Summer Planning Guide for Families

I always begin summer with wild hopes and noble goals. And then some of them I complete, and some of them, I don’t! This summer especially, I’m determined to bring fun, purpose and structure to our summer, because many of the fun things we’d planned are different or cancelled.

Thanks to my friend Katie Clark and her planning guide, I have a plan for summer!!

Katie has allowed me to share her family’s summer planning guide so that you can use it as well. It is a downloadable link at the end of this document. First, here are Katie’s tips to get started planning your summer:

Summer Planning Steps
1. Print out or create a calendar for entire summer.
2. Input any existing commitments: trips, camps, birthdays, regularly occurring events, etc.
3. Set Goals – what elements of summer do you want to incorporate? Fun, quality family time, rest, work, chores, projects, structure?, kids thriving – how is that accomplished?, creativity, organization, making home more restful, settting next year up for success, etc. (ask your kids for input here!)
4. What are you trying to avoid? Idle, wasting time, quarrels, too much TV, academic slide,
5. Brainstorm possibilities – use spreadsheet as springboard for ideas, consider fun, quality family time, structure, goals, what you want to accomplish
6. Set your priorities – both for the daily routine and for the summer as a whole (individual events)
7. Put your summer-long priorities on the calendar now
8. Create a daily routine for your kids (and for you!) with your priorities built in
9. Create an incentive plan to gain buy-in from your kids (perhaps some of the non-priorities, but fun ideas could be used here)
10. Plan a family meeting to set expectations and lay out incentives as well as show them how to properly track their goals, accomplishments, etc.
11. Build in fun, spontaneity, surprises – especially when the kids are thriving.
12. Pick a weekly time (Sundays or Monday mornings) to evaluate progress from previous week and set new goals.

What I love about Katie’s tips are how she solicits feedback and input from her kids, letting them take ownership over their summer and goals. I also love the idea of parents filling out these worksheets as well!