Surviving the summer with your kids at home, how do you do it? I want to show you the summer survival tips that we use. This helps us do our best to thrive and enjoy our summer!

smiling mom and son standing outside

It is my hope that our summer survival tips will give you some ideas of what you can do with your kids so that you can have a fabulously fun summer!

Summer Survival Tips To Help You Thrive With Your Kids

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Summer Screen Time Rules

One of the biggest challenges we face during the summer is screen time. Tell me it’s the same at your house!

Much like previous summers, screen time is not automatic every day here at our house, but has to be earned.

This is the checklist that I use for Dalton. If he wants screen time these are the things he has to do to earn it.

Some of the items (brush teeth, make bed, and get dressed) are things that he already does every day.

Picking up his bedroom is on the list to help him create good habits and learn to keep his room clean. It’s my hope that it’ll teach him to start putting items back where they go after he’s done using them.

The daily chores are simple items like putting away the dishes or filling up the soaps in the bathrooms.

(I won’t require him to do the things on this list the week that he goes to day camp or when we have family in town.)

My son’s teacher highly recommended this Summer Bridge Activities Book to help keep him on track and remember what he learned during the school year. (Check out Summer Bridge Activities Book for all grades here.)

I found these writing prompts on Etsy. It was super easy to print them on card stock so we can use them for years to come. These prompts are just a fun way to get his brain juices flowing and help him practice his writing.

Summer Reading Challenge

I’m trying something new with Dalton this year. To encourage him to spend more time reading I’m offering him $1 for every chapter book that he reads. I’ve heard of other families having great success with this so I we’re going to try it.

To add to the fun and give him more incentives to read, I found some summer reading programs.

Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program – Read 8 books of your choice, write down your favorite part of the book and receive a free book of your choice from their list.

BookIt Program – Receive a Pizza Hut pizza when you reach your reading goal.

Local Library Reading Program – Read 20 minutes a day for 30 days and receive a prize. (I’m not sure what the prizes are but he’ll have fun surprise to work towards.)

(If you know of any other summer reading programs that we need to check out please let me know!)

Character Development with Mom

It is my hope to help him develop a strong and healthy character, so we will be working together through the Strong and Smart Book by David Thomas. It compliments the book Raising Emotionally Strong Boys (I highly recommend that you add it to your reading list if you haven’t already!)

David is a counselor and created this workbook to help elementary age boys learn how to work through their emotions in a healthy way. I’ve already read through it to make sure Dalton was ready for it and am excited to put some if his principles into action!

I also purchased Guy Stuff: The Body Book for Boys by Dr. Cara Natterson.

When we finish Strong and Smart we will begin to work through this one. (I’m not sure that he’s ready for all of the topics quite yet so we’ll begin to go through it slowly.)

This book is written by a pediatrician and covers all things boys from how to take care of your body to what will happen as his body grows and he goes through puberty.

I highly encourage you to read through it beforehand to make sure you are both ready for these very important conversations. It is written for boys 8+.

Summer Fun Ideas

Creating a summer fun ideas list (ours is pictured above with the screen time rules checklist) is super helpful for when your kiddo comes to you and says, “Mom, I’m bored.”

When you have this list created all you have to do is point him to the list that has ideas of activities that he enjoys doing.

A blank copy of both the screen time checklist and summer fun ideas list is available above, if you haven’t already grabbed it.

Here are just a few ideas that you can add to your list:

  • Board/Card Games
  • Puzzles
  • Hot wheels/monster trucks
  • Workbooks
  • Draw/Paint
  • Bake something
  • Coloring
  • LEGOs
  • Play-doh

For even more ideas, check out this huge list of screen free activities for boys!

Become Great Friends With Your Local Library

The library is not only a great resource for free books but ours also has fabulous programs during the summer.

This year the libraries in our area are offering:

  • Various Story Times
  • Kids Yoga
  • Family Films
  • Make and Take STEAM and Craft Times
  • Flower Power – Master Gardeners will teach all about gardening and pollinators, and help us with a flower pot craft!
  • TN Philharmonic Orchestra Saxophone Quarter Performance
  • Puppet Theatre
  • Animal Encounters with the TN Aquarium
  • Mr. Bond Science Guy
  • Much More!

Your library’s summer activities will vary from mine but this at least gives you an idea of the activities that your library will likely be offering too!

So let your fingers do the walking to the calendar of events on their website or ask the librarian the next time you stop in to stock up on books.

Here’s to a fabulous summer for all of us! You’ve got this momma, and I’m cheering you on!

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