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.

Affiliate links appear in this post. I may receive a small commission if you click on these links with no extra cost to you! Thank you for your support. 

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: 

Homeschooling

Blood & Circulation Activities

Homeschooling with Disney