Planning for Summer

With July upon us, summer is in full swing. School ended and we took a week off from everything, enjoying being Unplugged. But then I felt a need for some kind of structure to the open-ended days that lay ahead of us. I wanted a way to harness my kids’ potential for finding fun and being creative while still maintaining the freedom and spirit of summer and allowing me to remain a step ahead of the stream of questions about what they could do. And I’m not going to lie, if they could keep up some learning activities, that wouldn’t be too bad either.

I do love a good checklist, so that’s where I started. Our daily chart has 5 boxes with minimum time requirements (more is always allowed):

• Music: 15 minutes
• Household help: 30 minutes
• Reading: 45 minutes
• Movement: 1 hour
• Other (arts & crafts, puzzles, games, writing, building, etc.): 1 hour

Then I sprinkled in some motivation. Checking off 2 boxes earns you 30 minutes of screen time. If your kids are like mine, they will already have figured out that they can check off 4 boxes and have an hour straight on screens, and that if they combine efforts and do each of their hours back-to-back, then they can watch a movie. If your kids are also like mine in their eating habits, then you may have to require eating meals before doing screens. (And you probably notice this doesn’t fill the day. That’s intentional so that they can practice filling their time. These boxes can be great starting points.)

I have to say that my favorite part of this chart is the household help. The kids have always had chores that took them less than 10 minutes to do. So now I have 20 minutes of their help each day for things that I was always scrambling to fit in before the twins sprinted down the driveway or dumped out the toys we just cleaned up or decided to eat yogurt with their fingers and then hop like frogs around the house. I was inspired by this podcast with Dr. Deborah Gilboa, a parent of 4, family medicine doctor, and parenting advice giver extraordinaire, where she gives great actionable tips about how to keep kids engaged in helping around the house and is totally clear on why this is so important. Here are some of the amazing things I’ve discovered my kids are quite capable of doing on their very own:

• Making and packing lunches for everyone (turns out they can make pasta, eggs in several varieties, sandwiches…)
• Loading and unloading the car with bikes, scooters, and helmets
• Gathering towels and floaties, and then hanging them up to dry when we get home 
• Cutting vegetables, opening cans, and even following a recipe to make soup for dinner
• Resupplying bathrooms with toilet paper or bedrooms with tissues

As always, flexibility is key. If we go out for the day, we don’t make a chart or worry about it. Most likely we’ve been hiking or swimming and everyone is tired, and relaxing with screens for half an hour is in everyone’s best interest. I’ve also been trying to have a weekly outing, inspired by my summer camp days with weekly field trips. It’s nice to break up the stream of summer days that can leave you forgetting what day it is, and it also gets everyone out of the feeling that there are no new choices available. Even if you don’t have the flexibility to take your kids somewhere, you might think about how to make one day “special” during the week, perhaps with pancakes or a longer project (talent show anyone?) or bedtime stories under the stars.

And speaking of shaking things up, that “Other” checkbox category is probably your ticket to never having to answer the question, “What can I do?” or respond to, “I’m bored!” Here are some ideas for that box, which may even take the form of a jar with suggested activities that kids can choose randomly:

• Wide Open School by Common Sense Media has virtual summer camp ideas and activities, as well as schedule templates for you to use in planning for your family
• TED-Ed has tons of short video lessons for kids on interesting topics that might spark ideas for a creative project or investigation, or simply make for some interesting dinner conversation
• The Boulder Public Library does a great toddler/preschooler story time, and they’re posting all their episodes so it can become a part of a routine that your kids get to know over time. Many local libraries have similar programs and even suggested crafts to go along with the theme of the stories.
• Even young children can play independently, and here’s a short piece with tips on how to encourage it
• Mommy Poppins put out this list of 100 activities for kids this summer that don’t involve screens
• PBS Learning Media Camp activities for pre-K to 2nd graders and for older students to keep learning fun and alive during the summer
• Finally, some thoughts about virtual camp and a list of ways to make happy campers from home!