For cheaper summer entertainment for the kids is anyone saving money by planning their own day camps? What kinds of themes/crafts are you planning on doing?

I was thinking of brainstorming some activities to go with the following themes: animals, space, oceans, human body, senses, and weather.

Thats A great idea though my DD is too Little for Day Camp. Here is what I am planning.
Urban Adventures: A series of 8 hikes every other week. Have 4 people signed up for the first one.
Lots of park dates, spray park dates, a zoo trip and whatever else I come up with.
I organize a moms group through Meetup.com so I plan 2-3 activities a week year round. Maybe once DD is older we will do more themed activities. Our themes so far just go along with holidays.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

We must've been thinking about the same thing today. I was wondering about this too. I am going to try to come up with a weekly plan. I'm anti-crafts, though. I do love art but hate making all those little things to throw away. Making something useful is cool though.

Last summer my daughter and her friends did something like this after seeing an article in a magazine (I think it was American Girl). They planned themed days for different houses. We had the beach party here because we have a pool. They shopped for decorations at the dollar store and went through their houses for stuff to use. They even cleaned the whole pool area beforehand. They also did the cleanup afterwards. I didn't do much beyond supervising the swimming.

I have tried in the past some days it works well others not so much! The little ones are easy they could search for bugs for hrs!

We do trips to the Y, Park, and library. I am a little nervous since I am getting my foot fixed, I will be on crutchs for a week and a walking cast after that but I am not going to be able to go to far to fast for a few wks. I hope to keep them all happy in the backyard, wish me luck on that

Somewhat- I am a crafty person and I try to get the girls doing at least one thing a week too stay off the "boredom" factor. Each week we will work on a craft- one week we will bake fimo clay (probably will be "food" for the dolls), next week we'll do tie dye shirts, so on and so forth. BTW- I have a lot of stuff on hand that we can do craft things BUT I hit the dollar bin at Joanne's and Michaels for add-ons and new things to do. We will also be doing Christmas in July this year- working on things for presents this upcoming Christmas for the family (don't know what though!). We will also do a health thing each week- either take them to the park for a nice walk, bike ride, bad mitton and so on. I don't really have any themes but it helps the summer days pass easier!

I love this idea. I try to plan at least one 'theme' week per summer. I would love to do more. I just have to stick with it.

check out FamilyFun: Fun stuff for Kids, Parents - and More Family Fun for some great ideas. they showcase stuff like this in their spring/summer magazines all the time, and are all about themes and child's play. is everyone doing it for just their family or are you including other kids in it too?

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Here are 99 games you could look through! 99 Days of Summer Games

Summer Camp Crafts

Swirly Stones -- these are cool!


*plug "camp" into search on familyfun.com and sort through over 10 pgs of results!

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I have a theme picked for each week and am going to chose an outing per week. I chose the theme based on the books I selected for our summer reading list. I'll share the details when I finish my calendar.