Piggyback Creativity

I love creative people. From time to time I like to think of myself as creative but in the end my favorite way to be creative is to piggyback off of other people's creativity.  When it comes to ideas for what to do with my kids, new recipes, tips and tricks of organizing or cleaning I am a master adapter not a master inventor.  I find inspiration and creativity all around me and then adapt it so it works for me.

When it comes to sharing any summer sanity tips it's only fair that you understand this about me. I have not come up with all these ideas on my own. I'm simply sharing what works/has worked for us and chronicling for future reference what our days consisted of in the Wright household. 

Here are two of my favorite "Piggyback Creativity" ideas for summer:

1. Summer Bucket List -

We can't possibly do all the wonderful and cool things there are to do around here but we can narrow it down to a list of 20-25 items.  Picnics, playgrounds, pool days, star gazing, fireworks....these all make it onto our summer bucket list and then we cross them off as we finish them.  For more ideas check out The Happy Family Movement. It's great fun to see what other families are doing and get some ideas of how you can adapt their ideas and make them your own.

2. Summer Reading Fun -

I am fortunate, Lydia and Emma LOVE to read. I don't have to convince them that spending time with a good book can take them anywhere they want to go.  For more reluctant readers though, joining a library summer reading program or the Barnes & Noble summer reading program may provide more incentive to hide away with a good book. This year I made a poster board called "Catch the reading bug". The girls school and the library program we join require them to track all the books they read. For us, that's a lot of books! This summer I am going to hang the catch the reading bug poster and attach clipboards with lined paper so they can write down each day the books they read.  I am hoping this will eliminate the, "So what all did you read this week?" question and ensuing writing cramps from writing it all down. 

I would love to hear what your families favorite books and series are.  We enjoy historical, magical and educational series, so please let us know what your families love reading.

Reminder: There is still plenty of time to enter the Summer Sanity Giveaway. Just leave a comment on the giveaway post and then each subsequent comment on summer sanity posts gives you another entry.

Join the conversation:
How do you "piggyback creativity"? What resources have you found most helpful in doing so?

Blessings!

Summer Reading - Shiloh

In our house we all love to read.  Books are part of our daily life and we spend lots of time reading, both together and alone.  Each day this summer we have been taking time to have read-aloud time.  Though I read aloud to the girls each day anyway I wanted to designate some more difficult and/or more classic literature into their lives.  Our first read-aloud this summer was Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

The girls enjoyed this book about a boy and his adventures to keep an abused dog.  We enjoyed that it was set in West Virginia.  There are certainly aspects of the book that are little bit older than my girls may understand but that is why it is a great book for a read-aloud, I can help explain or teach them about what is going on.

We used this website for some reading comprehension and activities. We also got a book about beagles from the library and did some preschool dog activities before I passed them on to a friend. We are waiting to rent the movie from the library but haven't gotten around to it.

We've read several other books and I promise I took at least a few pictures of the activities.  But, since I didn't have my camera when we did these activities and I didn't want to stage the photos her are a few random pictures just because my girls are cute. Who do you think they get their silliness from?

You guessed it. Daddy!

So, what books do you and your children enjoy reading together?