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It's hard to imagine that we've already been into the routine of school a few weeks and that these Simple Summer Themes are slipping far behind us. We were so excited about Outer Space Week, that when the first week was cut short the boys asked me if we could do more - and we extended it to a second week. The boys are always thrilled to explore activities and projects around Outer Space.

The boys always love chances to test their gross motor skills, and the Astronaut Training Course we put together is a perfect activity to do just that! Obstacles courses of any kind are a great way to create a little fun in the yard, or if you have enough space - inside on a rainy day. Give the Obstacle Course a theme and a have kids complete something at the end - even better! This obstacle

It's hard to believe that this week we're wrapping up summer, but I am having a lot of fun looking through all the fun things we did these last few months. And, after making sure we keep summer simple, I'm still putting together some posts about it all! These Paper Bag Space Helmets are a simple activity I've always loved doing with kids. A while back we made them at Big Brother's Outer Space

Among all of our Simple Summer Theme Weeks, this has to be one of the favorite ones so far. We're pretty lucky to live with a giant woods area right behind our house so we didn't have to travel far - yet each time we went into the woods I felt our energy change as a group. In fact, the boys have continued to ask to go into the woods many other times this summer so that they can repeat some of

A few weeks ago we really enjoyed "Forest Week" in our Simple Summer Theme weeks. For the most part the boys truly just loved getting outside into the forest - which meant we could really keep things simple. (Which was in fact one of our July Monthly Goals.) To kick off "Forest Week" on our first adventure into the woods the boys worked on this Forest Scavenger Hunt as we walked through the

So although we were headed on vacation a few weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to have a Simple Summer Theme we could still explore. As we were at the ocean we went with a theme that matched - Shark Week! I packed a few things I figured we might do in between trips to the beach and in case of bad weather. But, we had such a great week exploring a new place, hanging at the beach, and

So when Big Brother requested a "Desert Week" in our Simple Summer Theme series, I was a little stumped on what we might do for projects and activities. But, in the end I was excited about some of the different projects and materials we were able to explore. (Although this was a slightly shorter theme week.) 1. Read a Good Book This book Deserts by Gail Gibbons was a great resource for

A few weeks ago as we explored our Simple Summer Theme - Desert Week- we knew it would be a great week for some sensory play! This was especially true when a new sensory material arrived from Sands Alive! for us to explore.  Although we've seen Sands Alive! advertised before, we'd never had the chance to explore the material ourselves. We were pretty excited when they offered to send us a

This was a fun and easy activity we did a few weeks ago for "Desert Week." I will admit that Big Brother chose Desert Week and I was a little stumped on what to do for the week. We came up with several fun ideas. When this idea came to me and proved to be both easy and fun - painting on sandpaper. We used this idea for "Desert Week" but I could see you this also as a great activity as a "

This summer we were excited to kick off our Simple Summer Themes with Science Week! Each week of summer vacation we explore a different "theme." We use materials on hand, simple/easy projects that don't take long to complete, hands on activities, recipes, and field trips. This summer, even more than previous summers, we're truly keeping our themes simple. We're doing something fun with them when

So although summer is officially over, the busy end of our summer meant we never fully got to finish sharing our Simple Summer Theme weeks. We've shared before that we're huge fans of pirates, so of course we needed a Pirate Week! We enjoyed as much of pirate week outside as we could as it proved to be one of the nicest weather weeks of the summer!  1. Go on an ABC Treasure Hunt We had

As I let Big Brother help come up with several of the themes for our Simple Summer series, some of them have made me stretch my imagination a little. It's been interesting to see what I can think of that sticks to the point of our simple summer weeks, yet still matches his theme idea. Castle Week was a bit of a stumper, but I think I came up with some good activities. Castle Week was another