maycember
I recently heard this term and I have to say, it’s quite accurate. The end of the school year is wrapping up and that means extra activities at school like field trips and tests, teacher thank you cards, not to mention preparing for kids home for summer break.
I’ve compiled my top 5 planning tips as I head into summer.
Plan and plan again- I have my monthly plan which I plan out before each month. This means I write down all of the kid’s activities and any appointments we have. Then each week my husband and I look through our plans together so we can get down to the nitty gritty like who is picking up who and even what kind of meals will work for that day. But May requires an extra layer (really just like December). This top layer to the plan involves all of the end of the year extra activities like field trips, field day and even what day I want the kids to take in thank you cards.
Prepare your house. Summer house is not the same as school year house. If your kids will be home during the day in any capacity, it’s good to have your spaces cleaned and ready for the things that summer brings. For us, I like to make sure their play spaces are cleaned out so they can have a good start to finding toys and keeping those play spaces tidy, independently. I like to get all of the coats out of the mudroom so we can hang swim bags (speaking of this is a great time to stock up on sunscreen and find those old swimsuits and see which ones still fit). And lastly, I make sure I have one space where the kids can do a little summer “homework”. A little basket of pencils and markers usually suffices.
Camps. If your kids are doing any summer camps or summer activities, either sign them up or confirm their sign ups. After years of having kids at home in the summer, I try to sign kid up for at least one camp. It helps break up our days and they honestly enjoy them. Most of the time it’s either an enrichment day camp at school or a sports camp.
Create a summer schedule- with boundaries that work for you. I’m going to be honest; this one may be the most critical, but can be the hardest to implement. Going from 1 child home parts of the school week to all 5 kids home every day is a big shift in my schedule. Add on friends dropping in and playing (which I love), but it can all derail any plans and goals that I have to complete things that I need to do. While, I don’t map out our whole day, I do schedule in “quiet time” when our kids and myself all have some independent down time. And lastly, I write down expectations for the kids so they know their “have to’s” like chores, enrichment and exercise that we want them to do each day.
Relax now. Give yourself time to relax and enjoy the peaceful moments now. Don’t get me wrong, I love having my kids home and it is such a gift, but it does go from calm to crazy quite quickly once school is out.
I would love to hear how you prepare for summer?
