Start small DREAM BIG!

• Make cookies and share them with your neighbors [and maybe one of the pictures you colored, too]

• Mix up a few pitchers of lemonade and help your kids with a neighborhood lemonade stand with the proceeds going to a local charity or church

• Pick your favorite fresh flowers and press the flowers between a few heavy books for a few days to later create pressed-flower art projects

As a general rule of thumb, the activities that are the most successful are the ones that take place outside of the home—away from the floors that need mopped and the yard that needs mowed. Give the following activities a try:

• Enjoy a leisurely bike ride on a trail

• Visit the farmers’ market and ask the farmers about food they grow

• Take in an art or music festival in a local park

• Road trip to a small town festival like the World’s Largest Turkey Barbeque in Aneta, ND, which is held the third Saturday of June annually [yes this is a plug for my hometown, but 300 turkeys roasting over an open pit is worth the drive]

• Explore a nearby state park

• Plan and go on a simple scavenger hunt

• Walk through the county fair exhibits and livestock barns

• Pick berries [such as a visit to Red Barn & Berry Farm near Kindred, ND]

• Stomp grapes at the 8th Annual Grape Stomp at Red Trail Vineyard near Buffalo, ND

• Donate extra garden vegetables to the Hunger-Free Garden Program through local North Dakota-based food banks

• Volunteer at the local food bank

Whether inside or out, at home or on the town, it’s important that technology doesn’t intrude on your precious time as a family. My general rule is when I am home with my kids, and always on weekends, my ringer and all alerts are silenced. I leave my phone behind on most outings with my kids. For you, less technology might mean leaving your cell phone on the counter after 5 p.m. or turning it completely off. Allow yourself to unwind with less technology.

To record your family’s summertime memories, take pictures of the fun you had together. Hand over the camera to your kids so they can take pictures from their point of view. At the end of the summer compile the photos into an album. I guarantee you those photos will spark numerous “remember when” conversations in the months and years to come.

To kick off and follow through with a Slow Summer movement in your family you have to remove yourself from the busyness society preaches. It might not be what your family and friends are doing. You will have to say “no” to certain activities and decline invitations to events. Soaking in the Slow Summer moment through simple activities, smells, and tastes will allow you to build memories that linger into the other three seasons of the year and long beyond the season of busyness as a parent.