Summer is literally knocking on the door! 2019 has sped through the first 5 months of the year like a hormonal, pre-teen who is looking for food.
I will confess that I am approaching this season with excitement and a healthy dose of fear and dread. I have 6,000 (okay. Just 6. But if feels like 6,000) children to keep fed, busy, and alive for 2 1/2 months while still keeping my business alive and (hopefully) growing.
Last summer I created a Summer Rules, Behavior Chart, Schedule and even a list of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Snack ideas that I printed out and hung on the wall in hopes of having a summer that was filled with fun, adventure, and sanity on my part. It “semi” worked.
Let’s face it. It’s up to us as mom’s to determine what kind of summer we have with our kids.
Our attitude, our planning, our consistency at enforcing the rules and/or schedule is what it really boils down to.
I have spent many a day this month on Marco Polo (a really amazing video messaging app that helps me survive my day by talking with my girlfriends!) with my mom friend & fellow mommy blogger, Chelse of Enjoy the Chaos, discussing summer. How will we survive? What will we do? What can we plan now to make it easier? What made our summers awesome growing up? What did we hate about summer?
In effort to create an epic summer without completely planning out every minute of my children’s day and creating unrealistic expectations, I went back to the drawing board and revamped my summer printables.
I created a Summer Screen Rules which is more specific for the older kids to follow.
I am not against electronics. I am against you getting on them first thing in the morning and refusing to help or get ready for the day. This clears up any argument about what is expected before starting a Fort Night battle or building a Minecraft world.
The twins can’t read yet, so I made a picture chart just for them to look at. They are old enough to know they have to follow the rules, and the pictures make it clear and easy for them to follow along.
Next up is the Summer Bucket List!
Of course, I want the kids to have fun this summer and lots of adventures and while I am planning the majority of them, I want the kids to feel like they are a part of the planning process.
Bucket List items can be as simple as flying a kite to going to the beach. I did have to nix DisneyWorld as the number one requested bucket list activity. Maybe next summer….
Last up in my Summer printable pack is the Daily Schedule. I get asked at least 10,000 times a day what we are doing, what are we eating, what’s next? All questions that drive me batty after the first day of summer. To keep the questions down to a minimum, I am sliding this printable schedule into a plastic page protector and using a dry erase marker to update it daily.
It will only take a few days of telling my children to check the schedule before they actually CHECK the schedule instead of asking what is happening that day.
I love my children, but hearing “Mom?” “Mom?” MOM?” over and over getting the same questions from six thousand children every day for 2 1/2 months is not my idea of fun.
If you need more ideas for summer fun, check out our Summer Must Haves List!
Please, download your own copies of this Summer Printable Pack and fingers crossed… we will all have successful, fun, and memorable summers with our sanity still in tact!
This is definitely a really good idea. Kids get some time away from the screen have some fun and they get to have a say so in what is going on over the summer. I love it!
These are a smart idea! I would do them, but my kids are older and snarky and probably wouldn’t follow these. I barely know what the schedule will be half the time.
What some great ideas for summer printables to help plan out all the things you want to do while the sun shines down!
Thanks for creating this printable. Love your summer rules. I still have to create a bucket list for my family.
This is such a great reminder, we need to make a Summer Bucket List as well. I love the idea of planning everything out to make sure we don’t miss anything fun.
Love this post and your outlook on what your kids should be doing during summer.
We have screen time rules as well during the Summer. I think it’s smart to have boundaries.
I love that you included pics for the younger kids. Having responsibility during the summer as a reward system always worked for our kids.
I wish I had been this organized for summer when my kids were little. now that they are both technically adults, I kinda wanna make a list anyways lol
I love these so much! This is the first year my rising-middle schooler has really been into video games so we’re definitely going to be implementing some summer rules before gaming begins.
That’s great that you created all those printable for an organized yet fun summer. I will have to create a bucket list for us too. Thanks for the idea.
I can see how this would work really well for a family with younger kids! My kids always had those same questions when they were small.
I love that the kids can earn their screen time. We have a flat rate of 30 minutes a day that goes away if the chores aren’t done. 🙂
I think this is a wonderful idea. I’m going to save these so I can print them out later. I really love this! My daughters will be in summer school this summer, so that is going to keep them busy. I hate hearing when they say they’re bored.
Yes, summer is hear! I need to find some activities for my kids, too!
Wow I love your summer screen rules. Seems very reasonable. We need to implement something like that to make sure screen time stays under control
What a great idea to organize everything with your Summer rules. This definitively makes things easier and more importantly, it sounds like your kids respect the rules. Great article and hope everything works out again this summer season.
Love these printables, Keiki! Last year was the first year I used a summer-specific daily chart and it really helped! Been needing to print one for this year, so this is perfect! Have an awesome summer!
Oh my goodness! Because of your plan kids more having fun! I really love your ideas!
These are great rules!I’m going to have to implement them into our home summer schedule for certain.