Whoever said, it’s “Summertime and the livin’s easy,” obviously didn’t have a house full of kids to feed and entertain. While June is electrified with the freedom from school and homework, July brings the hot, sticky doldrums of summer. This is the time to activate the anti-boredom protocol. It requires thinking outside the box and one step ahead of your offspring. Honestly, it’s not really that hard because they’re completely distracted by their phones anyway.
Day camps are a great opportunity to learn new skills, like golf, swimming, and art. Cooking camp, though, teaches kids a skill that also benefits you. What busy parent couldn’t use an extra cook in the kitchen? Sur la Table in Market Place is offering hands-on, week-long classes for young chefs ages 7 to 17 through August 25th to learn preparation and planning techniques, baking, and even how to open a restaurant. Young Chefs Academy, located on Research Forest Drive, is cooking up fun for 6- to 12-year-olds mornings and afternoons until school starts, along with one-day, 90-minute classes for kids ages 4 to 17. Teach them to cook and they’ll never go hungry.
If your little sweethearts are really starting to bug you, remember you catch more flies with honey, especially if you can farm the honey yourself. Michael Hardman at Spicy Fly Honey Bees in Tomball can teach you how. With his professional instruction and guidance, anyone tall enough to wear the protective equipment can learn to be a beekeeper. Mother Nature will thank you. Give him a buzz to schedule a time to meet the bees or try an introductory class through the website spicyflyhoneybees.com.
Perhaps you’re finding their towels on the floor. Let those be the first contributions for a neighborhood towel drive for the Montgomery County SPCA. Anyone whining about the dinner menu can help contribute to the food drive for the Montgomery County Food Bank. Seriously, even the littles can participate in a neighborhood canned food drive or fundraiser from a lemonade stand at the park. For every $1 raised, five meals will be served to those in need. Everyone over 16 can be a blood donor and summer is when area blood banks have their greatest need.
Woodlands Axe is throwing out ideas to burn off energy. Smash Therapy might be a great way to break up the routine. Climb Woodlands is rocking ways to keep everyone off the ledge. And Saddle River Range in Conroe is on point if you’re shooting for a new idea like archery. You can also book it over to the public library.
When your best efforts still aren’t working, maybe your young person should. Kids home from college and high schoolers over 16 can apply at The Woodlands Township or The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, earn some extra money and be on the inside for all the summer concerts. They’re not yet old enough to start contributing to Social Security? Let them start their own business! Forget the lemonade stand: create a haunted house and charge an entrance fee. Organize a furry fashion show and pet parade. Water patio plants for vacationing neighbors. Encourage them to host their own art, fitness, science, dance, or theatre camp for younger kids in the neighborhood.
Don’t wait for the winter holidays to send the kids over the river and through the woods. Pack them off to Grandma’s house now and call your siblings to do the same. Cousin Camp is the perfect opportunity for the next generation to create wonderful summer memories with each other and their grandparents, memories that will last a lifetime.
At the end of the hot, humid, mosquito-filled day, though, summer is still fleeting. Back to School sales will be starting any minute, and you’ll be back to the grind. Enjoy them while you have them.