It’s finally here; hot summer days have arrived! Yesterday it was 85 here in Wisconsin. Okay, I know that some of you are in states that get much hotter than that but without any a/c in the house it was just miserable. I’ll have to admit that the house did stay cool for much of the day and that I wasn’t aware of just how hot it really was until I realized that all the kids and their friends were in the house vegging out in front of the television. When I stepped outside the reason was quite obvious.

The main beverage my kids drink is water; they probably drink more water than most kids their age because I don’t give them soda, juice, or any type of flavored drink. With the arrival of summer I like to keep a couple of pitchers of water in the fridge to make them more likely to get a drink. I don’t know why, but to them it’s better because it came out of the fridge! One of the first things that I do when it starts to get hot every summer is to print a list of the symptoms of dehydration and put it on the fridge. I like to keep it along with treatment tips where I can see it just in case any of the kids start showing any of the symptoms. WebMd has a great article called Symptoms of Dehydration and Heat Illness.

I have to admit that while quite vigilant in making sure the kids stay well hydrated I am usually pretty lax in that area for myself. My friends all gang up on me and are always asking me if I’ve had my water and how much. I’ve started drinking Propel with Splenda and that seems to help make it more palatable and less likely to go scrounging for sweets all the time.

Now that it is hot outside I will be switching our daily schedules around to keep the children from getting overheated. Right after breakfast they can go outside and play until lunch time; after lunch they do their summer homeschool books and chores. Once those things are finished they can watch TV for a bit or play one of our many board games or some of the toys tucked away for rainy days.

I don’t know what’s worse – being closed up in the house with 4 kids during the long cold winter months or being closed up in the house with 4 kids when it’s scorching hot outside! Neither one sounds very pleasant as I know they both can result in cranky kids. I guess I can just keep them as busy and comfortable as possible to keep us all from being miserable.