START NOW Planning is key to great family fun

By Mary Ann Wilcox

The reality of life today is that each day is busy from the moment our feet hit the floor. All too often, the weekend comes around with no structured plans other than to “relax,” which usually translates to “just hanging around the house and watching a little TV.” I’d much rather have quality time with my kids and husband by actually getting out and doing something fun. The key to getting these great weekends is planning. Uggh…planning, I know. We’d all love to be the spontaneous, creative, super mom types, but it doesn’t happen without a little planning. It is pretty painless all in all and I’ll walk you through the whole thing. C’mon.

Mary Ann Wilcox

First, you’re going to need a calendar. I’m hoping you already have some sort of family calendar that’s hanging in a high-traffic area. Take your calendar and start flipping through the summer months and jotting in all the things you already know are coming up. These will most likely be the big things like weddings, Scout camps, family reunions, the Fourth of July, etc. Go clear through to the end of the year. Next, you need to decide how busy you want to be. Personally, my goal is to have two family outings a month. One is usually an overnight camping or road trip-type activity and the other is usually something we do locally and only lasts a few hours. That leaves me the remaining weekends of the month for projects around the house, such as yardwork and time to “relax” (see definition above).

Once you’ve got an idea of how busy you already are and how many open weekends you’ve got, you can start looking for ideas of fun places to go and things to do (my favorite part). These could include:

Camping

I’m a huge fan of camping so I always start there and always go to www.recreation.gov. It’s the place to make reservations for just about every campground, Forest Service cabin, and day use facility in the United States. I’m always amazed – and I’m betting you will be too – by how many places there are to explore nearby to where I live. I could fill a lifetime of summers just checking out the different places within four hours of my house.

Day hikes with a picnic

Day hikes with a picnic are a fantastic way to pass the day with kids. I’d also recommend going to your public library and seeing if you can find some day hiking and camping guidebooks for the region where you live. You can also find these at your local bookstores or outdoor stores such as REI. Skim through what you find and consider purchasing one.

We like to make notes in the margins of our books about our experiences and whether we’d like to visit each location again.

Local tourist attractions and events

Make time to attend the events that are famous in your area and the attractions tourists see when they come visit your town. If you want a quick way to find some, just go into any hotel lobby in your town and look for the attraction brochure rack. It’s usually full of fliers for historic home tours, amusement parks, water parks, museums, etc.

Plays, concerts and sporting events

Look for fun events like a Shakespeare festival, a ballet group, a symphony, university or high school sporting events, and plays.

Plan a volunteer opportunity

Contact your local Habitat for Humanity and see if your family can help with an upcoming project; call the Ronald McDonald House and offer to cook a meal for the residents; see if the Humane Society needs someone to walk dogs one Saturday afternoon; sort food donations at the food bank; pick up trash at a local park followed by a picnic. There’s a ton of ways your family can have fun together and lend a hand to others; and chances are, if you don’t have a plan, you’ll never get around to doing them.

Remember to take into account weather conditions. Remember when you plan campouts, some places will have snow on the ground into the middle of June.

The list could go on for pages of great ways to spend a weekend with your family, but the key is that by putting them on the calendar and planning them, you’ll get right up on Saturday and launch out on your adventure instead of wasting half the day deciding what to do. Plus, by having a few things planned in advance, you can invite other families to go with you and make the weekend even more fun. So decide now that this year is going to be your best yet – and by doing a little planning now, it will be.

For more information on ways to get the family out the door and pulling off your adventures without stressing out, check out Mary Ann’s class and course manual, “Get Out of ‘Dodge’ Fast,” at www.maryannscupboards.com.