Creating Community: Summer Outdoor Club!

“Summer childhood days” have such a wonderful nostalgia attached to them. Bonfires, campouts, water balloons, beach days, popsicles, and all of the other classic summer bucket list items lend themselves to such a magical season for our kiddos. But summer can also come with a host of challenges: new rhythms, lack of structure, or even over-scheduling can take away from the joy and unhurried days of summer. Modern parenting can also come with a whole host of pressures and challenges to sign our kids up for all the overnight camps, or art/horse/sport camps that quickly create a fast-paced summer and can easily stretch our budgets. 

Over the years I’ve tried to find a balance for our summer days. We need some structure and rhythms, but I also need our summers to feel relaxed and we all need to downshift from the busier pace of the school year and extracurriculars. My kids have done a variety of camps over the years, ranging from overnight to volleyball to horse camps, and they’ve been wonderful! But I’ve realized that it doesn’t work well for us to go from one week to the next with a constant pace of scheduled activities or travel. Now we take it one year at a time, and make sure to prioritize family vacations or outings and carving out space for kids to be bored, creative, leisurely, and to spend lots of time outdoors. 

One of our whole family’s favorite events every summer is “Summer Outdoor Club.” I started coordinating this several years ago with a large group of friends from our church, and it has become a staple for many of the families in our friend group. Coordinating a summer outdoor club is so easy to do, and here’s what I love about it:

• It’s free!

• It takes very little planning once the initial schedule is set up.

• Families with kids of all ages and ranges can participate. 

• It all takes place outdoors, so nobody really has to “host” or prep their house or clean up afterwards. 

• It gets us all outside in a variety of different settings: Lakes, beaches, berry farms, rivers, parks, etc.

• It requires a very low commitment from participating families: once you have an email list of friends interested, people can just show up on weeks they are free and skip on weeks they are not free.

• It gives us one day of the week where we know we have a planned event to enjoy with friends, which creates a lovely rhythm to our weekly summer schedule. 

• These days really have the best “old fashioned summer” vibes!

Early in June, I publish a schedule for every Wednesday through the summer months (here in the Pacific Northwest our summer is usually mid/late June through August) of a different place to meet up. Our friend group spans a rather large geographical area, so we try to change up from one week to the next the location and type of outing. Typical outings include several beach days, lake days, park days with kickball and baseball, berry picking outings, splash pads, short hikes, etc. We usually plan to meet at 10:30 AM, everyone packs a picnic lunch, and folks typically stay until 2-3pm. Some weeks we have 5 families show up, and other weeks it’s more like 18 families! Again, summer schedules are quite sporadic and the goal of summer outdoor club is to be easy and flexible. Although we have a set schedule for the summer, I try to send a reminder email each week the day before our outing and people generally chime in if they plan to come. 

If you’re looking for a way to build community this summer, create a fun weekly rhythm that brings your whole family together and is zero-budget, then you should try coordinating a summer outdoor club for the families in your neighborhood, church or school community!