The kids are home. Laundry piles up. Work is still a thing (how???). Schedules shift.
As the temps rise, the structure in your house can melt down if you don’t get organized and plan ahead - but summer can be fun and (mostly) stress free with a little preparation! Our 4 top tips below will help you clear the chaos of summertime.
1. Create a plan
Never has there been a more important time for a family calendar. Grab a Reusable Planner and choose a central location accessible to everyone and fill the months with summer camps, travel, and playdates. This makes it easy to see when you’re busiest and schedule family time, downtime and even some self-care time in the gaps, because if you don’t schedule it, it probably won’t happen.
2. Maintain a routine
Kids love structure, but they also love trying to stay up late using their iPad. Try to stick to your school year routines as close as humanly possible (which may not be a lot, but try, nonetheless). Activities like daily reading, brushing teeth 3x a day, and chores should still be a “thing”, but you can easily put a summer spin on them - track and game-ify! Each week, give them play-coin rewards for helping with chores and daily reading, which are redeemable for things like popsicles and new pool toys from the dollar store, and track their progress on a Reusable Chore Chart.
3. Prepare for “I’m bored!”
Even with days filled with visits to the pool, playdates, and summer camps, there are moments when boredom (and nagging) hits. Crafts can often create more mess - and, although adorable - the messes they create on top of wet towels laying everywhere just seem like too much. Create a “doodle bin” with fun, reusable materials that reduce clutter and zap their boredom. Think of all the paper waste from games of tic tac toe, doodling puppies or working on letter practice that clutter up your space - and replace that paper with reusable alternatives that you can erase and reuse for the next project, like Reusable Magnetic Tiles.
4. Also prepare for “I’m hungry”
To be a mom is to hear “I’m hungry” no less than 97 times a day. Prep healthy snacks like fruit salad and carrot sticks in BPA-free, clear plastic storage containers with Reusable Container and Bin Labels. Stack these on the bottom levels of the fridge at kid height, so kids can easily access snacks on their own without you needing to get involved.
