SURVIVING SUMMER WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR KIDS AT A SAFE HOUSE
I am a stay at home mom that has also been a working mom. After my kids were no longer infants I spent 2 years managing a summer day camp with over 200 campers each day and then went back to being a stay at home mom with a 6 year old and a 1 year old. I took some of the things I learned running the summer camp with me as we approached summer and it made things so much easier. I never felt the “When God, when, can I send these beasts back to school??” feeling that I saw in friends’ Facebook posts. Here are my tips:
HAVE A DAILY ROUTINE
I created a loose daily schedule that went something like this: wake up, eat breakfast, read for 30 minutes, pack lunch and get ready for the day, afternoon TV or movie while I prepared dinner, baths, bed. This was just the framework so that we didn’t get our act together and look at the clock only to discover that it was already 4pm.
HAVE A SCHEDULE
I planned most weeks to be relatively the same: Monday- Field Trip/outing day, Tuesday- swimming at our gym or the local pool, Wednesday- library & craft day, Thursday- swimming day again, Friday- Kids’ choice day(sometimes their choice was to stay in pjs all day and eat cereal for every meal, who am I to argue?) and weekends were not planned since the whole family was together then.
PLAN YOUR FIELD TRIPS WAY BEFORE SUMMER
I looked into and planned our outings sometime in April and May, that way I didn’t have to think about it. This is a sample:
| Summer Mondays for Outings ** except Thursday 8/5 |
Outing | Theme | Special Activity | Final trip & notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/6 | Sweetberry Farm- picking blackberries and tomatoes for family dinner (pay for what you pick, no entry fee) | Cooking | Family Dinner- kids will use food picked at the farm for dads, friends & family on Friday | Mayborn Planetarium. Long drive, but a good show |
| 6/13 | Volente Beach | waiting on reply from Jeannie @ McKinney Roughs to see if 7 year olds can go. Crash pool at Hyatt Lost Pines after | ||
| 6/27 | Free Movie at Alamo Draft House- The Muppet Movie | 10:30am, movie starts at 11. Free movie | ||
| 6/28 | San Antonio | |||
| 7/11 | Kayak Lady Bird Lake $7 per person/hr kids will likely last 1 hr. | Fun in Austin | Kayak in the early evening when it is cooler. Possibly hit lunch/early dinner at Whole Foods? | |
| 8/5/2011- Thursday | Barton Springs & Zilker Theater "Footloose" | The Arts | Swimming at Barton Springs to cool off, dinner from food trucks at the theater, set up blankets to reserve spots prior to swimming. Time TBD | |
| 8/8 | Art Day at a host house | The Arts | Outside art class- painting, body art with jello, birdhouses | |
| 8/15 | Alamo Drafthouse on S. Lamar free kid movie (movie TBD) | Movie will be free, they haven't decided the Summer Movie schedule yet. | ||
| 8/22 | Blue Bell Ice Cream Tour | Farewell to Summer! | Drive out to Brenham, possible stop on way back to crash pool at Hyatt Lost Pines |
HANG WITH FRIENDS
I would send out the Batsignal for most of our activities, when the kids have friends along it takes the pressure off mom to do all of the entertaining. Another reason for planning our outings well in advance is that it allows you to distribute it to friends and they can put the outings that interest them in their calendars as well.
BE FLEXIBLE
All this being said, the best way to enjoy summer is to be flexible. Days were switched and outing dropped as needed for our family to enjoy ourselves and not feel rushed.
