My kids are home and safe this summer. They are calm and happy every day. There is no boredom here! How? I've planned a complete 8-week mommy daycamp and they are so excited. They've been enjoying the first few days with zero complaints or fighting between them!
We've made the difficult decision to keep our kids home from daycamp this summer due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It does add quite a bit of pressure on us, but it is a much safer alternative as national numbers are hitting record highs. So, that leaves us with the important task of figuring out what to do with the kids for the next 8 weeks.
I have created a complete summer camp plan. 8 full weeks planned included breakfast and lunch menu, all activities, weekly themes and more. I'm going to share all of this with you!
General Format
Basic format is 7:30 am we Daven (morning prayers), followed by getting dressed and recess. We eat breakfast at 9:00 am each day. Then, we will do some brain teasers/puzzles at 10:00 am. 10:30 we will do activities relating to the theme for the week. Lunch starts at 11:30 am. At 12:30 we do school-type work, which keeps the kids from getting behind over the summer. Then lastly, at 1:30 we go the activity of the day. These activities are: Yoga, Art, Baking, Science, Dance Party, Movie, or special performances. We do this Monday through Thursday. On Friday, we do everything the same until 10, then the kids have their weekly religious studies. After that they are off.
You can download the 8-week calendar and the complete day-by-day, hour-by-hour schedule here: Calendar Hourly Schedule
General Resources
These are all the books we are using for the daily activities. Just click any picture to order on Amazon. We do use affiliate links and your purchases help to support this site.
Brain Teasers for Preschool ages.
Fun look and find puzzles for preschoolers.
Brain teasers for school age. I've got this for my going on 4th grader.
And fun puzzles for the gradeschooler. Picture puzzles, jokes, cartoons, quizzes, and lots of fun things.
Workbook for keeping my preschoolers on track educationally.
Third Grade review so my 9-year old will be on track for the school year.
Week 1
The theme for week 1 of Mommy Daycamp is Grocery Store. I had a concept for a fun pretend play game and created the entire week around this idea.
Theme Activities: On days 1, 3 and 4, we played grocery store. I bought price stickers from Target for $1.99. With the assistance of my 9 yr old, we gathered up all of the kids play food and priced every single piece. Mind you, the prices are very random. A banana might be $0.20 and the next banana $2.50. LOL. Then we sorted the foods into "aisles", Fruits, Vegetables, Meats, Grocery, Bakery, and Deli. Finally, the two young ones took turns with the one play grocery card we have and pushed it through our "store" buying up whatever they wanted. I handed them out play money to start. 9 sat at the end of the store as the cashier with her own tray of play money, including coins. She had to calculate on paper (no calculators!) how much money the little ones had to pay, and then she delivered them the proper change. I learned after day 1 to limit the number of items to 10 per store run. The first day the two kids collectively emptied the store and it took 9 a long time to cash them out.
On day 2, we did a lesson on grocery stores. We started by watching the YouTube video, "Field Trip to the Grocery Store" from KidVision. Then we did mini workbooks to complete the lesson and reinforce what they learned. Download the workbooks: Preschool Minibooks Elementary Workbook
Daily Special: Monday's special activity was Yoga followed by a relaxing visualization thanks to our Noggin' App. Tuesday, we baked Chocolate Chip Cookies. Sign up here and I'll personally send you my UNPUBLISHED Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. This recipe will not be public until my second cookbook releases next year! Wednesday is art day. The little ones are drawing a Dinosaur, guided by Art for Kids Hub. The 9-year is actually quite an artist. I've set her up to draw the Shopkins character of her choice from Art for Kids Hub. Finally on Thursday, we're playing Freeze Dance. I'm very tricky with the pauses in the music. They'll be giggling within the first 60 seconds.
Week 2
The theme for week 2 of Mommy Daycamp is Families. Awww cute, right?
Theme Activities: Monday, we will make puppets. Each child can make a puppet of a family member of their choice. They will have brown paper bags, construction paper, glue, scissors, and markers to work with. Afterwards, we'll let the kids put on a little interactive show with them. On Tuesday and Wednesday, they get to pretend play with all of the house and baby playthings we have. On Thursday, we will make very basic family trees from green and brown construction paper that I will free-hand draw into a tree trunk and some greenery. The kids can draw pictures of their family members, we will cut them out and paste them onto the tree.
Daily Special: Monday is Yoga and Relaxation exercises from our Noggin' App. Tuesday is Science. We will be playing Sink or Float with a big tub of water and some household objects; Coin, Rubber band, toy boat, and a few other things. Wednesday is art. The preschoolers will draw a Car with the crew from Art for Kids Hub. The 9 year old will draw a summer pic of her choice, guided by Art for Kids Hub. Thursday is a dance party! with some of the fun songs and videos on GoNoodle.
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