Where You'll Find Us Any Given Day...

One of my favorite things about the warm weather (when it finally does come, which seems to take forever here in Chicago) is that I can keep the kids out of the house. During the winter I had them on a strict routineof getting home, eating snack at the table, doing homework and reading, and then getting to play for a while before dinner. This was partly just to keep some structure to things, to keep the very wild Little Bear and Rafael from destroying the house!
But now that it is spring, I have a new theory... I try to let them play as much as possible!
At around 2:30 Pufferfish and I go to pick Rafael up at his school, and then we all drive to Little Bear's school. I park the car behind the school and let Little Bear, Pufferfish and Rafael play for as long as they want... usually about an hour until all of the other kids are gone. This has worked out very well for me because, at the beginning of the year, it seemed like Little Bear didn't really have any friends at school. But being able to watch her play at her school playground everyday after school gave me a chance to see that she really does have a lot of friends and play well with other kids! One week I helped her exchange phone numbers with some of the other kids she played with the most. She even had an afterschool play date at another kid's house once!
Its also been good for Rafael, I think. He doesn't really have many friends at his school, but at Little Bear's school everyone wants to be his friend because he's new and exciting there!
Anyway, after the school playground has been abandoned, we all get into the car and head over to a large park that is about two blocks away from the school and two blocks away from the house. That park is kind of a gathering place for the neighborhood. Little Bear and Rafael often run into kids from Little Bear's school there, and they've also made friends from other schools who go to that park. We often even see Sarah and her friends there, or Monkeyboy! The ice cream truck usually goes there, and every Monday I let them buy an ice cream. (The other days they have to suffer without it!)
When we're at that park, I check the kids' backpacks to see how much homework they have, and that helps me determine how long we stay at the park. If they have little or no homework, we can stay until five, which is right around the time that Rafael's mom comes to get him. If they have some homework, we leave about twenty minutes early to go get that done, and then they have a little bit of play time and relaxation time at home before dinner.
I think it works out a lot better for them! The sunshine, fresh air, socialization and exercise is much better for them than sitting in the house playing with toys in the playroom, or even sitting at the table doing homework. Don't you think?
My plan for this summer is going to be similar... keep them out as much as possible! I'm thinking we can even have lunch, read, and do our art projects outside a lot of the time!
Here are some pics we took on a recent day at the park.
Rafael swinging...

   


This was on a Monday, I guess, because we had ice cream! Look how gross it made his mouth!

 You can see that Pufferfish had some ice cream too! She looks like a vampire baby with her black lips!

 Sarah taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me taking a picture of her...

 This is our little friend Billy who also frequents the park. He knows everyone who has ever set foot in the park, and possibly everyone in our town! He's a very friendly little dude!

Billy took this picture of Sarah, right before she disappeared into a ball of bright light! ;)

Pufferfish is proud that she finished all of her icecream! (Usually most of it ends up falling on the ground.)

Another photo taken by Billy!

Sarah pushing Billy on the swings. He loves underdogs!

Rafael and Billy, on the swings, obviously!

Maybe Rafael just stayed on the swing that whole day?

Little Bear going wild on the swing! (This is a swing for kids who have trouble holding themselves upright in a regular swing, but Little Bear, Rafael, and the others like to twist the chains up and then spin around like crazy in it!)

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What about you? What do you do after school to keep your little ones from driving you nuts?