What to Put in a Welcome to Summer Gift Basket for Your Kids. Great items to give your kids to kick off summer.
I am not sure what has come over me, but this summer I decided to do a "welcome to summer" gift basket for my kids (shhh...they don't know yet). I guess it all stemmed from my decision to start tracking video game time for the week on timers. One mom mentioned she does this in the Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Facebook Group and I loved it! I thought it would be a good idea to balance these timers, which aren't that exciting, with some exciting things for summer.
Here are my items so far. I still have a couple of weeks before they are home for the summer, so if you have a great idea to send my way, let me know! I started with a list of things we want to do this summer, then created a basic schedule, and thought about what I need to purchase for our upcoming summer months. There are things I would get anyway, so putting them all in a basket and presenting it as a gift adds a lot of excitement. This post contains affiliate links.
Timers
This is the item that inspired this whole idea of a basket. I bought these timers on Amazon to use to keep a running total of how much video game time has been played. The kids currently track their own time, but it is often a "Um...I have about an hour left." We do three hours a week, so I made sure to get timers that do more than 90 minutes. I got a different color for each child. The main timer that I got came in three colors, so I got three of those plus this style of timer.
Piano Book
All of my kids play the piano. It is fun to have a book of fun piano songs to play, and they are all obsessed with the Greatest Showman, so I got them a Greatest Showman piano book. It will be above the levels of Brinley and McKenna, but McKenna can pick out at least the melody and Brinley can copy the melody from the other kids. Even if only Brayden plays, the girls will have a grand time singing along, so it will be a big hit. I really wanted this book to be to all of the kids so that no one could try to pull a "Don't play from my book" moment. I don't allow those type of statements, but I just anticipate this being popular enough that I wanted to make my life easier on myself.
Paper
A ream of paper people. That is all it takes for pure joy. My girls all spend a lot of time drawing, so they go through a lot of paper. I love giving a ream of paper as a gift. Go crazy kids!
Journal
I got each child a journal. I got them journals to write in for themselves to keep thoughts. I also got journals that are "Mommy and me" journals for us to write back and forth with each other. Kaitlyn and I have done this without any prompts--just a blank journal--but this rates so well that I wanted to give it a try and see if it is nice to have some prompts to strike up conversation. This will help them be able to share things with me they might feel too embarrassed to say out loud. It will help us get to know each other better. It will also keep up their writing skills. I am super excited about this item! Here are the journals that I got:
Book
We spend a lot of time at the library in the summer, so I debated about getting a book, but I want each kid to have their own, new book to read that they are excited about. We will hit the library every week, but my kids love owning their own books and they will read books over and over again.Outdoor Toys
There are so many outdoor toys you could get. Water balloons, chalk, bubbles, squirt guns, balls, sprinklers, bikes, roller blades, etc. We already own a lot of great outside toys (see my post on our favorite outside toys here). One thing we were out of is water balloons, so I got a big pack of those. Swimming Gear
If your child needs a new beach towel, swimsuit cover up, suit, or even sunscreen, you can add it in. I am doing a shopping voucher for my older two; they are old enough they have opinions and tastes different than my own so I want them to have a say.
Treats
This is pretty self-explanatory. Treats. You could plan some fun summer treats, like homemade Popsicles and include ingredients for that treat, or just some favorite treats.
Movie Items
We like to do outdoor movies, so some popcorn and a new movie to watch this summer is fun.
Experience Gifts or Tickets
If you plan to go to a baseball game, the zoo, mini-golfing, etc., you can purchase the passes or tickets ahead of time to include in the basket. This gives you all time to look forward to the fun event. It also commits you to completing summer bucket list items you have for your family. You could also announce a vacation coming up with items for the vacation.
Items for Goals
As each summer approaches, I sit with each child and go over goals they have for the summer. I outline what skills I want them to learn. They can request things to learn. So I am having a child learn to clean mirrors properly this summer. I might buy some things to add in that help with mirror cleaning if we need it. Kaitlyn wants to learn to sew, so I could include something for her to go with this goal for the summer. Cookbooks, printouts, ingredients...Again, things you would already get, but you wrap it up in gift form.
Summer Schedule
Last but not least is a copy of the summer schedule! My kids love seeing what to expect each day, so this seems lame, but the kids actually like it. For summer schedule ideas, see:
- Sample Summer Schedules for Kids
- How to Have Structure in the Summer Months
- Planning the Summer Schedule
See these other posts on summer from the ladies of the BFBN:
This is probably our current overall favorite. It is basically charades, but instead of one actor and the rest guessers, it is all actors and one guesser per team. You can use props that are in the room. We have so much fun with this game. This game works so well with a family of ages because the youngest can join in the actors and feel like he/she is contributing.
This is the game Kaitlyn often chooses when it is her turn to pick. This game is basically the Telephone game, except you draw pictures. We always spend a fair amount of time laughing as we play this game. It is obviously appealing to the artistic type, but I am not artistic and still have a blast with the game. It is also a great way to instill what happens to information as it gets passed from person to person. The way Brinley plays is she chooses a word to draw first, then as she gets the books passed to her, I either read the word she is supposed to draw to her, or ask her to guess what the picture is and write the word for her. When she was younger, she would be content to just draw with markers while we played. 
This is a great game for a family. The pieces are shapes, so it can be easily played by young players. There is enough strategy to it that it keeps older players engaged, but not so much that younger players can't be part of the game. 
This is another one with enough random nature to it to keep the people who have a hard time with spontaneity looser. This is the fun of UNO, except when you have to draw a card, you might get zero and you might get more than ten. You never know. It keeps things quite interesting and keeps the family laughing. The great thing is younger kids usually want the cards to come flying out, so they are happy when the cards come their way.
This is a great game when you want to laugh and want total randomness to the outcome of the game. 
Yahtzee is a classic by now. It is easy enough to have children play, and you can help any child who needs it on their turn. If you want it geared more toward younger players, they do have 
Sorry was my favorite game when I was a child and teenager. It is simple and fun and it teaches children to be good sports in an intense environment. 
Life isn't and hasn't ever been a game I love, but my kids all like it so it makes it into the rotation. Something I don't like about this game is you start by deciding between college or no college, but it seldom benefits you to do college. That bothers me. That is just my soapbox on the game. Ha! I just make sure they understand that sometimes in life, you might be able to get a job without getting education beyond high school and make good money (my dad didn't go to college...though he did go to trade school).
This is my favorite! This is a game that allows me to put what is in my head at all times into effect to win this game every time. You have a word and have to come up with a song to go with the word. This is every moment in my head. Someone says a sentence, and a song pops in my head. This game is harder for younger players because they don't know as many songs, but I had to add it because it is my fave. I often choose this game when it is my turn, but no one else usually does because I am the champion. My friends. 
We really enjoy this game, and our favorite is probably the Europe edition. This is a game Brinley doesn't actually play with us. She sits and plays with the trains, playing something in her imagination. She is happy to be there with us and doesn't mind. I don't think all children would be content with this setup, so if not, Ticket to Ride might not be a good family game for you. It is, however, a fun game without kids, and can be played with two players. So it is a fun idea even if just for you and your spouse on date night. 
This is another one of our major favorites. You have a judge. Then you draw the question. "What would make car rides more fun?" All players other than the judge write down an answer. Then you flip them over and choose which answer you think the judge will choose. The judge chooses the favorite. This is fun and gets kids thinking about appealing to an audience. For the question above, my husband would say something like, "If you are on your way to Disneyland" for a few of the kids. We had a spurt where he threw Disneyland into every answer (insert eye-roll emoji here). And it worked. 
This is a new game in our collection. My sister-in-law mentioned the game and that they liked it, so we got it for them for Christmas, with some hesitation. We played it at the Christmas party and it was a lot of fun! There is a little strategy, but you can easily coach your children through the strategy each time. There is also a lot of dumb luck.
This one is not the best for a full family, but it is fun for children and parents to play together, so I wanted to bring it to your attention. It is a strategy game, like Settlers of Catan and those types of games, but made for preteens and young teens. Brayden and Kaitlyn have played it since 8 and 10, so you can definitely try it with younger kids than the recommended 10-14 years. It is a great stepping stone game for kids interested in strategy games.
My favorite type of games to play by far are the strategy games, but if you know me well, you know I love variety in life. I can't eat the same meal in a 30 day period. I can't do my girls' hair the same way twice in a week. I just need variety, and games are no different. Spot It! is a great game that is fast paced. It is a lot of fun and doesn't require strategy, just a keen eye and speed. They have Spot It JR games, but the original is easy enough a young child can participate, so I would try buying the original first. If it totally frustrated your child, go for a JR and put the original on the shelf for a few years. You won't be sorry you own the original, and you might not need to own a JR, so this can possibly save you money.
This is a new game in our house. The description doesn't accurately explain the fun of this game, but the 5 star rating with 118 reviews should give you a hint. I had this on a wish list for a couple of years before finally buying it, and we have enjoyed it! It is a great introduction to strategy for young players--simple and yet fun.
