☀️ Getting Setup for Summer
Tips on how to tackle this summer in a way that is still fun, but manageable.
Apologies on the tardiness in getting this week’s Parent Like a Pro out. We had the fortune of being featured in the WSJ last week as Julie Jargon shed much needed light on technology that’s helping to lift both the regular parenting and the extra COVID-related weights of parenting. But without further ado…
📰 The Topic
We’ve heard the feedback of parents saying that schedules are less on their mind than how they’re going to get set up for the summer. So this week, we’re focused on:
schedules that work for the summer
chores to get the kids contributing
projects to make it memorable with family adventures
📆Schedules:
Even though camps and childcare in general is still spotty, one (small) silver lining is that parents have a short reprieve from the challenges of school assignments and dreaded Zoom links. Still, structure is a good thing for everyone and without the imposed structure of school, you might want to consider one of these ways to approach that structure:
Must-do, Want-to-do, Nice-to-do: In today’s NYT Parenting post, Jessica Grose shared this approach where you (plus the kids if old enough) can make a list of things and put them under 3 columns so you feel good about prioritizing the most important things for your family.
Themed days (eg. Maker Mondays, Travel Tuesdays etc.) - this works better for elementary aged kids who can help come up with ideas and feel involved.
Online camps - lean on content from places like Camp Kinda, Highlights or Kiwi Crate that have great free weekly activities or ones like Camp Wonder or Camp Curious that are paid but come with more in-depth sessions so that you can maybe get some work done while the kids are occupied
🧹Chores:
The summer is a great time to add responsibilities. There’s lots of research to show the benefits of starting kids off with increasing responsibilities, but especially right now, every little bit of help can go a long ways. Consider
📸 Make it memorable.
This summer, pick a couple things that would make even a regular summer great. Maybe it’s a crazy hard Lego or puzzle project that you’d be doing at the cottage. Or a weekly family cooking night. Starting filling in the next 8-10 weeks with the bigger, meaningful things you want to have done. Here are a couple other ideas:
Quarantine memory books: If you’ve been taking photos over the past 3 or 4 months, here’s your chance to print them out, set the kids up with construction paper, stickers and markers and let them create their own versions of a photo/memory book. Word to the wise - print doubles to minimize the sharing fights.
Family recipe book: Make a project of gathering everyone’s favorite recipes and putting them together into a family cookbook. You can use services to put it together, templates or just some paper and markers.
Backyard camping or a neighborhood roadtrip: Depending on your area’s state of reopening, consider doing at home versions of what you might be used to doing during the summer. Set up the tent and coolers in the backyard. Or wake up early, pop into the car and drive to some of your favorite spots in the city. Have the kids make a map of the plan beforehand.
Question of the Week:
How have you been getting your kids involved in chores and helping around the house? Let us know.
🧰 The Tools
Here’s a simple way to approach a themed schedule:
Here’s an easy chore guide we use to help figure out what’s totally reasonable by age:
🧐 Worth Reading/ Watching
How 133 Epidemiologists Are Deciding When to Send Their Children to School
Dads - a documentary on the wide ranging experiences of being a father.
🎈Nuggets for the Week Ahead
🏕Camps for the kids this week:
Camp Kinda - Circus at Home
Camp Wonderopolis - Wonder Farmers Market
Camp Highlights - Camp Out or Camp In!
🧮Keep the learning going:
For our beta-tester families, you can easily add any of these to your week anytime: