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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

A Bit About My Day

Camp is out. Which means the kids are all home, all day, every day, until school starts after Labor Day. Anyone have any idea how hard it is to come up with activities that would equally please four different aged, different gendered kids? When the girls are clamoring for the American Girl Place, (I know - Yuck!) and the boys want to...well, do anything but?
Nearly impossible.
Any suggestions?

20 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about something revilutionary, like going to the park? Or do they not "do" that in the Five Towns?

11:31 PM  
Blogger orthomom said...

Nah, things like that just aren't "done" out here. If it isn't expensive, it can't possibly be fun, can it?

11:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jones Beach? Old Bethpage Village Restoration? (My parents used to take us to a similar place almost every WEEK when we were aged 1, 3, and 7...all of us liked it)

12:25 AM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Take them out for sushi! ;-)

(hint, hin— i mean... hamevina tavin)

12:57 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

"If it isn't expensive, it can't possibly be fun, can it?" LOL.

I "like" to "go" to cedarhurst park as well. But I "find" North Woodmere to be a lot "more" fun.

1:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Take them to FAO Schwartz, but tell them it's a Toy Museum. They can play, but not buy!

1:57 AM  
Blogger nikki said...

hi. new to your blog. good insight! grew up on the south shore, educated in the 5towns.

how about nyc touristy things? top of the empire state bldg, statue of liberty, ellis island, circle line, etc. or there's lido beach (still for paying public?, point lookout? then there are "please touch" museums, isn't there a new one in manhattan or brooklyn? museum of natural history?, the new planetarium? the vanderbuilt planetarium on LI? bronx zoo?

i know how you feel -- i've had my kids home for 4 weeks!
good luck!
(ps -- "MD" stands for mamlachti dati -- we live in israel now)

2:09 AM  
Blogger ukok said...

I'm a Brit and our children will be back to school in two weeks after a 6 week break...they have approximately 14 weeks off from school each year, and in addition to this teacher training days when they are not required to go to school.

I know how difficult it is to entertain children. And I have to do so on extremely limited funds! This time I've so enjoyed them being at home, I really don't want them to go back though.

God Bless.

p.s. I liked your blog.

4:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

UKOK - I'm intrigued - how did you entertain them on limited funds and how have you enjoyed them? Mine are bored by 10am and they're the same gender and age range. they want the same park every day, which is great when it's not raining (guess where I live?!), but it costs £4, not a lot, but 4 a day adds up when you're broke!
Great blog btw

7:30 AM  
Blogger Air Time said...

four differently gendered kids? how did you manage that?

9:57 AM  
Blogger orthomom said...

Talent.

10:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

a.t.
that's awesome.
a.s.

10:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Our secret was arts & crafts (kids home all summer, since I'm not a "working mom," I didn't send them to summer camp. Paying for camp when I'm home anyway seemed silly, not to mention it would mean less money available for tuition. I do try to keep my priorities in line.)

I had a sort of schedule for them with davening, etc that they all helped each other with, and then they had chores which included one of them being "in charge" of lunch and dinner each day, one helping with laundry, one "in charge" of clean-up, etc... so they would actually help me a bit instead of being annoyed wiht me for trying to fit my chores around them. Then we went to the library, or the park, or did projects. Collages with construction paper and stickers and markers and that sort of thing, coloring or writing in their "journals." The biggest hit was perler beads. Now normally, I stay away from things with 65000 small parts (and with perler beads, that's actually not an exaggerated number!) but everyone over two had a blast arranging these tiny little fuse beads on a peg board and handing them over to be ironed, to fuse them together.

We also painted suncatchers... even the 2 year old got to that, with an older sibling's help.

But I'm still glad for school to start next week, and only having half of them at home!

12:07 PM  
Blogger AMSHINOVER said...

ONE WORD BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The NY Aquarium!! The kids LOVED it !! Make sure to get there for feeding time.

3:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey you could discuss the latest vote in Lawrence. I hear they do it at wedings all the time, ignoring the rest of the table that isn't from the 5T. Why not start the kids on this lovely trait early?

9:46 PM  
Blogger orthomom said...

"Hey you could discuss the latest vote in Lawrence. I hear they do it at wedings all the time, ignoring the rest of the table that isn't from the 5T. Why not start the kids on this lovely trait early?"
Fascinating. I live in one of the neighborhoods that is part of the Lawrence School District, and I've never seen that happen. Ever. I rarely hear this come up in conversation with people from around here, let alone when people are present who are not locals. Maybe I just hang around with more polite people than you do. And by the way, you really do rant a lot, sir.

10:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As long as you mention the subject, I'm fascinated by AG dolls. I bought one for my oldest daughter's b-day last year, unable to resist her longing for one.

Less than 9 months later, noticing that she was virtually ignoring the doll, I mentioned her younger sister's desperate longing for an AG doll. Scarecely did I finish my thought when she quickly offered to give it to younger sister. "No offense," she quickly added.

Now, younger sister has the doll and I'm staring at it right now, noticing it's been casually tossed on the couch.

So far, this month, I've seen it causally strewen on the floor or my bedroom; the living room, my daughter's room; and the den.

Are these dolls just stupid, overpriced, and overrated or are my daughters just ingrates? Or is this how ALL girls treat ALL dolls, and the only reason I notice is because I shelled out $(an ungodly sum) for it?

I'm just wondering what you think.

(signed: a regular poster who's embarrassed he fell for the AG hype)

11:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OM,

I mentioned it "tounue in cheek", but this actually happened to me at a "family" wedding and the group that was so engrossed in the conversation literally ignored the rest of us. It wasn't meant as a personnal affront to you.

As far as the ranting goes; It's cheaper than therapy (lol).

1:21 PM  
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