5 Step Summer Plan of Attack — Routines, Responsibilities, Rewards, Rainy Days

If you are like me and some of the moms I have been talking to recently, you have been frantically trying to come up with a summer plan for when all your kids are home from school. Maybe more like a plan of attack!

Here is what I have been thinking about and have come up with for my summer plan of attack. I’d love to hear from you about your summer plan and secrets that have worked for your family!

1. Develop Habits of Routine

I am schedule-oriented person. But if you are like me, you’ve probably figured out schedules do not work out that well with little kids. Sometimes they do, but more often, it seems beneficial to operate on routines instead of schedules. My friend Hey Donna, has some good posts on routines – you should check them out!

I might tentatively set that we go to the library on Mondays. Since the library doesn’t open until 10am, we can plan to start a load of laundry before we go. You probably have more routines than you think. Your routine for going to the library – is everyone gets their shoes on, someone gets the bag of books to return, kids 5 and older get their library card to take with them, you get in the van and get buckled, and so on.

Your laundry routine might include everyone bringing their laundry basket to the washer, someone loads it, another person puts the soap in, and another turns it on.

Routines are systems and patterns that kids learn to recognize and follow. You can move from one routine to the next and switch the order of the routines and the time of day of the routines, but they still work.

It might seem basic, but I think sometimes the hardest thing for moms to handle with routines, is sticking to them. I know I am decisive and I often change the way I do things. Something I have needed to learn is how to be consistent in the routines so the children develop the habit of that routine.

Find more ideas for Creating Successful Routines in chapter 3 of There’s An Easier Way: 21 Ways to Lovingly Raise Your Children Without Regrets.

2. Assign Household Responsibilities

Whenever our kids have started to act up or misbehave, from the time they were about 18 months old, we have noticed that giving them more responsibility is often a perfect cure. It seems crazy at first, but its true! I started by giving my 18 month old children the responsibility of getting their own dish, cup or bib out before a meal. I have a low set of drawers with their items in, so they can reach it. I would quickly notice that if they found a bowl out of place, they would jump up and run to the drawer to put it away!

Consider starting your goal of assigning responsibilities by visiting the Dollar Tree (or another dollar type store) with your children. (Maybe first by yourself to get a plan!) Have a plan set in place when you enter the store. Before you go, consider your plan. It might be:

Discuss chores with your child before you go to the store. Head straight to the cleaning section of the store, trying to avoid the toy section (if your kids are young enough not to realize there is a toy section). Have the child choose one thing to help them with their summer chore. Something new to them. For instance, my daughter loves to sweep. She found a little broom with a standing dust pan that she absolutely loves! Her summer chore is to sweep the floor after each meal. That is part of our “meal clean-up routine”.
Have each child pick a book to work on for the summer. Explain that when they finish the workbook, they can come back and choose anything in the store as a reward. This works great for you – anything they choose is only $1!
Maybe one of the responsibilities for your children is to take care of a potted plant that needs watered, or any area of the garden. Dollar stores, or even Walmart, often have cute gardening supplies and little watering cans in different colors. Be sure to assign a specific place for them to keep their watering can at home so they always know where to find it.
For your laundry routine, you might want each child to have their own laundry basket. I found these awesome color choices at our Dollar Tree – for only $1!

3. Set up a chore chart and reward system.

Do this especially for children 4 and older. I like to assign chores based on what will help my sanity. Maybe their job will be to unload the dishwasher every morning. I find this very helpful! I also assign chores based on their strengths and likes. My daughter is very diligent at cleaning and does it well.

Consider having a chore day. I don’t like to overload my kids, so about a year ago we started having a chore day. Every Thursday, since our trash is picked up on Friday mornings, my 5/6 year old empties all the trash cans. While he is doing that, my 4 year old cleans the bathroom sinks and washes the bathroom mirrors. My 2 year old helps me with whatever I am doing, which seems to change every week. It works really well to get the whole family involved that evening and do more house cleaning together.
I was recently inspired by my friend, Denise Renae’s post on paying your kids to read. My son is very good at math, but reading isn’t something that he just sits down and does naturally. I know prizes and money motivate him, so I’m going to try this for the first few weeks of summer with him, until the Lancaster Library Summer Reading Program starts. I’ll determine what he does after he finishes the library reading program later.

I shared about 12 Ideas of Things to Buy at Consignment Sales That Will Help You Prepare for Summer Break and in that post I talked about the Melissa and Doug Responsibility Chart. We use the Melissa and Doug Calendar, but while I have not used this Responsibility Chart, I know a number of friends who have found it very helpful!

I was using one that I found on pinterest because I could easily change the jobs every day. Since my kids are a little older this summer, I think I might transition to something else, as I plan to have them do set jobs that are the same every day.

Bonni Greiner has also shared her two favorite tools for chores.

I love how having a chore system in place, motivates children to get their chores done in the morning, so they can go out and play with their neighborhood friends in the afternoon!

Discover more ideas about kids and chores in the chapter “Cheerful Workers” from the book There’s An Easier Way: 21 Ways to Lovingly Raise Your Children with Regrets.

4. Plan some field trip ideas.

Some families like to coin the term “Field-Trip Friday”. Again, for me, it more falls into the category of routines. For us, it often does work out to be Fridays though. I think probably because our library is closed on Fridays, and so often that’s the day I want to go to the library and relax a little! So I have found I need a plan for Fridays.

There are so many opportunities for things to do with kids for FREE or really cheap. Check out this list of 15 FREE Places to Go in Lancaster with Kids, 15 before-naptime trip ideas in Lancaster County or this post on 25 family day trips in Pennsylvania. If you live elsewhere, just do a simple Pinterest or Google search like “things to do with kids in Lancaster, PA”.

Also consider your local library or museums. My husband has a FREE annual membership to the Science Factory. If you have never been there, this is well worth checking out on a rainy day, especially if your kids love science, engineering, building and math. Toddlers, preschoolers, elementary age and even older children will find things to keep them occupied!