Summer schedule for families with young kids

Does the idea of a summer schedule make you feel right at home or full of anxiety?

Question two, are you a planner or more go with the flow? I want to believe that I am a go with the flow kind of girl, but the reality of that is a big fat no. Now, I can adjust and adapt, but I need an original plan to start, ya know.

So with summer here, I am creating a basic plan to navigate our days.

There are 4 basic steps that I used to plan out summer schedule

1. Figure out the non-negotiable parts of your day/week

• This summer that looks like time for me to go to the gym and time for me to work 3 days a week for 4 hours
• When my kids were toddlers my answer would have been go to Fit4Mom, clearly I need to move to keep my mind clear

2. Figure out a basic daily plan

I know this plan is going to change and I am okay with that. But I need a starting point to guide me. That is what this is for me. Here is our plan and it really isn’t all that different from when my kids were younger.

• Wake up
• Activity – I will pull from The Preschool Playbook and Co-Op Membership for Derek. For Reagan, I will modify activities to reflect her skill level. The point of doing these activities over summer is to prevent the summer slide and activate their brain in the morning so that they are ready to play.
• Breakfast/Play (this is when I will go to the gym)
• Get Ready
• Mom Time (I’ll elaborate on step 3)
• Lunch
• Play
• Screens
• Dinner/Family Time

3. Mom Time

Both my kids and yours are young enough to still want us around. They want to hang out with us. Let’s take advantage of that as much as we can and schedule fun intentional time with our kids. Here are the ideas I have for this.

• swim
• slip n slide
• bake
• STEM activities
• craft
• adventures/field trips (min golf, bowling, library, hikes, splash pads)
• bike rides

Our baking, STEM, and crafting ideas will be from my Summer Playbook (this one is a freebie that you definitely want to grab)

4. Family Planning (but not in the traditional sense of that phrase)

A friend shared with me last year that she maps out each week of her summer schedule with her kids. This helps them follow the plan because they helped develop the plan.

During this time I will have my kids pick the mom time ideas for the week (at least the adventure and baking so I have what I need on hand). And I will adjust the daily routine for things like sports and play dates, because it is summer and I do need to be flexible after all.

Let me know your favorite summer activities and tell me what your summer schedule looks like.