Summer break can be the best time of year or your worst nightmare! We all need a few summer survival tips! With a little planning and some teamwork, your summers with your kids can be the best time of the year. Instead of counting down the days until school starts, you will be dreading sending those little ones back to school.
Rewind a few years with me, to when I had 4 kids under the age of 10 home all day for the summer. We had no pool and 120 degree temperatures. I remember thinking, this is like the rest of the world’s winter, only my children were home all day with nothing to do. The only one around to entertain them was me. We didn’t have a ton of money to travel or do much of anything.
Panic set in. How were we going to survive? Most importantly, how was I going to stay sane and still love them by the time August rolled around? This is when I had to come up with a plan. A master plan to keep us all alive and happy. This plan has helped me grow to long for summer break and the days my kids are h0me all day with me.
I want you to be able to not only survive your summer’s with your children, but love and cherish this time together.
Here are a few summer survival tips that our family has used to help us survive and thrive over summer break!
SUMMMER SURVIVAL TIPS
DEVISE A SHARED PLAN FOR HOUSEWORK
When my house is a disaster, I have a hard time enjoying life! With the kids home all day long in the summer it is really hard to keep the house tidy, let alone clean! It doesn’t matter the age of your or number of children in your home, you can devise a shared plan for your housework.
Come up with a system for everyone in your house to participate in caring for your home. Mom, you will go crazy the first day of summer break, if you are the only one cleaning and running the house. That is just the cold hard truth. You are not doing yourself or your children any favors by doing it all. You MUST share the load.
Here’s are a few tips to get you started….
- Hold a special family meeting. A council where you all discuss the jobs and tasks that need to be done to run your home.
- Let your children come up with a list of what jobs they notice need to be done around the house. This allows them to take ownership in the house.
- Have your children decide who would be best for each job. Who would like to do certain jobs. When the jobs should be done. How often they should be done. You will be amazed at what they come up with and what they are willing to do!
- Make the load fair for each person. Include yourself in the jobs.
- Decide whether these jobs will rotate or stay the same all summer long.
We just held our council last week and divided up the work load. Our family takes one week off to veg out with no schedule. They can sleep in, lounge around and unwind from the rigorous school year, then we get organized.
Here is what our kids came up with {so you have an example of what you might implement in your home}.
My kids came up with this list of jobs that need to be done around the house…
- water the plants
- vacuum the rugs
- vacuum the wood floors
- vacuum the stairs
- straighten the upstairs family room {reveal coming this August}
- put the pillows on the couch
- empty the dishwasher
- laundry
- wash the windows that get splashed from the pool
- bathroom trashes
- kitchen trashes
- wash the bathrooms
- pick up Chloe’s poop
- straighten the backyard { hang up pool towels and pick up pool toys}
- dust
- wipe down the kitchen cabinets and knobs
- mop wood floors
- clean bathrooms
Here is how they divided them up {these jobs are done daily, except Sundays}
18 year old son
- waters plants
- washes the windows
- empty trashes {bathroom and kitchen}
- does his laundry on Tuesdays {his and little brother’s laundry – we decided since he is leaving on his 2 year mission to New Zealand, he should know how to do the laundry}
- clean room
- make bed
- dinner dishes
16 year old son
- vacuums the wood floors
- picks up Chloe’s dog poop
- laundry on Fridays {his and big brother’s laundry}
- clean room
- make bed
- clear table
13 year old daughter
- vacuum rugs
- pick up couch pillows
- empty top rack of dishwasher
- give Chloe a bath {weekly}, brush her daily
- clean room
- make bed
- set table
9 year old son
- clean up back yard
- empty bottom rack of dishwasher
- wipe down kitchen cabinets {twice a week}
- clean room
- make bed
- wipe off dinner table
6 year old son
- straighten upstairs family room
- empty the silverware
- dusting {twice a week}
- clean room
- make bed
Mom
- mop floors {once a week}
- clean bathrooms {daily wipe down, once a week deep clean}
- wipe down kitchen counter tops
- make dinner
- grocery shopping
Dad
- dinner dishes
- grocery shop with mom
- trashes to curb
- yard work
You come up with a plan that works for YOUR family. You will have jobs that I don’t have. Come up with a schedule that makes everyone happy in turn you will have a happy house!!! A clean and orderly house just allows you to feel peace and calmness. Do not do it all by yourself!
You can read more about having a nice house with nice things in this blog post {how to have a beautiful home with children}.
COME UP WITH A SCHEDULE FOR FUN ACTIVITIES
After the work is done, come up with some fun! Put together a schedule to do some fun things together. Use the same process you used for work, for play. Have everyone come up with a list of fun things they would like to do this summer and make a schedule to do them. Call it a summer bucket list.
If you have young kids, you may need to create the schedule. Come up with a theme for each day. For example…
Monday – Water Fun {go to a pool, have a water gun fight, etc}
Tuesday – Library / Movie Day
Wednesday – Cooking Class / Game Day
Thursday – Friend Day { friends come over }
Friday – Art Day
Here are a few of our family’s favorite games and favorite books…
Have cooking classes with your kiddos.
Put together a fun ice float bar cart.
Make mini ice cream sundaes.
CREATE SUMMER TRADITIONS
Think of fun traditions you can start with your children. These are the things your children will remember and treasure forever. These traditions don’t have to cost you anything. Think of what your family loves or needs and create a tradition around that. Here are a few ideas…
- Go on shopping dates. Tackle back to school shopping by taking your children on special shopping dates. Don’t take all of your kids at once. Take one or two at a time. Make this a special day with them shopping for their back to school clothes and supplies. Grab lunch and have a special day together. My kids love this tradition!
- Make one night a week ice cream night. Have an ice cream party at home, go out for a yummy treat or make your own! Do something different each time.
- Have family sleep overs. Our kids pile on the family room floor and sleep together Sunday nights. Listen to them giggle and share stories, it’s the best!
- Watch family movies or create slide shows. You can enlist your older children to create them for your family to watch.
- Star gaze. This is my favorite. Lay under the stars and visit with each other. You can include s’mores, pop corn, any of the classic summer treats.
- Start a summer reading program. Award your kids for the most books read. Come up with a fun system!
Have a wonderful summer and I hope these tips help you not only survive but love your summer with your kids!
Randi do you use some type of chart to keep track of jobs completed? Like a board with a spot to check off jobs completed?i definitely need one of those. I’d looove to NOT have to be on top of them every moment to do their jobs!
I used to! My kids are old enough and have done their jobs long enough that we don’t need a chart anymore. Wishing you a wonderful day! xo