How to Survive Summer With Out-of-School Children
If you have the opportunity to stay at home with your child for the summer vacation, you need a plan of action to survive. Summer is meant to be breezy and relaxing, so try not to over-organize and add unneeded stress to your family's summer vacation. However, some thinking ahead will make the summer beneficial for all and will keep your kids from wasting away three months of their lives. Having something to look forward to is also a great incentive for getting help with summer chores.
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Instructions
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At the beginning of the summer vacation, sit down with your kids and brainstorm ideas. If you start this as a summer tradition when your kids are small, they will want to continue doing things with you as they grow older. Once a child becomes a teenager, it becomes harder to instill new traditions.
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Encourage your children to think in categories for the activities they'd like to do. Try a fun activity, a learning activity, a free activity, an outdoors activity, a community service activity, and so on. You don't have to do all of them every day. Just try a different theme for each week and do small activities every day.
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During the learning week, go to the library or think of things that your children learned this past school year to create an activity around. This way it won't be so hard to get back into the school year. Retaining what they learned is especially important with small children learning to read. But because it's the summer, just make sure you focus on the fun things related to any lesson.
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A community service activity may include feeding the homeless or volunteering at your church. You might help an elderly person get ready for a yard sale or clean up his yard. Working activities can be made into fun activities with a little Frisbee tossing or stopping for ice cream on the way home.
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Teach your children to cook. Have them research a menu and make a list of ingredients they need. Take them shopping for the ingredients, and while you're at it, teach them how to budget and use coupons.
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If you have more than one or two children, organize time alone with each child separately. This gives you a chance to catch up on how each of your children is doing.
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Tips & Warnings
Even though it's summertime, it's a good idea to have some sort of structured routine, such as planned meal and bedtimes. This will make the family's summer activities more meaningful and keep everyone balanced.
Remember to take some time out for yourself to get a breather.
References
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