a peek inside the fishbowl

I really should have posted this at the beginning of the summer and not at the tail end, but I am in love with this idea and really wanted to share it with you.

At the beginning of the summer the girls and I got out the biggest blank piece of paper we could find and brainstormed Great Ideas For Summer Fun. There were four rules:

1. – Some of the G.I.F.S.F. had to be things we could do around the house.
2. – Some of the G.I.F.S.F. had to be things that the girls could do without supervision (In case of boredom I wanted to be able to tell the girls to go look at the list and find something to do.)
3. – G.I.F.S.F. had to be somewhat realistic (no trips to the moon or flights to Japan).
4. – G.I.F.S.F. had to be fun.

It was really interesting to dwell on the fun things we have done as a family, and talk about what other kinds of things, and places, we’d like to explore. Ottawa is a very family friendly city. There are a lot of things to do here – and I have a List of Things to Do With Kids in my head –  but what I like about this particular list is that it was directed by them, not me.

It took awhile to complete our list. I discovered that this isn’t the kind of project that can be done in one sitting. We kept our list lying around the house for a few days so we could add things as we thought of them, which happened a lot.

Now that the end of the summer is nigh, I occasionally glance over to the GIFSF to see what we’ve done, and I notice a few things on our list that we have left to do … but I’m not feeling any pressure to mark things off the list. It isn’t a “must do” kind of list, it’s a “can do.”

Here’s a detail (have I explained worm hunting?) …

… to view the list in its entirely you’ll have to click over to my flickr.