12 Comments

  1. We have done something different every year. I have spent a lot of time pinning things for this summer. With 4 kids ages 15 down to almost 6, it is a challenge. I read something recently that said the 3 things to keep in your day are reading, some sort of chore and prayer. We always include those, and leave the rest free form. This summer will be interesting with Andy’s surgery right in the middle and a long recovery.

    I just signed the kids (all 4 because it goes through high school) up for 10 mark (it’s free for summer through Amazon) to keep their math skills up. https://www.tenmarks.com/login/user

  2. Unless it’s the week of camp grandma, summer typically still means weekend screen-time only. I do make exceptions for long car rides to camp and sometimes let the older boys watch a movie on the way.

    We have fewer activities since camps wear them out, but still keep some favorites. Lots of afternoon outdoor playtime is involved.

    Summers are a little crazy since every week is different, and pick-up times vary by up to two hours depending on the camps. I try to keep
    Them boys at the same camps to make life easier.

    Also, this summer we will take our third trip to Florida with our kids. I highly recommend finding a camp for the kids (this year the kids are opting for surf camp over their usual soccer camp). It makes for a great vacation and the kids have a blast too. 🙂

  3. While my kids are older now (my oldest is graduating High School!), they remember some of the unique things we did like making paper, pasta or ice cream from scratch, going to the library for special events with authors and unique visitors, and just going for walks through the neighborhood spending time outside exploring.

    We did tend to limit screen time some, but with keeping activities lined up, it sounds like that won”t be a problem. 🙂

  4. We only have 6 weeks of summer break. We go on a summer holiday for 3 weeks, and the other 3 weeks I just let them play. They mostly play outside. During the 3 weeks at home the oldest (8) has 5 hours of screen time a week (which includes i-pad, tv, computer games.
    He usually uses it up on the first day of the week.

  5. My kids are 8.5, 7, and 4. We spend a lot of our summer playing in our yard and doing things around town (town pool, park, library) with a couple trips to visit cousins and Grandparents.

    For screen time – we allow about a half hour each day for “games” on the computer of iPad. Movies are usually limited to the weekend (1 movie on each day – Friday, Saturday, Sunday) or for special occasions – like mom has a doctor appointment and dad has to work from home.

    Hands-free-mama (blog) has a wonderful article up recently about screen time. I’m not sure how to link it – but if you look it up, I’m sure you can find it.

    Hope that helps!

  6. Totally unrelated but after seeing your “moms go swim with your kids!” post on A Mighty Girl today, I started telling my husband about your blog and that post and he said “Wait! I just saw that!” and I said “I know you did, because it’s on A Mighty Girl which we love!”
    Congrats!:)

  7. My daughter finished kindergarten this year, so I can totally relate. For some reason this year is just different. I guess because summer is more defined. And I have a lot of stay at home mom friends. To be perfectly honest, this week has been pretty miserable for me going off to work and leaving my girls behind. I feel like I’m missing out on all of the summer fun and I hate that. I have started a summer bucket list and am trying to plan some special things. I try to limit screen time and encourage more outdoor activities while the weather is nice. For us, bedtime has to stay the same through the week because the girls still need to get up.

  8. I love summer bucket lists! We put on strawberry picking, ice cream by the beach, swimming and bike rides. Our biggest is doing 4 weeks of camps, 2 weeks we’re gone, and the rest will be low-key with our nanny. So that will likely involve swimming, playgrounds, reading, projects, and maybe 1-2 hours of screen time/day.

  9. I have kids 10, 6 and 3. The older two have a couple camps scheduled during the summer. I am a SAHM so if they are not at camp they are home with me. They get a little more screen time during the day because they don’t go to daycare. Bedtime is later than school year because they don’t have to get up for daycare and because the sun sets so late where I live. We go to some public activities, library, pool time, playground, playdates. If we are at home they usually figure out what to play/do. I occasionally set up crafts, play ideas. I have a love/hate relationship with hearing, I’m bored. I feel young kids need downtime and need to know how to figure out how to occupy their time. A school counselor told me when kids get anxious at school it is usually when there is downtime (recess/lunch) so I want my kids to know it is okay to be without an activity constantly scheduled for them.

  10. Most schools in Canada don’t let out for summer vacay until the end of this month. I always find it odd when/that schools in the US are done at the beg/mid/end of May. I hope you have a great summer!

    1. And I can’t imagine going to school until the end of June. It’s already in the 90s here in Nashville. I think weather plays a big role into when summer break begins.

  11. I work as a nanny and we try to spend lots of time doing childhood things during the summer. I love this list that our National Trust charity produced a few years ago to encourage children to get in touch with nature and be a child outdoors doinf simple fun activities. https://www.50things.org.uk/activity-list.aspx Quite fun for adults as well!
    And screen time is still 30 mins after dinner unless its a rainy afternoon and weve been stuck inside all day!

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