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We put this week's question to our Potomac Patch Moms Council for their ideas and advice. The suggestions don’t end here‚ add your own tips and advice in the comments section below.

This week's question comes from Sheila Bouley, a North Potomac-Darnestown Moms Council member.

As we approach the final month of summer what is still on your "to-do" list with the kids? Are you going on vacation? Maybe getting them to the splash park or a game of putt-putt? Or maybe you want to get them back into the "routine" and will work on completing the math packets and summer reading assignments.

Erin Mantz: On my to-do list in August—spend a few days with my kids doing “nothing” and spend three days on a mini-vacation at the Hyatt Chesapeake at the pool and making s’mores. Since I work full time, they have been in camp almost all summer and need some unstructured “free” days! (So do I!). On a more logistical note, in the days before school starts, we’ll hopefully get on a better bedtime routine and set up some kind of organizational system for where to put backpacks, pencils and homework.

Wiley Drake: We have a final summer vacation coming up and will be gone for the last two weeks before school starts. So, this week I am trying to get ready for our last hurrah as well as trying to make sure all the school forms are completed and submitted, so that we don't come back to a mad dash to get squared away before classes start. We haven't started back-to-school shopping yet, but we have gotten our back-to-school haircut. In addition to getting administrative things out of the way, we're trying to do a few of those activities we said we'd do but haven't gotten to yet. A trip to Brookside Gardens (the weather later this week should be perfect for this!) and some lunch dates at the pool are on our list. 

Allison Olmsted: We drag out summer until the very end and pack it in. I always resist the start of school, always have, especially as a kid. It could have something to do with growing up at the beach where our school year never started until after Labor Day so to me it seems like school starts early here. We purposefully don’t have big plans for the last week before school starts but I plan to schedule some fun things for our nanny and the kids to do that week, and I’m sure we’ll go to the pool for one final hurrah over the weekend.

My one resolution is to get my back-to-school shopping done before the very last days…that’s what I did last year and the pickin’s were a little slim to say the least. We’ve also planned a fun weekend at an amusement park in September, which will make it seem like summer is not yet over! Finally, we try to build in reading and learning into fun summer activities so I don’t feel any stress doing extra math practice or reading as prep leading up the school year…kids learn more when they are having fun anyways