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Slow Down
- Turn off the TV
- Learn to identify birds, flowers, edible plants, or other natural things
- Cuddle a lot
- Have an "indoor picnic" in the winter time by the fire
- Start family traditions, such as a special outing on the day before school starts or an ice cream cone after every "no cavity" visit to the dentist
- Sleep in your yard under the stars on a summer night
- Make up your own family holidays
- Spend a leisurely Saturday at your favorite farmers market
- Tell your children stories from your family's history
- Tell them stories about the day they were born
- Have a real conversation once a day-pick a topic or see what comes up
- Have a family sleepover: watch movies, eat junk food, sleep on the floor
- Spend time with grandparents or other elderly people. Listen to their stories. Play games with them.
- Find an ant hill; sit nearby and watch the ants.
Travel
- Take a raft trip on one of Idaho's rivers
- Go to the Pacific coast and see tide pools
- Take a long car trip, even if you can afford to fly
- Take a train trip
- Drive through Idaho and stop at every historic marker you come to
- Visit National Parks or Monuments in all our neighboring states, plus our own
- Travel the Pacific Coast Highway from top to bottom, or vice versa
- Climb a mountain-a real one
- Learn another language
- Go into the wilderness, backpack, or river raft. See nature on its own terms.
Read
- Read aloud to each other even when your kids are old enough to read to themselves
- Visit the library and try out a new section each time
- Make up stories together
- Join or start a multigenerational book club
- Find the bookstore in every town you travel to, even the tiniest ones
- Visit the Main Library in Salt Lake City-a library for library lovers (http://www.slcpl.lib.ut.us/details.jsp?parent_id=7&page_id=5)
Music
- Sing songs together at home
- Go Christmas caroling, then come home for hot chocolate
- Make up songs of your own
- Join a choir
- Learn to play recorders with your children when they learn at school. Play songs at home.
- Learn to like some of the bands your kids like. Share with them some of the bands you like.
- Experience a new piece by a current composer. We have several right here in the Treasure Valley.
Community
- Do something to help others, volunteer for any worthwhile organization
- Get to know your neighbors, and have neighborhood gatherings-dinners, game nights, hikes, anything you all like
- Get involved in school or church activities with others in your community
- Hold neighborhood works parties where neighbors help each other with yard or house projects, then rotate each month
- Get to know the historical sites around your town
- Visit the state capitol building
- Sit in on a city council meeting to see how that works
Environment
- Challenge your family to recycle everything you use. Aim for a week of no trash.
- Track how many lights get left on in your home. Create a penny jar where a penny goes into the jar every time a light is left on. Use it to pay the electric bill.
- Turn off the air conditioning for one day in the summer. Sit outside and drink large amounts of lemonade.
- Pick the hottest day of summer and have a giant water fight in your yard. See how much cooler you feel.
- Try to spend one day getting places by bus, one day by bike, and one day by foot. See how long you can go without driving the car.
- Learn about homemade cleaning products. Try some out.
- Visit Zoo Boise, the MK Nature Center, the World Center for Birds of Prey. Learn about animals and how to protect them.
- Join the local Sierra Club.
- Learn about dark skies with the Boise Astronomical Society.
- Learn about the watershed in your town and find out where wastewater goes when it leaves your house
- Identify all the trees along your street
Active
- Go camping
- Find an activity you all like, such as skiing, hiking, biking, rafting. In Idaho, the possibilities are endless.
- Walk or bike the Greenbelt from one end to the other. Stop for picnics and breaks as necessary.
- Find the headwaters of the Boise River. The Salmon River. Any river.
- Explore a cave. Use precautions.
- Try something completely new. Surfing. Fencing. Curling. Anything you haven't done before.
Cultural
- Go to a play at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, or any of the great local theaters in the Treasure Valley.
- Go to an orchestra concert, a ballet performance, an opera
- Volunteer for any of the many community arts organizations. Build sets, sew costumes, hand out programs, mop floors, provide cookies, etc.
- If you have an artistic skill, such as painting, musicianship, acting, or dancing, volunteer at your child's school to help kids learn that skill.
- Go to an art museum and make a day of it. Find the funniest piece of art, the saddest, the ugliest, the most inspiring.
- Learn about the Native Americans from our region
- Find somebody who owns a star garnet, our state gem. Find out why it's called that.
Food
- Plant edible things in your yard
- Learn to cook something you've never had before-sushi, lavender crème brulee, beer can chicken, or something exotic like bear meat
- On an ordinary night, set the table with the best dishes, silver, crystal, and candles. Just for fun.
- Serve food to others at a shelter, soup kitchen, or church homeless feast
- Track the origin of one thing you buy at the grocery store-a bunch of grapes or bananas, for example.
- Try to make an entire meal using only products from Idaho
- Make your own ice cream
Neysa CM Jensen is a Boise writer, mother, musician, and teacher. She's lost track but hopes that she's accomplished many of these items on her list with her own children.
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