Summer is here and my boys are so excited for their summer of fun! This means endless video games, sleeping in, … Just Kidding! While our summers aren’t overly structured, we do have some general guidelines we’ve used for the past few years.
Here are the basics for our summer routine.
Summer Routine: Mornings
My oldest son is in middle school and thinks sleeping in is marvelous. During the first week of summer, I don’t wake him up. I let him sleep as long as he wants. (That doesn’t mean that I’m staying quiet though!) The younger brother is the first one awake in the house. He typically heads for the TV with his blanket and pillow each morning. After that, we are all awake and moving by about 9 am.
Most days the boys make breakfast on their own. They can make protein waffles, smoothies, oatmeal, fruit, and eggs by themselves now that they are a little bit older. This is helpful for many reasons, the main reason being that since they wake up at different times, they can eat when they are hungry.
Summer Routine: Daytime
Between the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., we have a “no screens” rule. I have found that having bigger projects for them to work on is great. Last summer we built a Lego train layout and they had fun building creations for that. Sometimes they work on science kits or do art projects, but mostly they can be found outside playing sports or at a park.
I personally do not like to stay home all day. Usually, we do some kind of outing each day. This could be a new park, the library, the pool, a friend’s house, or geocaching. It doesn’t have to be anything too expensive or time-consuming, but something out of the house. We do have special days where we go on a road trip, to the zoo or science center, but those days are pretty rare. Each boy also has 2 weeks of camp each summer. These are local camps and are during the morning hours.
Summer Routine: Evenings
Since I start getting dinner ready around 5 p.m., this is a good time for the kids to relax and watch some TV or play video games. After dinner, we typically head outside again or try to do something as a family if we don’t have sports practices. Oh, and there’s usually some kind of frozen fruit bar or ice cream for dessert too!
This routine allows us to have some structure to our summer days which keeps my sanity in check and the boys having lots of fun too! Nothing is set in stone and we try to remain flexible too.
What’s your summer routine look like?
