How Does Summer Make us Better Prepared?

When I started this article it was going to be “Five Things to Create Space for This Summer,” but as I wrote, I realized there was something that I needed to write about first.

Oh, I can hear ya now. “Karen, while there may be value in having time to do things with our kids this summer – I mean they are my kids and I love ’em – but what in the world does this have to do with preparedness?!?”  I see you nodding your head, so bear with me a moment.

I think there are a couple of HUGE things that creating space in our lives for various activities has to do with preparedness.

1.) How prepared are you, as Mom, to deal with unrestricted activity time this summer?

Whether you homeschool your children or you send your children to school, when children have unrestricted free time, problems ensue.  Now while this could totally be a problem for just my family – somehow, I completely doubt it.  I’ve seen other kids when we’re visiting with people.  “Mom, I’m boooooOOoooored. Can I [insert mindless activity here]”  It could be – “watch a TV or a movie” or “play video games” or “TP the neighbor’s house.”  Well, let’s hope it’s not the last one.

See, I thought I wasn’t the only one.  First off, this is a wonderful way for us, as parents, to test our ability to deal with children when we aren’t actively teaching them or sending them off to school all day.  Can we help our children find contentment with the things they already have around them?

Do they have TOO MUCH stuff?

When you hear your children say that they are bored – sometimes, this is a signal that they have so many things around them that they can’t find one thing that stands out in their mind more than other things.  This is the case in at least half the cases when I’ve been around homes when the kids said that they were bored. (This is so totally not my problem, but we’ll get to my problem shortly enough!)  Are your kids just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of STUFF?

There are two simple solutions to the problem.

1.)  Buy clear plastic totes and organize your items by category.  Legos go in one tote.  Lincoln logs go in a different tote.  Action figures go in another tote.  Blocks, trains, coloring books & crayons, craft items all get their own totes.  Once you’ve sorted through everything, then you only have one or two totes max out for a week at a time.  The next week that tote or two go away and one or two more come out.

2.)  Make some money!!  Have a garage sale and sell some of the stuff.  Your children aren’t going to be stunted in their emotional growth if they never play with Lincoln logs or army men, or name your piece of plastic…..

Do you need to rethink what stuff they have or have access to?

This is so my problem.  I H-A-T-E clutter.  Nope, I can’t abide by it.  I loathe it; despise it…… can I be any more emphatic?  I can’t stand the stuff, so my house doesn’t have an overabundance of kids toys.  We have Lincoln logs, trains, legos, and army men (my girls are now older, so we don’t have little girls type of stuff).

Ah, but here’s the rub.  When a game would lose enough pieces, I would toss it out.  Why keep it if the kids can’t play it, right?  Well, you do that enough and guess what?  There are very few games left.  Have the coloring books been filled?  Excellent.  I can toss them!!  Craft supplies get used and the crafts eventually get filed in the round file bin (trash can).  My issue is remembering to replace these items.  Are we down to two games?  Perhaps it’s time to buy a couple more.  Did we finish the last of the coloring books?  Are all our crayons broken?  Okay.  Time to replace them.  Did the kids break the last set of guitar strings?  I definitely need more of those!

2.) Momma, are your kids prepared to entertain themselves this summer

WITHOUT electronics?

This is the second way that creating space for summer activities wades into preparedness issues.  When – not if – but when you’re hit with that summer thunderstorm which knocks out your power for two days, how will your kids handle it?  If they OD on visual entertainment, when the power goes out, both you AND them will be in trouble.

Learning to play by themselves without electronics takes practice!  My youngest child feels the unquenchable need to have someone play with him.  He is definitely improving in being able to play by himself, but it takes time!  Help your kids learn this lesson this summer, so both you and he or she have an easier time if the power goes out.  While it’s going to be a pain in the backside short-term, you’ll be so happy that you stuck to your guns and that they learned how to entertain themselves without a screen of some kind.

3.) Hey, Momma, are you prepared with great books – both fiction and non-fiction for your kids to read?  And have you taught them to love reading?

Great books

Great books are made up of so much more than just the latest fiction, though those are important too!  Do you have non-fiction books on hand for subjects that your kids are already into?  I have one child who has been known to pick up a book on anything electrical – like wiring a house or repairing electronic components of different household items.  Do you have a child who loves to garden?  Have books on hand to help them on their journey?  Do you have a child who loves to work with wood, or to crochet or knit, or to do composting, or….. fill in the blank.  Whatever your children are interested in, you should have books ready and on hand to help them as they want to learn more.

But non-fiction books are only a sliver of what’s out there and fiction books are important too.

Why are books so important?

A child who can get lost in a book has several advantages.  The biggest and best one is that they are always learning without realizing it!  I don’t care if they are reading Harry Potter or Hunger Games or the encyclopedia.  There is always something to be learned, whether about human nature or survival instincts or tips to get people to buy into what you need them to.

If your kids love to read, they can learn just about anything on their own.  YouTube is excellent, but not without power.  But you can print blog posts out and put them in your amazing Prepper File Box.  You’ll have all kinds of articles at your fingertips when you need them, and when someone loves to read everything they can get their hands on, putting instructions into practice is so much easier.

When your kids love to read, they disappear for hours at a time….. when you need to be able to concentrate to get things done, this could be a good thing.

But what if your kids don’t love to read…….. yet?

Don’t stress, don’t push.  Instead, find a book they enjoy listening to and read it to them.  Yea, I know you’re busy!  I’m incredibly busy too!  I get it, but if you want them to love reading, this is the single fastest way to teach them that reading is fun and enjoyable.

If you’re too busy to read to your kids – hey, it happens from time to time, doesn’t it?  Use Audible or other Audiobook formats!  Yes, I know it takes electricity and you probably won’t have it during a power outage, but if your goal – at least for the moment – is to just to get them to love reading, this will definitely help!  They will do better if they have a book in their hands while you or Audible read to them.  This way they can follow along and realize that what they are enjoying is actually a BOOK, not just another form of electronic entertainment.

What About You?

What are other preparedness lessons that can be learned throughout the summer?  Have you already been hit between the eyes with a lesson or several?  Please share them with us in the comments below so that we can all be better prepared.

Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, Overcome

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