Fifteen Ways to Relive The Summers of Your Childhood

Hey! So what will probably count as my new experience of this week happened this Wednesday. My mom came up with this genius idea earlier this summer and we finally got around to doing it. The idea was to recreate a "play date," just like you do when you're a kid. My best friend Rachel came over and we did all the fun stuff we did as kids in the summer.

So I thought, if any of you dear readers want to take advantage of the last few days of summer to do something similar, I'll make a list of stuff to do. Rachel and I did the first six things on this list, but I also included some stuff that we didn't have the time/energy/money to do, plus some stuff that I wish I had thought of earlier.

Here goes:

1. Eat childhood snacks
We bought animal crackers and Capri Sun juice packets, as well as eating fresh cut-up fruit. Other suggestions: carrots/celery with peanut butter, candy like Gushers, cookies, Kraft mac n cheese, pizza bagels, graham crackers, and whatever else you can think of.

2. Play with water in the backyard
Run in the sprinkler, spray each other with the hose, splash in a pool if you have one, water gun fights, etc. Be sure to wear bathing suits or clothes you don't mind getting wet.

3. Blow bubbles
Bonus points if you get something that can make cool shapes.

4. Color in coloring books
Coloring books are pretty cheap, or you can buy fancy "coloring books for adults" which are fairly popular now. Get out your crayons, markers, and colored pencils, and have fun!

5. Play dress-up
I still have all my dress-up stuff from when I was a kid, so that was easy for me. But if you don't, you can just find any costume jewelry, gaudy accessories, and swaths of fabric you have around and mess with them. The point is to look silly.

6. Take a nap
OK, only I did this. This is actually a more teenager-y activity than a childhood one.

7. Watch Disney movies or cartoons
Or pretty much any movie that you liked as a child. But it's best if there's plenty of songs to sing along to.

8. Make crafts
This includes: finger painting, free coloring, jewelry making, clay sculpting, Play Doh creations, Lego art, collages, and anything else creative that you can think of.

9. Put on your favorite music from your childhood and dance
Disney music, Spice Girls, the Wiggles... whatever makes you nostalgic! Be sure to dance really terribly to get the full effect.

10. Play pretend
This is a lot harder as an adult, because we don't really have the instinct to play pretend that kids do. We usually funnel that energy into other stuff. But if you can get yourself back into the playing-pretend mindset, it would probably be really cool.

11. Go to the playground
There used to be a swing set in my neighbors' backyard that they let us use, but it's since been torn down. But if you have a swing set, slide, monkey bars, jungle gym, etc, in your area, definitely make use of it!

12. Make and play with goo and clay
I found this blog through Tumblr that is all about "sensory play," which is this thing that new age parents are apparently into now. The idea is to mess around with stuff that engages your five senses, namely: fun gooey substances. The recipes they linked to were lavender cloud dough, homemade Floam, galaxy slime, and rainbow soap foam bubbles. But if those recipes are too difficult or have too many weird ingredients for you (like they did for me), you can look for other recipes, or buy Play-Doh or Floam or clay from the store. Then play with it!

13. Read picture books
If you have any old books around the house by Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Robert Munsch, Margaret Wise Brown, etc, have a storytime!

14. Play with toys from your childhood
You might still have some Legos, Barbies, Hot Wheels, stuffed animals, or whatever you used to play with as a kid. Bring them out and relive the fun memories.

15. Run around in the backyard carefree
I feel like we all used to get a lot more exercise as kids, since we would just run around with no cares. Forget about the worries of your adult life and run until you get tired. Which, for me, would be within five seconds. But then lay in the grass and wonder about the clouds. That's what makes a childhood summer.

I hope you guys enjoyed those ideas, and even if you don't do them, I hope you get the most out of the last few days of summer.
Thanks for reading,
-Ariel