Today’s post isn’t design related, however, I’m all about living solutions, and our current living situation is that I have kids home, {still!} and summer is here.
We won’t have much in the way of camps or travel this summer, although I do hope we can see family at some point over the next few months. It’s been challenging not to be able to be with extended family during these last few difficult months. Baseball is supposedly starting up for my boys next month, so we’ll see how that all goes.
I posted on my Instagram Stories last week about what I was working on for what our family’s day-to-day summer will look like, and asked if it was something you’d want a bit more info on, and it was an overwhelming 100% yes! I have been working on ideas, so when we start “Summer” this coming week, I’ll be ready!
Our last day of school {and I say “our,” because I feel like I was totally in it with them!} was last week. It’s been a lot of “free choice” around our home the last few days and then after Memorial Day, we’ll try to stick to a loose routine.
This summer, at least for now, doesn’t feel much different than last week, and with school out of the picture, I feel like we still need a bit of structure. I have client projects going on, I’m the primary parent home during the day, and I personally do so much better in life when I stick to a routine. My kids do too. We’re not really an all day-every day-unscheduled family. We all thrive better with more of a routine, so I’ve been thinking about a way to keep this simple, with some varied activities, as well as some downtime. I find the days that go smoothest are when I have a plan, and it doesn’t become a free-for-all OR too much of a regimented day; a good healthy balance! And I’m one to get caught up in my own little routine or work and then look up and my kids have been watching tv all morning! This schedule is for my kids that are ages 11-7. My 3 year old won’t be able to do some of these activities, so I will write some ideas in on the blank Daily Goals sheet for her. Here is our little game plan.
A list of goals to achieve to earn points and then a reward. They get points for completing each activity, and earning extra points will be a bonus for everyone. We could even do just a checkmark when they have accomplished their goal and if all the boxes are checked, they’ll get their reward. I’ll print these out each week, for Monday through Friday, and either hang them on the fridge or put them on clipboards for each kid. {Grab this printable and a blank one at the end of the post.}
My kids have their morning routine printed out and hanging on their bathroom wall. It includes simple things like “Get Dressed, Make Your Bed, Brush Your Teeth, etc.” Just a visual reminder/checklist on what a simple morning routine looks like. You could do pictures from clip art if you have younger kids that can’t read yet. I got tired of running through the list of morning tasks, and now I just say, “Have you finished your Morning Routine?”
My kids all have household jobs to do as well. They gripe and complain all the time about them, but they know their jobs and they are a huge help. My 3 year old doesn’t have any specific jobs yet, but she loves folding towels and helping me dust, so she does her share! :) Their household jobs don’t all happen every day, but there is always something to do around here!
In addition to helping around the house, their teachers all stressed that the most important thing they can do this summer is to continue reading and study their math facts, so that’s on the list too. I want them to work on writing, as well, although admittedly this is the hardest one for me to enforce, so we’ll see how it goes. My kids all read {or are read to} at night, too, so that’s like bonus time.
And besides getting creative and being outside, I want to continue to reinforce being helpful and kind, so helping a family member is on the list too!
Some ideas for our family for rewards: X-Box time {they get to play on specific days typcially}, playing games on the grown-ups phone {we don’t have any tablets or iPads}, One-on-One time with mom or dad, a movie night, ice cream sundaes, etc. You can do whatever motivates your child!
Now on to our Activity List. I’ve done a version of this in summers’ past and it’s worked really well. All of these ideas are more outside of our normal activities, so we will need to plan some of these a bit in advance. I will have this list up where they can all see it, too, so they can pick out some ideas without my help.
A little background: For us, it will get pretty darn hot here in a month or so. We won’t be able to be outside at all hours of the day. We don’t have a pool or a trampoline, however, we do have a basketball hoop and a tetherball. My kids love to be outside, hunt bugs, ride their bikes and scooters, etc. Some activities on our list are out and about, but a lot of these we can do at home.
We’ve got a few new puzzles to attempt…
A dog that can use some extra training…
But there are a lot of activities on this list that are new to my kids and will need my supervision and involvement. I’d say this list is for activities for kids in middle school down to elementary. My little one will just go along for the ride. I’ve been preparing my kids that we’ll be doing a little bit of structured activities a few days a week, so “Don’t make the easy things hard,” a family mantra, and get on board so we can have some fun! {Grab this Activity Ideas printable at the end of the post, either in color or black and white.}
If we have an activity to do that day from our list, I’ll probably just have them do their morning routine and their household jobs just so we get that done and then they can have free time when we get home or done with our activity.
I don’t think this just has to be for kids! In a time when we can’t do a ton of our normal out-and-about activities, a little friendly reminder of what we can do or what we’d like to do would be helpful and something to look forward to!
Hopefully this is helpful and gives you some ideas if you’re in the same boat!
Get your printables:
Click HERE to download the Daily Goal printable.
Click HERE to download the Summer Activity Ideas printable.
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