-assortment of Post-It notes you’ve stuck up throughout the house as reminders… and don’t forget to check with the kids to be sure there isn’t one last permission slip or class handout nearly forgotten in their backpack. But be careful, as you may not have peeked in there since Christmas Break, and you never know what uneaten lunch bits or way over-due library books may be lurking in the depths of their backpacks! Designate a time to sit down and get everything organized. Lay everything out, sort by chronological order, check for potential conflicts/double-bookings, and then start entering each event/commitment into your calendar.

Be sure you’ve RSVP’d on any items that requested you to do so. And if you’ve missed any RSVP deadlines, consider contacting the sender with an apology. Chances are, the sender is also living within the depths of end-of the-year-school year craziness and would understand your oversight, as well as appreciate your thoughtfulness of taking the time to follow-up.

As you enter items on your calendar, do so keeping simplification in the forefront of your mind. Do you have a friend who you could plan to take turns car-pooling with? What events require your attendance? Could you tradeoff with your spouse/partner for a couple of field trips? If any of the events require you to shop and send goodies into school, place a reminder on your calendar for a few days prior to the event so you aren’t scurrying out to the 24-hour grocery store in your PJs the night before when you realize you haven’t baked the brownies yet and all you have in your fridge are left-overs and ketchup packets! (Although, it is amazing what kind of creative “treats” moms can pull together from their existing pantry-stash in a pinch!)

Since you are in scheduling-mode, remember to schedule some time for yourself during that already booked month, preferably 2-3 x/week. (Shoot for that and if you stick to 1-2x/week, you’ll still feel good about it!) If it is on your calendar, you’re more likely to do it. Even better, include a friend in the plan so you can hold each other accountable for that Tuesday morning coffee date, movie night, wine on the porch, or even just a get-away-from-it-all walk together. You owe it to yourself and your family to take a little break so you can dive back into your week feeling more refreshed, more positive, and more energized about the rest of your commitments.

Make sure to get to bed at a decent hour. As tempting as it may be to burn the midnight oil and get as much as possible done while the kids are asleep, if you wear yourself down too much, you may end up in bed sick for those events you most want to attend. O.K., all of us moms know that’s just a phrase – “sick in bed” – you won’t be in bed at all; you’ll be running around with your box of tissues, germ gel, cough drops, and feeling miserable, so that’s even more of an incentive to take care of yourself!! Even if you don’t end up getting sick, when you are over-tired, your patience is shorter, and your ability to keep it all straight goes down the drain, so try to get to bed at a semi-decent hour.

Finally, remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and you will make it through to the other side! The end-of-the-school-year crazies are temporary and you can shift down to only full-throttle once the “Lazy” days of summer begin. (By the way, whoever wrote that old song “Summertime, and the Living is Easy” must have lived long before summer camps and playdates!) So try to take it all in stride and enjoy yourself! Speaking of summer, have you remembered to schedule-in signing the kids up for all their summer activities?! A-a-a-and we’re off…!!