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Family Fun

• Great Fishing and Boating Experiences
• Summer Fun Ideas
• Summer Fun For Families
• Credit Card Tips for Summer Travel

Great Fishing and Boating Experiences

Summer and water go together like peanut butter and jelly. Here are a couple of tips to make your water experiences safe and enjoyable for your family.

Fishing -

• Kids like action. Forget the relaxation. Short drive. Short walk.

• Find a place where the pan fish are biting and bugs are not!

• Don’t expect to fish yourself - you’re the teacher - don’t expect the child to cast, bait, reel, catch and remove a fish!

Boating -

• Keep control of the wheel.

• Make sure all children have life vests.

• Take time to teach them the basics of how a boat works.

Easy Family Summer Fun Ideas

• Make a family joke book. For each page of the book, show a picture of a family member and surround the picture with their favorite jokes. Decorate the cover with funny drawings.

• Write favorite jokes on slips of paper. Over a period of several days, during dinner, pull a joke out of a hat or box and enjoy the laughter.

• International weeks. Go to the library and find recipes, movies and music for a country of interest. Have a festival dinner and celebrate diversity.

• Create a totem pole that tells about your family. Stack cardboard boxes on top of each other and tape or glue together or wrap food cartons in white paper or  the back side of grocery bags. Keep the largest box on the bottom. Decorate with pictures, drawings, feathers or what ever the children think your family represents.

• Quiet Bag. Cut a  24” circle of fabric and add a drawstring to the top. Fill with quiet activities for each child that are special. Then when you need a bit of quiet time allow the children to get their Quiet Bag and play for a short period. May also be used at appointments to therapy of other areas needing quiet play.

• Think of some ideas for the Happy Days Bowl. Write your ideas on small colored pieces of paper. When you are looking for something to do, or for a happy thought, dip into the Happy Days Bowl for great ideas. The ideas can be for things to do or about things that make people happy. Some examples include:

*          A note or greeting – greetings and good wishes in another language, lyrics from a favorite song, a funny poem, a pun or a joke.

*          Fun things to do  – listen to a certain song, read a favorite book, play with a pet, hug a favorite stuffed animal, take a day trip to some place special.

*            Reminders of special days – a fun family event, a wonderful trip you took, the time you met a special person, a great surprise.

More Summer Fun for Families

Does family fun during the summer mean that you have to think of 101 different things to do and places around town to see?  Of course not, there are plenty of fun-filled family activities right in your backyard.  It only takes a little creativity to engage children in family fun.  With all of the different types of family compositions and dynamics, it is unlikely that there can be one solution to offer that will meet all or your needs.  However, there are a few tips families can consider when planning activities during the summer that should help make the next 101 days fun for everyone.

• Talk with your significant other prior to making plans with the children.  Things to consider during this conversation include budget, physical health, transportation, vacation time, etc. that may assist or hinder you and your family from engaging in certain activities.

• After brainstorming some activities for the family, sit down with your children and discuss these activities as potential family fun activities.  Try to instill a sense of excitement among your family about projects that can be done around the house, day trips to visit relatives, or outdoor activities like a family bike rides or hikes in the park.

• Ask your children what type of activities they might like to do. 

• Discuss, as a family, whether or not the activities they come up with are feasible and if so, set dates on a family fun calendar to do them.  By writing activities down, you are more likely to go through with plans, while also giving your children something to look forward to.

Here are some low-cost family fun activities to start thinking in the right direction:

• Visit a local museum or living museum.

• Take a family bike ride or hike at one of the local parks.

• Plan an overnight or weekend camping trip.

• Visit a local weekend festival.

• Visit a Farmer’s Market.

• Join the community pool or go to the beach.

• Visit a lake, river or creek.

• Plant a garden in your backyard

• Make bubbles and have a run through the sprinkler day.

• Go on a picnic.

• Arts and Crafts –

* Items in your basement or attic offer endless hours of craft making, such as putting together a family scrapbook or re-decorating a room with drawings by your children.

* Make little bags for craft projects, filled with ‘all the necessary’ pieces and keep ready for those I’m bored times when you are too busy to find something for them to do.

• Attend story time at the library and check out books, music, puppets and movies.

• Make an obstacle course.

• Build a fort or a treehouse.

Credit Card Safety Tips For Summer Travel

Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine, do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place, certainly NOT in your wallet or purse.

A corporate attorney sent this out to the employees in his company.  I pass it along, for your information.

We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed us in your name, address, SS#, credit, etc.

Unfortunately I (the author of this piece who happens to be an attorney) have firsthand knowledge, because my wallet was stolen last month and within a week the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.

But here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know.  As everyone always advises, cancel your credit cards immediately, but the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call.  Keep those where you can find them easily.  File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

But here’s what is perhaps most important: (I never ever thought to do this)

Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and SS#.  I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name.

The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost 2 weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done.

There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert.  Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in).  It seems to have stopped them in their tracks.

The numbers are:
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

Foster and Adoptive Care Association of Minnesota
P.O. box 48716
Minneapolis, MN 55448-0716
612-233-3399

Articles have been reprinted from News and Views of Our Families 1992-2004