Summer Fun

Summer is here and fun is around the corner! It is finally getting warm in southwest Pennsylvania and I am ready for some summer fun! We are making this summer count with the #100daysofsummer2020 challenge!

If you are new to this challenge, head over here for all the details and some cool downloads. But here is the short summary of what we are doing this summer at A One-Room Schoolhouse:

Did you know that between Memorial Day and Labor Day there are roughly 100 days each year? (This year it is 105… but close enough!) Those are the 100 days of summer! The 100 days of summer 2020 need to be epic!

Let’s be honest, spring 2020 has been a bit of a letdown. The world has been in turmoil and our lives have been turned upside down. So with all of the distress in the world, I am issuing a challenge to make the 100 days of summer 2020 count!

#100daysofsummer2020

That’s right! This summer is going to be amazing. To make it truly epic, I challenge each of you to do some really amazing things. Let’s grow! Let’s make a difference! Make ourselves a little better, our family a little better, and our world a little better. Head over here to get your checklist!

Our Challenges

You might be wondering what challenges my family chooses to do. It is so fun to choose these summer items. Wait no longer, this is what each of us selected:

My Almost-Six-Year-Old Boy:

• Read 100 books
• Travel over 100 miles from home
• Build 100 Lego structures
• Spend 100 hours at a zoo, museum, aviary, state/national park, or historical site (Yes, we modified this to include state and national parks. Honestly, I don’t know if those other attractions will open in our area this summer!)
• Play 100 songs on your instrument (piano)

My Four-Year-Old Boy:

• Spend 100 hours outside each month
• Play 100 board or card games
• Roast 100 marshmallows
• Swim 100 hours (He added this one.)
• Eat 100 apples (Yep, he added this one too…*shoulder shrug*!)

Parents:

• Read aloud 100 pictures books
• Do 100 hours of home improvement
• Walk/hike/run/bike 100 miles
• Get rid of 100 things you don’t need
• Camp for 100 hours
• Do 100 workouts

Game Plan

After making the grid tracking sheet last week, I began to think that a grid sheet wouldn’t work very well if you were doing multiple challenges. So I designed a new sheet that uses tally marks instead of checkboxes. (You can download it for yourself at the bottom of this post!)

I used this new check sheet to make the goals visual for each of us. Every time we do an item, an hour, or activity we will just mark a tally. That’s it! Summer fun is on its way!

Week One Report

My Almost-Six-Year-Old Boy:

• Read 100 books (Doing well here. Although this seems like a lot to him, I have him read to me a book or two every day for summer school, so this really won’t be that hard. Currently, he is at four books.)
• Travel over 100 miles from home (Our plans for this summer are all up in the air with COVID. I love to travel and I am sure this will happen, I just don’t know where. Usually, I have a grand adventure all planned out for summertime. This summer, however, is going to be by the seat of our pants!)
• Build 100 Lego structures (I believe he is about three deep into this one!)
• Spend 100 hours at a zoo, museum, aviary, state/national park, or historical site. (Nothing here yet!)
• Play 100 songs on your instrument (He has done six songs so far!)

My Four-Year-Old Boy:

• Spend 100 hours outside each month (Our weather has been so nice recently and we have gotten nineteen hours outside so far!)
• Play 100 board or card games (Two games played and many more to go!)
• Roast 100 marshmallows (Nothing yet. I just went grocery shopping today and my local Aldi was out of marshmallows! Ugh!)
• Swim 100 hours (This one is well underway also. Although the pools are not open in Pennsylvania yet, we live on a lake so we don’t have to wait for the pools to open to do this one. He has four hours on this one done already!)
• Eat 100 apples (One apple down, ninety-nine to go.)

Parents:

• Read aloud 100 pictures books (Every weekday, after lunch I read to my children for around thirty minutes. We do pictures books mainly as my crew is pretty young. My older boys listen to chapter books at bedtime read aloud with Dad. We are at six picture books so far.)
• Do 100 hours of home improvement (With the basement transformation well underway, I have been racking up the hours in this department. I am at 15 hours already.)
• Walk/hike/run/bike 100 miles (Nothing here yet.)
• Get rid of 100 things you don’t need (Nothing yet on this front. I think this goal will happen at the end of the summer after the basement is done. When the basement is finished I will be combining kids’ rooms to make a new playroom upstairs, so I will be focusing on decluttering at that point.)
• Camp for 100 hours (We have three camping trips planned for this summer, so this one will not be hard. We are pretty diehard campers over here: like last year I camped multiple times pregnant!)
• Do 100 workouts (This one is going to be a stretch for me. I do love working out, but I average closer to 3 to 4 days a week right now. So far I have two workouts done, ninety-eight to go!)

Invite…

It is never too late to join us! You don’t need 100 days to do these challenges! Show off your progress through the summer by taking pictures of your chart and your adventures. Post them to social media and use our hashtag #100daysofsummer2020.

Of course, I will follow the hashtag (as should you to grow our community) but also tag @aoneroomschoolhouse and I will be sure to share as many as I can in my stories!

Download (New Tally Sheet)