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If your kids are out of school and you are already counting the days until they go back or you are tired of hearing : “I ’m bored, what is there to do” then this article will brighten your day with 11 awesome ideas of things to do this summer.

In the summer are you frazzled and tired of your kids at the end of every day? Are you counting the days until school starts? Summer can be a time to help spark your creativity and your child’s creativity as well.

Hold a family meeting where kids can choose an activity they are interested in. Older children can help younger children which can help siblings bond to each other and teach them respect for each other.

Some suggestions of what to do so children don’t get bored and you don’t pull your hair out:

1. Plan a picnic. If you don’t have a park nearby or you don’t have time to travel to a park have it in your backyard. Encourage children to plan the menu and help to shop for the necessary supplies. This is a great time to talk about nutrition, help them shop using a budget and teach them how to pack.

2. At the beginning of the summer plan to let each child make a scrapbook of everything they do this summer. Or get a journal to record their activities. This is a great time to help them learn how to declutter as they will learn to keep only the most important things, that keeping everything is not necessary or important. They can take photos for their scrapbook or draw pictures of each activity. Have a family night once a week where they can share their scrapbook with other family members.

3. Have someone decorate a jar and label it “Brag jar”. When someone does something nice for someone else a family member can write down what the person did and put it in the brag jar. This will encourage your kids to do things for others. Make another jar with suggestions of things they can do for others. It sounds a lot better than “chore jar”.  Put fun things they can do for others in the jar as well as jobs.

4. Make a list of things children can do to earn money and put the amount of money they can earn for each job. Children always need money for this and that and it teaches them responsibility and accountability for money.

5. Plan the most outrageous “Staycation” (vacation at home) that your imagination can think of. Lonelyplanet.com/destinations/ has wonderful information about other countries where you can get ideas about your favorite place you want to travel to.

6. How about putting on a play? Have the children write the play, make the costumes, create the set and send out invitations.

7. Plan a couple of hours once a week to organize clutter. Help them go through their toys and down size. Take a look at their clothes in the drawers and in the closets and get rid of what they don’t wear or have grown out of. Donate them to a charity or give to other children in your home that can wear them.

8. Set up a reading program to encourage reading. With the child set a goal of so many books they will read and give a prize when they have reached their goal. They could give an oral book review of their favorite book to the family after they have read 10 books or so many pages depending on the age of the child.

9. Learn how something works and then explain it to the family.

10. Assign a different child one night a week to cook, or a lunch to fix. Encourage them to try new recipes from a simple cookbook. There are wonderful, easy cook books for beginning cooks. Twice during the summer have them make a dish that they have created. Even if it is something as simple as putting nuts in a salad the family likes but it doesn’t call for nuts.

11. Blow up balloons, put notes inside and hand them out to neighbors and friends. Blow up 100 water balloons and have a water balloon fight.

Letting children make summer plans at the beginning of the summer gets them thinking creatively, learning new things and helps make “I’m bored” obsolete.

Click here for more tips and ideas on organizing clutter in your home and kitchen.

Marilyn is a professional organizer, a sought after public speaker and author who is passionate about teaching ways to organize your life and how to reduce clutter. She works with women in their homes and offices. On her web site she teaches you to get rid of clutter by using her Lights On Organizing System. She provides practical information on how to declutter your home, office and life. In her blogs, articles, and videos she gives timely tips on how to clear clutter and how to declutter everything in your home and office. She is the author of a book called Go Organize! Conquer clutter in three simple steps which will be in major bookstores in December 2009.