Well it is that time a year when school comes to a close and we enter Summer Break!  I don’t know about you but the last few weeks of school seem to both breeze by and linger on at the same time.  What do I mean well, it is hard to believe my kids only have two more weeks of school left, our school year ends the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend.  

I know these last weeks will breeze by in once sense but at the same time, I can also feel like they linger.  I run out of ideas to change up the school lunch box and even the kids are tired of peanut butter and jelly and everything else they have taken for lunch all year long.  Thankfully my kids wear school uniforms or I can imagine most parents and kids feel they don’t know what to wear or dread laying out clothes for the last few weeks of school.

Here are some thoughts to think on and plan on as we come to the end of the school year.

Start now writing out a Summer Checklist, both a fun Summer Bucket List and also a checklist for chores and keeping up on academics during the summer break.  Don’t wait until summer starts to plan it out or let summer go by only to end up with a lot of “I wish we would have”, and the such because just like the school year breezes by so does Summer.  I remember when I was in school we had an entire three month summer break and did not return until after Labor Day Weekend in September now days most summer breaks are much shorter, my boys go back to school in August, they really only have 11 weeks off of school which goes by quick.

At the end of a school year it is a great time to celebrate with your kids all the accomplishments they have made.  What they have learned, how they have grown, friendships made.  As the weeks come to a close sit at the dinner table and discuss those things or as you tuck them in bed remind them how much they have grown and how proud you are of them.  

I know for my kindergartner, he is reading really well now, entered kindergarten knowing basic sight words and sounds, but now he can read an entire book all on his own.  He can create sentences from his sight word list and write them out on his own.  That is huge, he has become quite the social butterfly.  As the middle child he was a little shy at the beginning of the school year not any more, he has made new friends and blossomed quite a bit.  

My 2nd grader now knows multiplication all from 1-12’s, he writes beautifully in cursive and has a love of reading as well.  These are all things to remind them and encourage them with how they have grown this past year.  Also a good reminder to discuss things you want to work on during summer break so you don’t get rusty when it is time to go back to school.  

A really great tool to stay up on math that I have used before is a website called TenMarks, you can register your child by grade, TenMarks will have it personalized to your student by a diagnostic assessment.  Based on the results, a personalized curriculum is created.  Each curriculum reviews past concepts and introduces future ones.  Hints provide problem solving approaches.  Videos provide instruction to refresh concepts.  Here is a link for more information and to register: https://www.tenmarks.com/summermath.

I know it is easy during summer to stay up later and get up later as well, but if you discuss this as a family beforehand than everyone is on the same page and can contribute to having a fun, successful summer break and know what is expected of them.  With younger kids in my house, we don’t stay up super late during summer, they pretty much stick to their same bed time routine.  They have a few days in the week where instead of being in bed by 8:30 they are in bed at 9 which thankfully at their young age they are super excited about, but you should have a family plan to help both the nights and mornings go easier for you.  My boys are not big on sleeping in, they never have been, so even during summer break they really don’t sleep in, but we discuss, things like screen time on the computer, and tablets, making their bed each morning and helping with breakfast, etc.  

If you stay home all day with your children, a great idea is to write out a menu plan for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I already menu plan our dinners, but do not typically menu plan the other two meals, but with summer break, I will menu plan all meals.  It makes it easier on me to keep a variety of meals as well as on the kids so they know what they are eating.  It also helps keep snacking to a minimum, I don’t know about your house but my boys love to snack and if I let them will snack all day.  I like to write out, Breakfast, Morning Snack, Lunch, Afternoon Snack, and Dinner so they don’t fill up on snacks throughout the day and end up skimping on dinner.  

You can Google Summer Bucket List and there are a ton of lists on Pinterest with fun ideas, this is great to discuss with your kids and find out what they dream of doing this summer.  With more time together as a family during summer break what adventures will you conquer?  What memories will you create?  Kids grow way to fast, don’t take for granted a single day, even from the simplest of days with a picnic lunch in the backyard and running through the sprinklers.  Taking fun summer vacations are great, but I know everyone cannot do that every year, whether it is because you work and do not have the vacation time, have not budgeted for a summer vacation or timing, for example we have a new baby due in July, so being nine months pregnant and having a newborn we do not have a huge trip planned for this summer break.

I find that kids ultimately want time with you, even if it is just hanging out in the backyard with them, watching them ride their bikes, or jump on the trampoline and show you their new moves.  Summer Bucket List’s don’t have to be grand and expensive.  You can visit new parks in your local town, take swim lessons, camp out in your backyard, get your kids involved in cooking with you and learning new things that with busier schedules you don’t always make the time to show them.  It really is about quality time together.  I also have observed when you have a plan even if the plan is to build a fort in the living room and have a backyard picnic, it will cut down on the dreaded words “I’m bored”, “There is nothing to do”, etc.  I find with my boys there are less fights and grumbling when they don’t enter that bored stage and again it does not have to be big expensive things to do all summer, but variety.  For example last year for our Monday through Friday schedule, we had a day we went to our local water-park, we had a day we went to movie theater for the Summer Kids Movie Program, we had a day we visited the library, a day we visited a new park and then a day scheduled to stay home.  Then we made adjustments as needed, if we had a friend or cousin spending the day with us or any other plans that we made, but having a basic plan of attack or your week, keeps the entire family on the same page, can be less stressful and makes room to create memories together instead of wondering where the summer went.  

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