Camp GonnaWannaFLY Ideas

Camp GonnaWannaFLY Kick-off

Hello everyone!

It is that time of year! Let’s Get ready for Camp GonnaWannaFLY!

All summer we are going to have fun with camp to get us excited and motivated. We love to have fun!

We are sure that you are going to have a great time and take with you some lasting memories of BabySteps, routines and rewards. Camp can last as long as your campers want to play!

The first thing I want you do as a camper is sit down with your campers in your cabin and talk about this week of fun and games.

We have a page on our website to help you with some fun ideas. We will be sending out emails and testimonials next week.

Here is the agenda for your first cabin meeting.

1. Name your Cabin.

2. Give the campers a piece of paper and ask for ideas for fun activities.

3. Then ask them to write down some food they would like to eat this week.

4. Make a list of things that need doing in the kids rooms, your room, outside and in the car.

5. Make a list of rewards your campers would like this week.

Have fun this week and use our Camp GonnaWannaFLY Control Journal to help your campers to stay on schedule so they won’t miss a moments fun.

We are going to have fun fun fun!

Camp GonnaWannaFLY Director

FlyLady

We would love to have your fun ideas for camp to share with the group.

Send them to FlyLady@flylady.net with CAMP in the subject line!

Here is the link to your FREE Camp GonnaWannaFLY Control Journal

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Country Theme

Dear Camp Director FlyLady,

Love the camp idea!  We have picked to be from Mexico this week. We’re going to have Mexican food, use Spanish, and learn about Mexico in general.  The grandparents have just come from vacation in Mexico and we even have T shirts for the Week to wear to our fun activities!

Hasta la vista,
familia de la mosca (fly family)

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Jumping on the Wagon

FlyLady and Crew,

I wanted to take a moment to send a word of encouragement and thanks for the Camp week last week!! We had such fun!! I have been a flybaby for about two years and I am very thankful that God sent me to you. I have learned so much, especially how not to expect perfection from myself, and my house is a peaceful (although not always clean J) haven.

I home school my ds (7) and have a dd (2). When our school year ended in early June I sort of fell off the wagon ­ lol. I wasn’t feeling motivated and needed a break I thought. Well, over the next month the house got messier, the kids got whinier and I got more frustrated. Last Monday I got up and had decided that I was going to try and get back on the wagon but I wasn’t excited about it and wasn’t sure it would really happen. I had still been doing the morning and evening routine but the daily things had slipped.

When I saw your camp emails on Monday it was like God had provided me just what I needed through you ­ again. I jumped right in with the WHB. Now understand that I typically do the WHB on one day and that’s ALL I do that day, I would spend the entire day cleaning here and there and looking for perfection. Not this time though, I told my ds about the camp and said that we were going to do a quick home blessing and then our camp reward would be to take his bike and a picnic lunch to the playground down the road and meet friends.

Well, to make a long story short, this week we have cleaned the house, watered the plants, shined the sink, rebooted and caught up on the laundry, shined the windows and doors, eliminated cobwebs from the stairs, railings and door/window frames, run errands, made a weekly menu, cleaned out the car, did a detailed dusting, sharpened pencils during a scavenger hunt (2 minutes on the timer, find as many pencils as you can and earn 1 penny a piece, then sharpen them all and earn another nickel ­ he had a blast! ­ I couldn’t get him to stop). Needless to say we have gotten more done this week than in the past month combined!!

And we’ve had more fun!! We’ve gone to the park, read stories, played with legos, made cookies,  went bowling, picked out a movie at the movie store and more!! You are so right, it’s not about the work you have to do it’s about the attitude that you have about the work!! Our house is cleaner and we had more fun because we made it happen that way! My ds actually crawled into bed with me Thursday morning and whispered, ` mom, what’s our camp chore for today?’. J That was great!!

I think I’m going to do another week of camp next week and I might continue it through the summer. For that matter I might even continue the idea, naming it something else, once the school year starts. We could accomplish chores, lessons, and fun in such a healthier way!!

Thanks flylady and crew for all you do.

Flybaby in VA

FlyLady here: If we don’t make if fun for ourselves we don’t want to do it either. There is nothing stopping us from making everything we do FUN! We just have to get creative and think with the fun side of our brains.

Making it fun gets the job done! OH and by the way there is no FlyLady Wagon. We jump in where we are!

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Fun and Games

Dear FlyLady:

My kids are enjoying the FLY Camp.  I have 4 girls (ages 4-11) who decided to call our camp, Camp Betterfly (we started with “Butterfly” but saw a good chance for a Flywash so we changed the name).

We are making a sign and flag today (2 girls assigned to each task).  We have assigned 3 duty areas per day: Kitchen Helper; Activity Helper; and Laundry Helper.  We’ll alternate jobs and the 4 yr old will chip in where needed.

We have planned our menu and a treat for each day.  Our menu includes camp food such as roasted wieners (over the bbq), burgers, pancakes, and ‘international’ night (Chinese with chopsticks).  We will also pick up some of those tiny boxes of camping cereal and juice boxes (for our one picnic lunch).  Our daily treats include s’mores, homemade orange julius, homemade lemonade, homemade popsicles (in ice cube trays and toothpicks), and bannock.  We plan to have a backwards day and messy hair day.  🙂

We will do a craft each day including a camp bandana or t-shirt.  We have a great cabin activity book with lots of ideas.  We also plan to do a nature hike and picnic one day.

We can’t wait to do the clutter scavenger hunt and we are planning on a lemonade stand on the next sunny day (we’ll offer free drinks to pay it forward!)

One night, we plan on pulling out the play tents (yes, we have 3) to have a campout inside.  I already have a spooky story and some campfire songs ready.

The girls understand that our week involves some fun and some cleaning. They are really excited.

Our best cleaning game involves each child having a special area (like a small rug or table) and we set the kitchen timer for 10 minutes. Then everyone runs around the lower level of the house and puts things belonging to each child on their mat or area.  The objective is to keep your area clear.  Whoever has their area clear when the buzzer rings, is a winner.  So far, everyone has cleared their area on time every time.  🙂

Thanks for all the fun ideas!

Flymommy J

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Camp for Big Kids

Dear Friends,

Camp doesn’t have to be little kids. We can have a spa retreat for our pamper missions. I loved this idea so much that I wrote about this in our book Body Clutter.

We all love to go away for a weekend.

FlyLady

Here is a testimonial for you Big Kids.

Camp Solo – A fun, peaceful, revitalizing retreat for a Flybaby in Virginia Beach

I will be camping solo.  My children are grown and gone and my DH is going to be working a LOT soon.  He does heating, air conditioning and electrical work.  The calls are already piling up on him.  In order to face the end of the school year (I am a teacher) and get ready for all the showers, dinners, planning meetings, etc. that will go along with my DD preparing for her wedding in September (here in our city), I will be participating in Camp Solo to maintain my sanity and sense of fun.  It will also help me to keep our home moving towards a more peaceful look and feel so that it can be a restful retreat for my hardworking DH at the end of each hot summer day. He does not go in for my “silly fly stuff”, but he has mentioned that things are looking better.  I know he will appreciate it even more as summer heats up.

Thanks for all you and the Flycrew do.

Sharon in Virginia Beach

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Kid Power

Dear Friends,

This week we are going to FlyLady’s Camp GonnaWannaFLY with a focus on encouraging all of us to have fun so we can play.

Let’s look at our Weekly Home Blessing Hour.

We have 7 items on our list to do:

1.Empty Trash(all over the house)
2.Dust
3.Vacuum
4.Mop
5.Cull old magazines
6.Change Sheets
7.Polish mirrors and door.

Now how can we get the family involved? By making a game out of it.

Save the jobs that are the hardest for you. If you are going to be  picky about the way they do it, then don’t play this game; it won’t be fun for you or them.

KEEP THIS RULE IN MIND!

HOUSEWORK DONE INCORRECTLY, STILL BLESSES YOUR FAMILY!

Have fun!

Decide on a good reward for getting the home blessing done without complaints, fussing or fighting.

Go to the park.
Family board games
hot fudge sundaes or toasting marshmallows
Take in a matinee or rent a movie and pop popcorn.
You know what your children love to do; be creative

List the items on a small sheet of paper. Then put them in a bag or a bowl and have them withdraw their assignment. Do not hold the children to your standards; this is supposed to be fun, not perfect.  Do you understand this?

Set a timer for 10 minutes and go to have some fun. After the buzzer goes off; draw another assignment.

Afterwards go have fun. You can hold your older children to a little higher standards, but not perfection. I don’t even hold you to that tough goal. BabySteps, the more they do this, the better they will get at it. Another way is to get the children to work along side of you.

For instance if you are dusting, give them the feather duster and teach them how to use it without knocking things over. You take a dust cloth. Together you can dust the furniture top to bottom. Remember children are short and can get the lower spots easily.

Have them help you vacuum. Put a basket in the middle of the room and have them put everything in it before you run the vacuum cleaner. You could even aim for the basket, if you allow tossing in the house. LOL Then let them push the vacuum around the room. Remember just the middles, we are not doing under the couches just yet.

Now for mopping, you sweep the kitchen floor while the children get on their bathing suits. LOL This is from one of our members. Put some wet towels on the floor with a little more water, and let them scoot around on the floor on the their frannies. Have a spray bottle filled with plain water to add to the excitement. You could also put a tiny bit of baby shampoo on the floor for soap. This is more fun in the summer. Remember it doesn’t have to be perfect, just fun. You get the floor clean and they get to be silly. They will love it. You can let them play as long as they are having fun. Then toss the dirty towel and swim suits in the washer. Oh you can do the bathroom this way too, then put the children in the tub and let them play, but they have to be cleaning in there too.

It isn’t the type of cleaner that gets things clean, it is the act of doing the cleaning that accomplishes the task. We don’t have a magic potion. A little shampoo on a wash cloth will remove a bathtub ring.

As of culling magazines; you can turn this into a learning event. Have them look for magazine with last month’s date on them. Changing Sheets is not that hard, one of my fondest memories is when my father taught me to make hospital corners. Every time I put clean sheets on our bed I think about him. You can set a timer for this too and race to see who get them in the laundry room first. Each bed needs two sets of sheets, so you don’t have to wait to put the fresh sheets on the bed.

Polishing mirrors and door doesn’t have to be perfect either. A wet purple rag cleans the windows without chemicals.  You will be surprised at how good the doors will look without dog nose prints and handprints on them.

As for gathering up all the trash in the house; teach them that empting the trash means putting a new bag in the trashcan. Keep extra bags in the bottom of each can then they don’t have to go searching for them. Blow your whistle have them run to their rooms and gather up trash.

You can also put on their favorite music. You can stand anything for an hour! Let them know this is the way you get in the mood to clean; you have to set the stage for fun. This goes for you too.

So do you see what I am doing here? Creating a fun time for blessing your home with the children helping. You can do this. Ask the children for suggestions and have fun.

Home Blessing with FLYing Children Power,

FlyLady

Housework done incorrectly still blesses your family!

Here are some more tools to help you bless your home.

Deluxe FlyLady Cleaning System

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Our Planning Camp

FlyLady,

I KNOW I write and write and write to you….but I just had to tell you about how much inspiration you have given our family with Camp Gonnawannafly.  I had dreams about getting all my overwhelming hotspots taken care of in this week, but quickly realized that it would be better if we just KEPT IT SIMPLE and worked on establishing those morning and evening routines with my kids (they’re 7 and 4).  SO off we go to camp next week, and we’re making it a nature week using things we already own for crafts and camping out in the tent one night in the backyard.  The kids are so excited, and my DD even asked if she could wear my lanyard.

Okay, so the super exciting news, and this is probably not a novel idea, but I’ve decided we’re going to have a theme week throughout the summer.  So one week will be Safety, and we’ll visit the fire station and police station, etc…one week will be exercise week, (I’ve found a college student who’s willing to show the kids how to be active and have fun), one week will be community week, and we’ll take our baby blankets to the homeless shelter (good way to fling something, eh?) and take our instruments to a senior center to play for the residents…every week we’ll weave a trip to the library in there to find books on our theme and perform some kind of service to the people
we visit.

ANYWAY I’m in the baby stages of planning this, but I am just THRILLED!  We just don’t have any money right now for summer camps, and I am determined to keep the TV off in my house as much as I can!

Thank you for the wonderful ideas, and thank you for showing me an easy way to have fun!

Love,
Jenny In MI

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Camp Friendly

Greetings from Camp Friendly!!! (my 9 year old son picked the name, lol)–

Setting up camp was quite easy, as my DS and DH both returned today from a night at Cub Scout camp, so camping is still very much on the brain!

We set up an agenda and daily camp schedule.

School is still in session, so daily lessons and activities will be part of the schedule!
Morning duties and cabin cleanup are posted for all campers to see. Campers will be placing a magnet on the chart, so that merit badges (stickers) can be appropriately awarded at the Nightly Awards Ceremony!!

When campers return to camp, dinner will be served in the Mess Hall, followed by clean up and the evening’s activity–

Monday — we (the parents) have Weight Watchers, so our son has an opportunity to earn a healthy eating merit badge 🙂
Tuesday — We will be having a family field trip to the library.
Wednesday -Mom has book club, so Dad and the kids will have a story night.
Thursday — Family Soccer Night (good weather) or Family Game Night (foul weather)
Friday — Hiking (walk at on the river trail)
Saturday — Mom works, but Dad and the kids will have an arts and crafts project
Sunday — Final Week awards will be presented at a special event including extended family!

Looking forward to a fun week!!

The Flybabies at Camp Friendly in Washington State 😀

FlyLady Here; Camp GonnaWannaFly Kicks off this week. If your schools are not out yet then don’t worry. We will keep the Camp GonnaWannaFLY Section up all summer!

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Weekly Home Blessing Olympics

Dear FlyLady,

Every Saturday is our home blessing day, and getting the kids to help out and not take all day has been a bit of a chore to say the least. I had tried all different kinds of things to motivate them, and while some worked once, others not at all.

Recently I stumbled into something that has housework day something we don’t dread and is actually fun and has everything done in no time. We have the Housework Olympics! There are individual as well as team events.

We start with a bed stripping race (individual). Then move on to the team events of bed making, and then room tidying.

We have Team Boy (my 2 DSs ages 7 and 9) and Team Girl (me and be DD age 5).

Then Team Kid tries to beat out Team Grown up as the toys are picked up and the vacuuming (DS 7) and dusting (DS 9) and mirrors (DD 5) are accomplished by the kids, while my husband and I get the bathrooms and floors cleaned.

The kids are rewarded with treats; jumbo freezie, milkshakes, movie rental, extra video game time (15 min. increments) etc. Everybody gets a reward for a job well done, though some may earn some extras depending on how they place.

Even better my 9 yr old DS who has Asperger’s Syndrome gets some good experience working with others, something he abhors and avoids at school. It took a while but I finally found the game to turn housework day into something that is truly a blessing.

Flying in Regina,Saskatchewan

FlyLady here: Weekly Home Blessing can be done on your time! We have some members who do it twice a week. Once to get ready for the weekend and on Monday to get recover from the weekend.

Getting the children involved is what Camp GonnaWannaFLY is all about. This is a great idea! Doing Olympic challenges is a fun way to encourage your children.

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Empty Nester

Dear FlyLady,

Wanted to let you know that I am an empty-nester, but am doing Campgonnawannafly anyway! My husband and I can work on this together and make summer more fun, and productive and when the kids come to visit they can get in on some FUN too!!!

I’ve named our camp: Camp Mountains To Molehills because We have Mountains of Stuff to move, declutter and get rid of and when they are the size of Molehills they will be more manageable!! Will plan some fun rewards and have already made a LARGE poster size calendar for the 3 months of summer to keep track of accomplishments AND rewards!!! Aren’t stickers fun!!!

Keep up the good work with the great ideas! Have only been with you since last August, but my life is already IN-credibly different in SO many GOOD ways!!! God Bless,

A FlyBaby in Montana ( where there are REAL Mountains too!)

FlyLady here: Camp GonnaWannaFly isn’t just for kids! We all want to have fun and get stuff done!

Our calendar is great for this too! The squares are big enough to keep up with your accomplishments.

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Yard Sale with Entrepreneur Kids

Dear Friends,

I think that over the years I have not kept my feelings about yard sales a secret. For those of you that are new I will say it again! I HATE THEM WITH A PASSION!

1. They are a form of procrastination; just another way of putting off getting rid of it.

2. We usually think it is too much work, so the piles keep growing; Along with the guilt.

3. The guilt from not getting enough money eats away at us twice! Once when we spent the money and secondly when we only get a dollar or quarter for something we paid $20 for.

Now with this being said I will tell you my one exception to my dislike of YARD SALES!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE IDEA OF MOTIVATING OUR BABIES BY TELLING THEM THAT THEY CAN KEEP THE MONEY! Flinging with a purpose! You can even let them sell a few of your items for a commission. Talk about incentive for everyone.

It is kind of like the lemonade stand from our childhood.

We are teaching our children to let go of things as well as the basic business skills:

1. They learn economics.
2. The value of a dollar.
3. How to organize a sale, set a date and label items
4. How to make change.
5. How to dicker.
6. How to sell things.

When the Yard Sale is over, they learn:

7. How to save a part of their money for themselves.
8. How to give back a portion to God.
9. How to pay people the money they owe.
10. How to plan for future purchases.
11. Clean up and how to get rid of the stuff that no one buys; Donate it to a charity.

Just the simple fact that money motivates our children will help them to release some of their clutter. It is also good that they learn to give some of the good stuff away too.

As for you having a yard sale; I am still against it for all the reasons I stated earlier, but you can put everything on the curb and put a FREE sign on it and bless others with your abundance. It is so much fun to watch people be blessed! The best part is that the blessing come back to you ten fold.

Are you ready to FLY Free of Yard Sales and bless others? Get the Kids motivated and stand back and let them do it by themselves. I mean this. You just watch!!!

FlyLady

P.S. I want to see pictures and testimonials about this. Do a Camp GonnaWannaFly Yard Sale Week! Have fun! Tell me what you do with the money! FlyLady@flylady with CAMP YARD SALE in the subject line.

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Camp Cooking School

Hi FlyLady,

This year, DD (11 today), DS (5) and I are doing cooking classes at home. We checked out an Emeril cookbook, “There’s A Chef In My Soup,” from the library. DD LOVES it! She plans the menu for the week, complete with breakfast and lunch. We are enjoying our bonding time and it’s keeping the kids from getting bored.

Last summer, DD went to a one-week camp in the mornings. Every day, she learned about a different country. The kids didn’t know which country it would be until the morning of the class. They also had a type of food from that country. She enjoyed it so much that I wanted to try it at home this year. I ordered another Emeril book, “There’s A Chef In My World,” which has recipes from other countries. I plan to do some research on the countries he uses in the book, and make our own camp.

I purchased a weekly teacher’s planner from the dollar store and when DD gets up, we will plan our camp for this week, and I’m sure the next few weeks. I got out my Camp CJ from last year as well. I’m excited, and I know the kids will be as well. Thanks for coming up with this great idea! What a fun way to keep the boredom at bay!

FlyBaby Kathy in Northern CA

FlyLady here: What a great idea!

First, take your children to the library. (Now is a great time to get a library card and find out if there are summer activities at the library). These are usually free and can be a lot of fun.

Next, let your children look through cookbooks (both in the children’s section or in the adult section.) Also, you can look at activity books to get some great ideas for other fun this summer.

Check the books out and head home.

Once you get home let the kids look through the books. You can decide on a food budget and get the grocery store ads. Let the kids see what is on sale and then decide what they want to cook! They will be having fun and learning a lot! Make your grocery list as you check to see what you have on hand. Then write your menus for the week on your calendar.

Now, be sure and post on your calendar the day you are suppose to return the books to the library! You don’t want to end up having to pay library fines!

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Spa Camp

Dear FlyLady,

My friend and I don’t have kids, but we wanted to go to camp, too.

Here’s what we did:

Saturday — Give yourself a pedicure and manicure.

Sunday — Renew your Spirit day. Sleep late. Spend some time meditating today and read a book or magazine.

Monday — Home Blessing. Create your Home Oasis by giving your home a quick spa cleaning. After completing the weekly home blessing (only 10 minutes per task), spend 15 minutes creating an oasis in some spot in your home. Mine is in the corner of my bedroom. I have a chair, some candles and some reading material, plus a stereo with my favorite music nearby. Then spend 15 minutes (or more) enjoying your oasis.

Tuesday — Me time. Take a bubble bath and read your favorite book or watch a movie.

Wednesday — Anti-procrastination Day. Groom those eyebrows and shave your legs. Make sure your spa bathroom is picked up and decorated nicely. Plan your menus for next week.

Thursday — Errand Day. Pick up something special for yourself as you complete your grocery shopping and other errands. Perhaps a movie, a book, some new lotion, or a bottle of wine.

Friday — Spa Date Night. Meet your fellow camper for a spa dinner.

I invited other friends to join me and they all said they wished they could go to spa camp, but they had to work. Well, I work 10 — 12 hours/day most days and I still enjoyed spa camp! I learned it’s all about your attitude. Even if I couldn’t complete my spa evening the way I had planned, I drank my “spa coffee” every morning and did some “spa moving” every day and spent just a little bit of time each day doing something I enjoyed.

FlyBaby Janice

FlyLady here: I am so proud of FlyBaby Janice. She hit the nail on the head when she said it was all about attitude. Even in the midst of a very busy schedule….you deserve to carve out some time just for yourself!!

You don’t have to have kids to enjoy your own Camp GonnaWannaFly. Take a few minutes today and plan a Spa Camp for yourself!!!!!!

One of the best beauty treatments you can do for yourself is to drink your water. This is our habit for June! Treat yourself to the best water bottle.

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