Summer Plans

Last year, I posted about how I was going to plan my summer with my kids so none of us went crazy. I stole the idea from my friend Lisa, and she didn’t steer me wrong.  That past post has more details, but here’s a quick sum:

This whole thing takes about ten minutes.  I start by brainstorming a bucket list of the activities we’d like to do, with input from Brad and the kids.  I also brainstorm a list of potential weekly themes.

Then I print out my summer calendar (just from my Mac), divvy up the themes, then plan some field trips that match the weekly theme, as well as some Saturday activities for our family that also match up.

Here are our themes for this year:
Manners
Nutrition
Beach
Exercise
Trains
Camping
Mountains
Nature
San Francisco
Space

Last thing: this is designed to be flexible.  Last year, I probably stuck to my plans about 60-80% of the time.  So my calendar served its purpose, in my mind!  We do better with a structure, but we also do well with some built-in wiggle room.  Each day, we can still mix in some ways to get outside, go exploring, and have some educational fun alongside of LOTS of free play for the kids.  Because what is summer without some lazy days and lots of popsicles?

Need some more ideas?  Other moms are sharing their summer plans with their kids.  You can sign up to participate in similar series on Kiana and Madeline’s blogs.