This is the first weekend of summer for my tween.  Her 6th grade locker is cleaned out and she is ‘excited to sleep in’. Before we know it, the summer will fly by and I don’t want to wonder what we did with all of our ‘free’ time.

What will we do this summer? Carla Schauer has created a Travel Scavenger Hunt for Tweens that will be a perfect non-tech companion for our drive to Southern California this summer. (Be sure to click over to Carla Schauer Designs for her tips & suggested rules for the scavenger hunt.)

So Carla has us prepped for the road trip – but what about the rest of summer? I took my favorite girl to lunch so we could plan the summer. I brought my notebook and a pen to capture the goal list. I knew we were going to plan the best summer EVER! The brief conversation left me deflated. My usually very driven and competitive Miranda has big plans to “sleep, read books, play soccer, go shopping”. I asked if she wanted to hit any specific soccer drill goals: “nope”. My type A organizer self wanted to come up with a goal list for my daughter for the summer, but I stopped myself and realized that girl has been nonstop busy this school year.  She has kept up with her school work while taking on soccer 4-6 days per week, violin lessons and Mexican folkloric dance lessons. I came home from the lunch with an empty notebook, but that is fine. Perhaps I am taking a cue from Anna at In The Next 30 Days who has built May’s theme around ‘Simplify‘. Now I realize it is OK to have my daughter enjoy her summer without an overachiever goal list.

So, I will still probably wonder how the summer flew by, but I hope Miranda enjoys the sunshine, casual reading and splashing in the pool stress-free for the next 2.5 months. I will be envious and still find some ways to challenge her – but my to do list for her is tucked away for the moment. (And yes, I will still bring Carla’s checklist with me on our roadtrips this summer.)

But….When my daughter gets caught up on her sleep, I’ll refer to the references below for some great tween summer activity ideas!

Tween Summer Challenge List Ideas:

–Reading – The American Library Association has compiled a summer 2014 reading list by age group with brief descriptions and a variety of books to choose from.

–Swimming – GoSwim provides a list of drills for beyond-beginner swimmers with excellent videos on the finer points of swimming techniques.

–County & State Fairs – For a true summer experience, add some cotton candy and farm animals. Search for your own state county fairs (or direct links to fair listings for California and Illinois). Make your own challenge around trying new fair food or see what other tweens are doing to win 4-H ribbons.

–New Words – Take the weekly Word of the Week Challenge on iTwixie.

–Summer Crafts – Check the Club Chica Circle YouTube channel for Minute to Win It challenges and craft tutorials (shameless plug).

–100 Foods List Challenge – Here’s a flashback to our 2012 foods list challenge.

Will you be preparing a summer challenge list? Please share below.

Enjoy summer and remember the sunscreen!