It’s Day 1 of 5 Days of Preparing For Summer Vacation! Today is a fun planning day, divided into 2 parts!
Mom’s are busy in the summer and without a plan, the summer will pass by in a blink, leaving us to wonder what happened.
Without a plan at my house kids argue, get bored, or the summer ends without us doing what we were hoping to accomplish.
The first part of this challenge is just for you, mom!
Grab a notebook or use this printable and jot down your goals for the summer. This doesn’t need to take a long time, 5 to 15 minutes will do it! (There are several goal setting resources at the end of this post if you need help!)
Do you want to plant a garden, preserve your harvest, read 10 books, repaint your living room, or refinish some furniture? How about complete a Bible study?
After you set your goals, you need to decide how you’re going to squeeze them in your schedule. Can you wake up 15 minutes earlier each day or schedule 30 minutes after lunch? If you work, can you use part of your lunch hour?
Make some notes on when you want to have your goal completed and when you will work on your projects.
The second part of today’s challenge is to sit down with your family and create your summer bucket list. Each year before school gets out, we sit down as a family (usually after we eat in the evening) and create our summer bucket list.
Need some ideas for your own bucket list, check these out!
This list is a collaboration of everyone’s ideas of what their goals and aspirations are for the summer.
My kids like to get a large piece of poster board and we create our list with markers or crayons making it colorful and exciting.
It hangs on the refrigerator or on the wall and we cross off the list as we progress through the summer and complete the project.
With a big family and tight budget, I try to at least use 3 ideas from each person in our family.
Here are some examples of what we had on our list last year:
Horsemanship camp, swimming lessons, 4-H, t-ball and softball, summer library reading programs, and a vacation to South Dakota.
Remember, these ideas don’t have to cost a lot of money! We’ve had fun making robots from boxes, blowing bubbles, and reading books.
Everyone needs to contribute and feel part of the group.
My kids love the bucket list and they feel they have some control over the summer activities. It also makes them more agreeable because they also know we will be completing one of their activities soon (although sometimes I have to give them a friendly reminder) when we’re at someone else’s activity.
What activities did you come up with as a family?
I’d love to have you share them, it may give someone else an idea for their own list!
Have you enjoyed what you read here today? Do you have friends or other women you know that could benefit from this resource? If so, please do me a favor! I have included the links below to share with other intentional women! They’ll be glad you did!
Some fun ideas here. I teach school and my idea of summer vacation is just plain R & R with nothing planned. Spending time with my grandchildren will be about the extent of my going anywhere. I like not being able to plan, have time commitments and just be able to stay in my pjs all day if I choose. I remember when my girls were home and little, we would jam pack activities in their day, it was fun, but exhausting.
That’s the summer I want when my kids are out of all of these activities! 🙂