The Summer Game Plan
I’ve been a working mom since day 1. This means I’ve never enjoyed (endured) a summer break with my kids. They’ve always been in day camps or at home with family…until this year. Knowing this time I would be the day camp and knowing my kids don’t function without a schedule, I used my four months of bed rest to concoct a game plan for a full calendar of summer activities for kids.
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Step 1:
Printing off a calendar for each month of summer break. I used these, I figured I should have one focused activity for each day and a theme for each week. I planned a field trip and special snack every week as well.
Step 2:
Hit up Pinterest! I went through alllll of the things I’ve pinned to do with my kids but have never had the time to do. I made a list and started to group things together to get inspired for some of the weekly themes. I’m slowly building The Chaos Manager’s Pinterest board here.
Step 3:
Find the freebies. Our library offers a program where you can get free passes to tons of local attractions and parks. I also Googled “Free activities” and looked at the local parenting websites for lists of summer entertainment. Armed with my calendars, I-pad and an old school spiral notebook I began to piece together my plan.
My themes were:
-Sports
-Building/Legos
-Michigan
-Art
-Animals
-America
-Science
-Star Wars/Space
-Food
We book ended things with a lazy first week and a ‘last blast’ of summer.
Outdoor Toys for Summer on Amazon
Step 4:
Make your supply list. Knowing full well all great plans implode upon the entrance of a newborn to the family, I decided to make a list of supplies organized by week and ordered them ahead of time on Amazon. I figured if I had already paid for the supplies it would motivate me to follow through on the activities.
Step 5:
Implementing!
…To be continued…Keep following along to see some of the Pinterest fails (and a few successes!), how we managed our schedule and how I adjusted to life as a stay at home mom to a 9 year old, 6 year old and infant! Updated September 2023: I don’t think most of the summer activities for kids made it to the blog. I was clearly overconfident! Little did I know that a year and a half later I would begin homeschooling due to the pandemic. If you’re looking for more activity ideas be sure to check out these posts:
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