When school lets out for summer most families breathe a huge sigh of relief and quickly go from a highly-structured mode to a much more relaxed atmosphere where schedules and commitments are pushed aside for lazier days of kicking back and chilling out.
I personally love that I get a ten week reprieve from making school lunches and even better, we don’t have to set our alarms for most of the summer. But I cannot tell a lie—as much as I love having my kids home from school, ten weeks is a very long time to have them underfoot.
Since I do work full-time outside of the home, however, the days of being my kids’ “cruise director” all summer are thankfully long gone. And quite frankly I do miss the many ways we used to spend summer vacation as a family despite my having to find ways to entertain them for over two months straight before those school bells ring again right around Labor Day.
Whether you’re working or hanging out with your kids for the summer break, two-plus months of having your kids home every day can, let’s face it, become a bit daunting (for both them and you).
Great summer vacations are possible and yes, even easy, if you take a little bit of time to make some plans. Mighty Mommy shares six smart ways you can embrace your summer before things start to get too hot!
6 Creative Ways to Spend Summer Vacation
- Keep a Schedule and Set Expectations
- Declutter from the School Year
- Kid Swap
- Create A Vision Board
- Playdates After Work
- Encourage Boredom
Here they are in more detail.
1. Keep a Schedule and Set Expectations
It’s only natural to want to abandon the rigid structure your family has maintained throughout the school year once your kid’s backpacks are tucked away for the next couple of months, but if you do so altogether you could be asking for trouble.
Kids crave structure and boundaries even though you’ll never hear that from them, so even though their stash of #2 pencils are out of sight, it doesn’t mean you still shouldn’t keep their routines and schedules going strong. In 6 Tips to Transition Kids from School to Summer I talk about enforcing the routines you've worked so hard to maintain throughought the school year.
Every household will have to establish their own summer groove, depending on your children’s ages, if they have their own summer jobs or activities to attend and of course what your work schedule looks like for the summer. I find it’s helpful to lay out what your expectations are for the summer. By doing so, the entire family is on the same page and there are no surprises for kids or parents alike when everyone knows what the plan is.
In How to Enjoy Summer Vacation Without Losing Your Mind, my first tried and true tip is Outline Your Summer Expectations: “By setting up some straight-forward guidelines for your family at the beginning of summer vacation, you can save yourself a lot of grief when things don’t go your child’s way. Successful summer expectations can be simple and tailored for each child. Emphasize in writing how your kids are expected to contribute to the household during the summer months and what the consequences will be if they don’t do their part.
These contributions can include household chores, summer reading, how much electronics time will be allowed, and how much money they can expect you to contribute to outings like the movies or the mall. Ask for their input so they will feel that they have a say in how they spend free time. For example: If you expect your son to take care of his own laundry this summer, let him decide the day and time of this chore. Print the list of expectations, have your child sign it, and keep it posted in a high-traffic area as a constant reminder.”
2. Declutter from the School Year
The end of the school year means a notable transition for the entire family. Backpacks, lunch boxes, and homework stations are probably chock full of year-end papers, projects, broken crayons, assorted school supplies strewn about your home (probably including your car) and kid’s bedrooms are full of little reminders that your child has been leaving your home early in the day and going strong in school and then rushing from one activity to the next after school.
One way to kick summer off to a positive and fresh start is to take some time immediately after school has let out and clean up and declutter all your school areas to get them ready for the more carefree days of summer. Go through backpacks and lunchboxes and rid them of the past year’s claptrap that you no longer need. Have your kids help you spiff up their homework stations and chuck anything that has no purpose. Take some decent chunks of time and transition their bedrooms and other main areas of the house such as the entry way and family room from school days to vacation mode so you can relax in the weeks to come and not have constant reminders such as outgrown shoes, ill-fitting clothing, and tattered sports equipment and such cluttering up precious space around your home.
3. Kid Swap
When the majority of my kids were younger, my friends and I developed a summer survival system called the "Kid Swap." Basically we pre-arranged regular days throughout the summer where we swapped one another’s kids. This included either hosting kids at our house for an afternoon so one mom always got an afternoon to herself, or it allowed for instant playdates once a week for families that only had one or two kids. (With eight kids, you know who got the better part of this deal.)
Because I had older kids, I had built in "Mother’s helpers" so when I had a few extra kids, I had it made. When my kids went to a friend’s house, my older kids would be along for the ride, so it was a win/win for all.
Get creative and enlist aunts, uncles, and grandparents. If you have some respite to look forward to each week, it definitely keeps you less stressed and your kids benefit because they get a change of scenery and other kids to hang out with on a regular basis throughout the summer.
4. Create a Vision Board
Each year, shortly before school lets out for the summer, my kids and I have always created a “Summer To Do List.” This has been a tradition of ours for over 15 years now. Each child and parent pick a few fun things we’d really like to do either, on an individual basis or as a family. I have more details of this in my episode 6 Ideas to Help Your Child Have the Best Summer Ever.
In addition to our highly anticipated “Summer To Do” list, there’s another creative project we started doing a couple of years ago that’s equally as fun—creating a vision board. Basically a vision board is a project that allows you to create a visual collection of things that excite you and inspire you and that you would like to attract into your life. These became all the rage when the law of attraction grabbed our attention after the movie The Secret was released several years ago.
Vision boards are a creative way to focus on some of your goals and dreams. There’s a wonderful youtube clip on how to create a vision board from one of my favorite authors, Jack Canfield.
You can adapt this project to your children’s ages and interests, and it’s also a great outlet for yourself as well. What I found so interesting about these vision boards is that I learned a lot of things about my kids I didn’t know before because of what they placed on their boards. For instance, one of my sons put photographs of guitars on his board. I learned that he had wanted to learn to play the guitar for a couple of years. That summer we rented a guitar for him, he learned to play, and now he’s part of a band.
5. Playdates After Work
During the school year we’re used to scheduling homework time, appointments, deadlines for projects, and all the after-school activities and practices that are a regular part of our September to June lifestyle.
With summer most of us don’t have as many rigid commitments and aren’t running around quite as much. The upside to all those scheduled times, however, is that I get to spend a lot more time with my kids because I’m shuttling them back and forth in the car. This may sound crazy, but truthfully it’s time I have with them that we have each other’s attention because we’re in a small confined space for a good chunk of time several times a week and we can chat, connect, and even problem solve.
Years ago, a good friend of mine turned me on to a way to spend time with my kids during vacation periods—scheduled playdates after work. Once a week we put a “date” on the calendar so we can do something fun like go out for ice cream, go bowling, or just take the dog to the park for a walk. These relaxed times provide just the change of pace you and your child need to de-stress and it’s something for both of you to look forward to. Most of my kids are in college or high school now, so we do something called “Take out Thursdays” where we choose a new restaurant and order take out and have dinner together, all of us, every Thursday no matter what.
6. Encourage Boredom
Finally, my best tip for embracing the lazy and sometimes long days of summer are to leave days on your calendar with absolutely nothing at all planned. In a recent podcast, 4 Great Reasons Boredom can Benefit Your Child, I received quite a few e-mails from listeners about how much they enjoyed and appreciated knowing that it’s absolutely fine to let your kids have unscheduled time where they fend for themselves.
Believe me, I spent many summers where I agonized over having enough creative projects planned for my kids so that they’d be enriched with clever activities and outings to keep them happy, busy, and most of all never bored. While that was great for them, I burned out in record time because it’s just not feasible to keep that type of momentum going for the sake of trying to avoid boredom.
Youth psychologist Janine Hubbard says that kids just aren’t getting bored as much any longer, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. She says: "Believe it or not, letting your kids be bored for at least some of the summer is probably one of the most important life lessons you can give them. Boredom helps encourage creativity. It helps encourage problem solving. It's how we learn to daydream. It's how we learn to navigate social situations."
So this summer be sure to keep a solid handful of free days on your calendar. You might be amazed at the variety of pretend play and other activities your kids will come up with all on their own.
How do you welcome the summer vacation months in your home? Share your thoughts in the comments section at quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy, post your ideas on the Mighty Mommy Facebook page. or email me at mommy@quickanddirtytips.com. Visit my family-friendly boards at Pinterest.com/MightyMommyQDT
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