Every month there is plenty to celebrate. Official holiday or not, they provide great inspiration for creative activities you can do with your family. The great thing about “month” celebrations are they are not tied to a specific day and allow activities to be spread out throughout the month and celebrated whenever you like. It gives you the chance to celebrate and make everyday special. August is all about celebrating family and the outdoors with these holidays: Admit You’re Happy Month, Family Fun Month, National Golf Month, and Water Quality Month.

Admit You’re Happy Month

How often do you acknowledge when you are feeling happy? What makes you happy? Sure there are the big things, but recognizing small things that make you happy can instantly lift your mood. Even when you are having a horrible day you can find something to be happy about. This is an important coping skill you can teach your children.

It starts with awareness – if you know and recognize what makes you happy, you can seek it out when you are having a bad day. Sometimes it is a little thing: a picture of a loved one, a quick read of a favorite book, even making someone else smile can make you happy.

Happiness is not one size fits all. Sometimes we assume that if something makes us happy, it will make others happy too. Everyone is unique and it is quite fun discovering what makes us happy. I don’t really like winter, but one thing that never fails to cheer me up is to go outside after the freeze and jump on the thin layer of ice forming on puddles. The cold fresh air and the delightful crackly popping sound of the ice always makes me smile.

Discovering and admitting what makes you happy is a great thing to do and can lift your mood. When a child is having a bad day, it can be as simple to turn around as asking them what makes them happy, or discovering something new that will make them happy. If you need inspiration and ideas to try, please see the post on 1000 Awesome things.

Family Fun Month

With school out for the summer it is a great time to build lots of family memories. You can use the opportunity to have your children become “Home Town Tour Guides” instead of having to come up with activities you think they would like, give them the opportunity to open their own tour agency, for the family for younger children or older children can expand and even turn this into a summer job!

Whether you are sitting around the camp fire, on a long car ride or if you are enjoying a wet BC summer like we are and are stuck inside, telling Adventure Stories are a great way to pass the time and share creativity as a family.

Water Quality Month

At first glance water quality doesn’t seem like a very interesting topic, but it is very important, especially for our children and future generations. Our bodies are 70-75% water and water is involved in every single bodily function. Water isn’t just in a lake or ocean it is a part of everything and everything is connected.  The chemicals you use on your lawn and in your home end up into our ground water and  oceans and back into our food chain. Water Quality month is a great time to examine not only what you are drinking but the effect your actions have on the environment. This would be a great Science fair project as well!

National Golf Month:

There are many different ways you can explore golf and create some great summer memories. Golf makes a great one-on-one parent child activity.

Even young children can get involved with a trip to a mini-golf course. Or you could make your own mini-golf course at home! Older children and teens could even create their own course and turn this into a summer business.

If your family isn’t into the traditional sport of golf, you can always try the card game Golf. There’s a multitude of varieties of the game, you could probably try a new one every day for all of August!

How will you be celebrating August?