It is officially summer! It is time to lay back and relax. But before you grab your iced coffee and head outside, it’s time to do a little planning so your summer fun doesn’t turn into summer burn out.
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Organizing Your Summer
Yes, we have talked about organizing your summer before, check out Ep 18 for tons of details and resources to plan out your summer. We also talked about easy summer meals on Ep 43.
Today, we are sharing what we are keeping from those past episodes and what new changes we will be implementing. Even if you want a laid back, relaxing summer, we have tips to help bring a tiny bit of order to your days.
Summer Bucket List
It has taken me a few summers to realize that with my little ones home all summer, I have to approach my summers differently. No more planning big projects. Summers are my busiest time of the year and it’s when my job as a parent really kicks into high gear!
First step: Make a Bucket List
Brainstorm a list of activities you would like to do this summer. If your kids are older, it is fun to include them too. I love this free printable to make your own summer bucket list.
Summer Checklists
I love a good checklist! It can promote independence as you hand responsibility back to your kids. Also, it gives the feeling of an unstructured day since the kids are choosing their own activities, but in reality you have decided the activities ahead of time.
Here is my favorite daily summer checklist:
“I’m Bored”
That dreaded phrase! You could start handing out chores when your kids come to you to say they’re bored but and I also like to help kids work through their boredom. And let’s be honest moms, we get bored too.
During those toddler and preschool years, I found it helpful to have a list of activities to turn to when I was bored with our usual activities.
Now that my kids are in upper elementary school, I like to have them write their own list of activities to glance at when they feel like there is nothing to do.
Here are a some examples to get you started including some of our favorite activities:
- Outings – library day, swimming, $2 movies, bike ride, etc.
- Outside Activities– watercolor sidewalk painting, nature scavenger hunt, color scavenger hunt, water games
- Inside Activities– dance party, musical chair, pillow toss, paper airplane target practice
- Messy Crafts– painting, cooking, clay
- Simple crafts– simple art projects like this hand outline, this one using watercolors and white glue (instead of the embossing paper they use), overlapping circles, and drawing,
- Quiet Activities – board games, finger knitting project, reading, journal writing about a picture from the day in Powerpoint or Google Slide Deck
Of course there are tons of examples and activity lists on Pinterest like this, and this list of 160 things to do over the summer.
Daily Routine
This basic routine actually came from a guest post here on Space for Living Organizing. Simply divide your day into blocks of time and have a general theme for each time period. For example:
Daily routine
- Breakfast – Lunch: Play outside
- Lunch – Afternoon snack: chores & games
- Snack – Dinner: TV or computer time
- After Dinner – Bedtime: outside or reading
There’s also a basic routine for meals and snack. For example:
Eating schedule
- 7:30 am – Breakfast
- 10 am – Morning snack
- 12 pm – Lunch
- 2 pm – Afternoon snack
You can even go a step beyond that, and have a weekly rotation of menu items. “Every Monday we will have fruit for morning snack, tortilla wraps for lunch, and giant pickles for afternoon snack.”
This is such a simple way to organize your summer, yet remain flexible so spontaneity can still creep in.
Detailed Schedule
If you are a planner, a daily schedule might be just what you need to stay sane. Your schedule can be anything you make it, ranging from a general guide to a strictly followed plan for the day.
Here is my daily schedule that I made when my 2 older girls transitioned out of their afternoon naps.
Plan Downtime too
With long, kid-focused days, it is important to plan some downtime for yourself. We don’t want to end up being that frazzled owl by the end of summer! Here are a few “me-focused” activities I have planned for this summer.
- intellectual hour / reading / quiet play
- meet-up with a friend for a run / playground date / coffee
- mom’s group / Bible study (with childcare)
- an evening class (this summer I’m taking tennis lessons!)
I am sure there are plenty of other ways to give yourself a minute or two of peace but the important thing is to plan for it or we can easily be pushed aside.
Let’s Connect!
How scheduled would you like to be when it comes to the summer? Do you keep it simple or use a combination of all 5 planning strategies? Let us know!
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