Summer Parenting Is Often a Winding and Bumpy Road
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My family discovered a new outdoor activity that helped us ward off the mid-summer malaise but after just a few days, bruises, bumps, and a broken-down car ended our fun.
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I started writing down my life goals and it turned out to be a list of places where I want to nap, but haven’t yet
— Andrew Knott (@aknott21) February 12, 2018
Writing about parenting, fatherhood, life, and all things ambiguous
The Indignity of Using an Umbrella in the Sun
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I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it’s been hot lately. Like, obscenely hot.
I’m a Florida native so heat and humidity are as natural to me as a lizard crawling across my toes or a frog hanging out on the wall of my kids’ bedroom, but this year the heat has just been… different.
Read MoreBreaking Curfew with Illegal Fireworks and Other Beach Adventures: Part 3 of a Summer Vacation Diary
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July Fourth. Independence Day. Fireworks Day (as my kids typically call it). No matter what name you prefer, this is a day that I often feel conflicted about.
Read MoreI Completely Botched the Surf Report and Other Musings from the Beach: Part 2 of a Summer Vacation Diary
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The first day of July brought with it our first full beach day. It was a Saturday of a holiday week, so the beach was probably very crowded.
Read MoreFor Better or Worse Another Summer Slips and Slides Away
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If you’re a parent who spends a lot of time online, it’s hard to escape the meme about making the most of the 18 summers you have with your children before they leave home.
Read MoreHow My Son and I Are Growing Up Together This Summer
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The first full week of school summer vacation kicked off with all three of my children attending tennis camp for four hours each day. This might not sound like much, but it was monumentally significant for me because it marked the first time in more than nine years of parenting that all my children were away at the same time.
Read MoreSurviving Summer with Young Children Is All About Letting Go of Control
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Ah, summer! There’s nothing quite like the heat, sun, tremendous thunderstorms, and long, languorous days. Of course, those days seem even longer when you have a toddler in the house.
I have one toddler left — a recently-turned 3-year-old to be exact — so I still have to get creative to help us avoid a summer swoon. Actually, that’s not true at all. I don’t get creative; I let my 3-year-old get creative and I follow her lead.
Read MoreSometimes Family Bike Rides Aren't as They Appear
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What can I say? Family bike rides always look like such wholesome family fun.
Read MoreFirst Family Beach Day Means Summer is Here
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Around these parts, summer doesn’t officially start until our first family beach day.
I wrote last year about how we had to wait out a week of subtropical rain storms before we could kick off our summer. This year, there were no such weather delays.
Read MoreSibling Bike Riding Rivalry
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Learning to ride a bike is a big event in every child’s life but it’s an even bigger event when you just turned three a few days before and your five-year-old brother just learned to ride without training wheels a couple weeks before that.
Read MoreThe Hardware Store and a Butterfly Experience: The Ultimate Suburban Florida Weekend
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I’m not saying I’m getting desperate, but I decided it would be fun for us to take a family outing to Lowe’s over the weekend. This may sound crazy, but I can explain. We need some new carpet, and anything beats sitting around and watching YouTube. Or so I thought.
Read MoreSometimes Parenting is a Train Wreck
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We took a short ride on the city train yesterday just to have something to do on one of our last days of summer vacation.
What I didn’t bargain for was that after we messed around the park and shops near where we got off the train, when we returned to the train station, the attendant told us that there had been an accident and the trains were shut down until further notice.
Read MoreTell Us What You Did This Summer
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If I had to stand up in front of the class and tell everyone what we did this summer—and thankfully I don’t have to do that—this is what I would say.
We did a little bit of everything and a little bit of nothing.
Read MoreSameness
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We must have been hanging around by the muddy lake for at least two hours, but it might as well have been four hours or six or ten. We were well-equipped with two plastic grocery bags filled with Cheez Its, a few bananas and apples, thermos cups filled with water, bread for the minnows that swim near the lake’s shore, and two plastic cups to catch the minnows. The essentials.
Read MoreA Pop Song, a Volcano, and a Frog
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One of my 6-year-old’s favorite songs came on the radio on our drive home from my parents’ house. The car was dark and my two younger kids were already sound asleep as he crooned along, terribly off key.
Read MoreThe End of the Day
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Often at the end of the day, which I define as when I’m finished getting the last child I’m responsible for to sleep and can be any time between 8:30 and 10:30 depending on how things go, I take stock of the day that was.
Read MoreWill It Be Beautiful There?
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“Daddy! Daddy! DADDY!!” my 5-year-old exclaims from his perch in the back seat of our car.
“Yes, bud. What?” I finally reply. We are in the middle of a one-sided conversation about our impromptu trip to the fruit and vegetable stand and I am a little annoyed I have to respond since I have been listening to an uninterrupted monologue for several minutes.
“Is it going to be beautiful there?”
Read MoreAmazing! You Can Make A Camera From Everyday Household Items That Takes Real Pictures In Just 7 Easy Steps
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Summer vacation is here and you know what that means: Time to get crafty with the kids! If you’re looking for a fun and easy activity to keep your little scientist entertained during those long summer days, we have just the thing.
You will not believe how easy it is to make a fully-functional camera out of a few items you definitely have lying around your house right now. And yes, it takes real pictures! Can you say unbelievable?
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