S.R.
Dear C.,
I don't mean to be mean, but I think you need to drop some of the focus on organization and being supermom. The best way to be a good mom is to let your boys have some freedom and input into the day, to let them make a mess (then pick it up), and to let them see their mom as a real, human being, rather than some magazine person or tv sitcom mom.
Similarly, boys can definitely entertain themselves. Stop worrying so much about keeping them constantly entertained or having new and novel things to do. At their ages, almost everything is new. They need repetition to develop their skills, so repeating the things you have already been teaching them is just fine and dandy. Cupcakes, banana bread, simple english muffin pizzas, fruit pies or even veggie dishes can be fun, healthy and good to prepare them for their own kitchens someday.
Don't be afraid to teach them how to help with the laundry-- sorting clothes, treating stains, loading/unloading, folding, etc. That will take some time to do as well. Kids can and do enjoy simple chores when done in the right spirit. Turn on some good music, dance a bit with them and the laundry. Remember Mary Poppins' advice about a "spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down".
Add in some nature walks. Take your time. Look under stones. Watch the ants, stop to marvel at the bees.
If you have a dog, walk it with them. (If not, maybe you can borrow a dog to walk from one of your neighbors?) Stop and talk to the neighbors. Introduce your sons to everyone and encourage them to be a part of the conversation. It will help them feel more confident and to develop their communication and conversational skills.
Look for some leaves which are pretty or interesting shapes and sizes. These can be pressed in wax paper using an iron to create a nice wall decoration.
Being spring, plant a garden. Let them dig up an area in the yard or create a small garden in a pot or box. Help them to choose appropriate seeds and to plant them correctly. Make it a project to water them and care for them as needed.
Maybe you might "read the paper" together. Choose some appropriate stories from the newspaper and have the older one read them out loud. The Boston Globe runs some great, paragraph-long stories on pages 2-3 each day which might be just perfect. They tend to be diverse, interesting, often upbeat and make great discussion material. It's never too early to get them thinking and interested in the outside world, and to begin to understand politics and become familiar with world issues, etc.
If applicable-- make time for faith and discussions of God and prayer. So often we push God off to Sundays as if He is irrelevant to our daily lives. Take the kids to a weekday mass (if Catholic) or simply to visit the church or its grounds and discuss the statues and other reminders of faith. Look up the name of the church. If related to a saint, learn the saint's story. Take the time to introduce your children to the parish staff and pastor/minister. It makes them feel more connected to the Sunday worship and gives them more opportunity to develop social/communications skills. Plus, clergy (like all humans) try to make a special effort to reach out to the children they know with some sort of conversation or friendly gesture. That also helps to connect the children to the parish life and make them feel special and important.
Do you have some nice trees with low branches they can climb? Boys can keep themselves busy on trees for long periods, bike-riding too. The younger one can be on a bike with training wheels by now. Nor do boys ever seem to tire of bouncing balls and practicing for sports teams-- get a children's basketball hoop, a nerf hoop perhaps for the younger one. Soccer balls, fuss balls, whiffle balls and plastic bats, etc.
Teach them to dig-- let them build forts, give them timed projects like make 15 mudpies in 5 minutes or other simple counting and hand-coordination games. A good memory game is to put a bunch of different, small objects on a tray. They get a minute or two to study the tray. Then hide the tray and have them list all the objects they can remember on a piece of paper. While with similarly aged children, this can be a competition, with the big age difference between your boys, they might work on it together.
Start a daily routine-- get up at a certain time, say prayers, do reading, go for walk, have a playtime, have a learning activity time and set "free time" intervals. As with the classroom, children like structure and knowing what to expect. Fortunately, one can be spontaneous still within structure. Set aside certain days for outings and outside classes/activities, etc. There can be "mystery" days, too, when one does something unexpected-- like do a dress up in costume, or walk backwards down the street. Simple, funny, humorous things to make the summer fun.
Also, the kids are an age for selling lemonade in the neighborhood, learning to do simple chores around the house (like emptying trash baskets, watering plants and helping with laundry, as described above). One can have a cleaning day which might also include washing the car or dog outside (something quite fun to do on a hot summer's day). There's no reason chores cannot be a good learning experience as well as fun.
And, what about play groups and neighbors-- get together sometimes with others. Kids love to be with other kids. It gives all the moms a chance to talk like normal adults while the kids amuse themselves. Go to the library for children's story times. Go to petting zoos, organic farms, different sorts of museums or factory tours. Chocolate factories are very fun tours.
Go to the ocean. Take long walks, pick up shells, climb the rocks, wade in the water. If one goes later in the day, the fee goes down, the sun is less intense, and there are usually far fewer people around. Get books on different kinds of birds and point them out in the back yard or at the ocean. Learn to recognize the many different kinds of plants and trees in our forests.
The list is endless.
God bless,
S.
