Our New Summer Family Tradition
Summer is (thankfully) a slower time of the year for us. Sports and activities are slowing down, work slows down for us, it’s just not as hectic as the rest of the year. My husband and I decided we wanted to start more family traditions during this time of year since we finally had the time.
We typically have our 6 year old on a fairly consistent schedule, but we decided to start letting her stay up later one night a week for Summer Family Movie Night. She was so excited to start this tradition! We eat dinner and get in our PJs, then make a movie snack for the week. It could be popcorn, candy, ice cream, whatever she wants that week. We had one stipulation though: Mom and Dad pick the movies.
In a world of screen time, she definitely gets less of it than her peers, but she still tends to watch the same things over and over again. We wanted to start exposing her to our favorite movies growing up. She’s getting to an age where she can sit through and appreciate live-action movies versus just cartoons.
The idea started after a recent trip to Disney where she made us go on Figment three times. Every time we went through the line, we saw the “Famous Scientists” on the wall, Wayne Szalinski and Philip Brainard. We both loved Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Flubber growing up. My husband and I agreed that showing her classics from our childhood was something we wanted to do.
So far we’ve shown her Flubber, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Matilda, and ET. Also on our list is Homeward Bound, Beethoven, Air Bud, Casper, Iron Giant, and others. We have a long list going, but as we get to some, we have to wonder if it’s actually appropriate enough for a 6 year old. Let’s be honest, our parents were letting us watch some things that maybe weren’t age appropriate!
I even try to get snacks that are related to the movie. For Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, I did mini M&Ms with popcorn, ET was Reese’s Pieces, and Matilda was chocolate. I’m going to have to step up my snack game for some of these other movies though!
Hopefully she enjoys the movies as much as we do, but honestly, as long as we’re making these fun memories with her, that’s all we really care about. Summer is going to fly by and we want to build traditions with her that she will look forward to every year.
