Hey mamas! And papas! It’s summer time! Isn’t it exciting? The year has come to a close. Kids are coming home from school with all their hard work shoved into their backpacks. End-of-the-year celebrations and ceremonies. Awards are handed out. Yearbooks. Report cards. Teacher gifts. Summer. Summer! SUMMER! It’s here!
Womp. Womp. Womp.
If you work from home, summer break doesn’t hold the allure it once held as a child. It’s not about sleeping in and having adventures all day, every day. That’s impossible! Instead, summer break is all about figuring out how to entertain your children while accomplishing all of your work duties, fulfilling your hours, and oftentimes making phone calls (!!!!!!!!!) despite the background noise.
Backstory: I work from home, more computer-heavy than phone, but I still have to be available for phone calls and often make them. I have a 6 1/2 year old, just out of kindergarten, a 5 year old, just out of Pre-K, and a 1 year old still attempting to learn how to walk and talk and all that good stuff.
In order to survive the summer, I have arranged my schedule to work most of my hours on Monday and Tuesday. I squeeze the rest of my work into random hours on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. This is how I juggle our activities so I can be with my kids as much as possible.
This schedule or the kids’ ages may not be applicable to your situation or they may match your situation. Either way, take a look at the plans I’ve made below and maybe something will work for you!
Here’s what I did. I took a piece of paper and wandered around my house, the girls’ room, Pinterest and my brain. I wrote down every idea I had. But I was purposeful, I wrote down ideas that would require little involvement from me! My thoughts are: while I’m working, the girls (in between snack and screen time) can come and pick something from the jar to give them an idea to run with. It doesn’t need to be something that mommy helps with (those are on another list). Ages make a difference here. I don’t think this would have been as successful last summer because my daughters couldn’t read. This year, however, my oldest is reading really well and trying to read more all the time, so she can move farther and faster with ideas than ever before!
I grabbed some markers and cut paper into rectangular pieces. I wrote one activity on each piece. Each piece is folded and placed in the jar. I’m hoping they will go with the first item they pull out (but intuitively I know better….).
My list is below, but I may keep adding to it as things come to me. Please adjust your list based on games, puzzles, activities and options available to you! (I also have a Dollar Tree shopping list for one of the outings we will take, so I can gather activity-supplies and science experiment ingredients!)
Mommy Is Working List:
- Puffy Paint Shirts (Michael’s Clearance)
- Water Balloon Play
- Write a Letter or Make a Card
- Glow Sticks Play (Dollar Tree!)
- Squirt Guns (Target dollar bins)
- Sidewalk Chalk
- Sidewalk Chalk Hopscotch
- Create Something with Play Dough
- Put on a Puppet Show
- Jump Rope
- Balloon Play
- Write in a Journal (6 year old)
- Kindergarten Prep (5 year old)
- Practice Words (6 year old)
- Practice Letters (5 year old)
- Paint Stepping Stones (hello Target dollar bins!)
- Put up USA Map (Target dollar bins)
- Play KerPlunk!
- Play Connect4
- Play Cupcake Game
- Play Candyland
- Play Chutes & Ladders
- Play Operation
- Play Hungry Hippos
- Use Silly Sentences (6 year old)
- Use ABC or Spanish ABC game (5 year old)
- Go on a Nature Scavenger Hunt
- Water Balloon Baseball
- Decorate Masks (masks purchased at a post-holiday Target clearance)
- Build Something with Goldie Blox
- Build Something with LEGOS
- Have a Race with Daddy’s Cars! (matchbox)
- Put up a Tent
