With Summer officially under way in our household, I have been spending some time over the last couple of weeks mapping out schedules and activities. Since I know I’m not the only mom who does this, I thought I would share some tips and tricks that I use to ensure the kids have a fun but balanced summer.
Although my kids are teenagers now, the electronic struggle is real no matter what age your kids are. Let’s face it. Most of them would waste the day away on video games, phones or really any device they can stick their nose in front of. Growing up, we never really had this issue but it was a different time and we lived in a house where we could walk out in the backyard and spend all day in the pool.
The most important part of managing the device time is limiting it so they have to manage and decide when they want to use the time they have. While my son is more inclined to spend time playing video games, my daughter will sit on her phone most of the day if we let her. To start, we put limitations on her phone that restrict her social media time to 1 hour per day. If she chooses to spend it all in one sitting, she can or she can spread it out over the day.
The mornings usually start off slower and more relaxing so that is always a great time to read and get some daily chores checked off the list. We put together a list of daily and weekly chores that they have to complete. This keeps up their responsibilities while ensuring that the house isn’t a total disaster at the end of the day. Since they are older, they don’t necessarily need a babysitter but they do need to know there is adult supervision plus have a way to get around to different activities they want to do. For that reason, I have a nanny that comes from 11-4 most days. This means the mornings are really a perfect time to get things checked off the list before she comes to get them out of the house.
At their age, camps are hard and there aren’t a lot available. Because my son plays high school baseball, 4 weeks of the summer are filled with that plus weekly practices for his travel team, pitching lessons, workouts, etc. He will also start driving lessons this summer (yikes!) so I feel like he will stay somewhat busy and active.
For my daughter, she will stay active with gymnastics but I also found a great photography class that I enrolled her in for two weeks. It will give her some structure for a couple weeks while still keeping her afternoons free.
We also volunteer as a family at our church Vacation Bible School. This has been a tradition of ours for many years and something we all look forward to.
Outside of all of the above, I try to fill in the rest with beach time, pool days, play dates, amusement parks and of course, just some down days filled with movies and games.
To keep track of all of it, I use a Google calendar that I can easily share with my nanny and even my sister-in-law when we are coordinating activities for all of our kids. I am definitely a scheduled, organized person so this just makes me feel better that I have their plans mapped out and we are all on the same page with where everyone is going when and where.
No matter what age your kids are, I always feel like having some sort of plan helps keep it all together and provides the right balance for the optimal summer.