After a lot of trial and error, we finally got summer right.
We always spend most of July doing family trips and family reunions but it used to be that June and August were either boring or stressful.
One year we tried just relaxing, lounging at the community pool, and doing whatever came up. After a week or so, we were all pretty bored and frustrated and started scrambling for more playdates and day camps to join. The next year, I ran the kids around to a bunch of classes to keep them busy but I found all the classes to be mediocre at best and felt we were wasting our time and our money while stressing ourselves out with trying to get to certain places at certain times so much. Then the following year, I actually conducted classes for the kids and all their friends. Doing our own tuition-based summer school with classes of 10-12 kids was SO fun but SO much work!
So the next summer, I decided NOT to take the kids to classes all over town and NOT to invite the whole neighborhood over for classes. Instead, the kids and I came up with our own plan for the “Loosli Learning Adventures Camp” that lasted throughout June and the parts of July and August when we weren’t traveling.
Together, we brainstormed a list of things that would be good to do each day to keep our bodies and brains active and our house clean. Then we brainstormed a “bucket list” of fun activities we’d like to do together. We ended up with a good list of six “MUST-DO ACTIVITIES” that the kids agreed to complete individually each day (usually in the morning) and a list of ideas for exciting group activities (or “DAILY ADVENTURES”) that we’d chip away at (usually in the afternoon).
Our Loosli Learning Adventures Camp worked so well that we continued the same plan (with tweaks here and there) every summer until the kids got summer jobs when they were 16. And since I first wrote this post about our family summer camp back in 2009, thousands of families around the world have created their own family summer camps based on the simple but powerful ideas in this post.
Following are some details on how we did our Loosli Learning Adventures Camp every summer:
DAILY “MUST-DO” DAILY ACTIVITIES:
Each morning, we got up whenever we woke up (usually by around 7:30 or 8), had a leisurely breakfast that finished by around 8:30, and then did our individual activities for a couple hours until lunchtime (they did their stuff on their list and I got a couple hours of computer work done – with a few interruptions here and there – but they became quite self-directed after the first few days).
Here’s what we decided together would be on the kids’ required individual “must-do” daily activities list:
- READING: Read for 20 minutes (some read for longer – that’s fine!)
- WRITING: Write a page in your journal (write about whatever you want, write a story, write about what happened yesterday, or pick a writing idea from a list of writing prompts we’ve got; younger children can work on learning to write letters)
- PHYSICAL EXERCISE: Do a physical activity (can be individual or do it as a group – ride bikes or scooters, play tag, go for a walk, play at the playground, jump rope, shoot hoops)
- PRACTICING: Work towards one of your summer goals by practicing a skill for 20 minutes (piano, basketball, guitar, typing – each child has their short list of skills they want to develop)
- HOME: Do a job from the job list (we have a list of 5-10 minute household jobs that need to be completed each week – i.e. dust the living room, weed one flower bed, vacuum the stairs, wipe down the kids’ bathroom sink)
- EXTRA: From the approved list of ideas we brainstormed together, pick an extra activity to do on your own or with siblings. Examples: work on Spanish (we’re loving the simple on-line free program Coffee Break Spanish – 15 minute lessons), do online reading or math games, play a board game with siblings, do extra reading or writing, paint or draw, etc.
The kids and I created simple charts that could be printed out for each week where they had checklist of what they needed to do each day and then on Saturday, they got paid $.50 for each thing they’d accomplished that week (so they could make $3/day for doing their 6 things or $15/week for doing the 6 things each day for the 5 week days). As they got older, we increased the amounts since they needed a little more money to be motivated!
During June, we’d usually have the kids save money for a big family activity at the end of June that they chose (an amusement park, a family trip, etc – we’d have them pay a certain amount of the cost from the money they earned from their “must-do’s”).
** QUICK NOTE: If this is sounding exciting to you, keep reading – then be sure to check out our Summer Camp Kit for step-by-step instructions on all this as well as printable charts, writing-prompts, goal-setting sheets, job lists, recommended learning website links, and tons more photos and ideas. This kit is on sale for just $28 for a limited time!
DAILY ADVENTURES:
One of our readers sent in a great idea for having specified days for different things. We used her idea to group our long “bucket list” of brainstormed activities into categories for fun family activities each day after the kids finished their “must-do’s”:
- Make-it Monday (building projects with K’nex and legos or the wood we have in the backyard for the kids to use in building forts, craft projects, art projects, a visit to the library to learn about artists and inventors and engineering – art and building and invention are big things in our family)
- Take a trip Tuesday (the park, a museum, a bike ride, a field trip to a historic place, a factory tour, a picnic, a friend’s house…We often invited other kids or other families along)
- Wet Wednesday (swim/go to a spash pad/play in the sprinklers, often with friends and neighbors)
- Thinking Thursday (research something from our “wondering list” – a list of things we’re wondering about. Last summer we had a great time finding out how to make yogurt, how cars are made, where baby carrots come from and how monster trucks work thanks to YouTube, Wikipedia and library trips)
- Friend Friday (everyone can have a friend over – nice to do it all at once and protect our family time during most of the rest of the week. Plus we always have Family Movie Night on Fridays)
One “Take a Trip Tuesday” with friends – went to the “Spiral Jetty” in the Great Salt Lake
I love being my kids’ teacher. I mean all moms are their kids’ teachers in many ways – but it’s great to do it in a little more formal way sometimes. I so admire moms who home school. While I don’t know if it would be the right thing for us long-term, I feel like summer’s the perfect time set up a special sort of summer “home school” where I can teach my kids about things I really value and love while we really enjoy each other’s company.
** To see how the Loosli Learning Camp went one year, check out Saren’s blog HERE.
If you’d like step-by-step instructions, printable charts, activity lists, photos, and more to help guide you through creating and implementing your family’s own Learning Adventures Camp, click below.
Do-it-Yourself Summer Camp Kit (it’s on sale for 50% off right now!)
You are such an inspiring mother! Thank you for sharing your wonderful ideas.
Saren, you think of summer just like I do – a chance to get a lot of productive things done with the kids but also a great chance to relax and have spontaneous adventures. Thanks for sharing all your great ideas – I love trying new things every summer!
Great Ideas!! I’m going to implement these this summer! All the Eyre’s are so inspirational.
Thanks for the post! I may start using some of these ideas now, though I don’t have any school age children yet, I can use some of this now with my toddler.
Great ideas! We did a bucket list last year and it helped to get us doing fun things but this year I’ve been thinking about how to encourage more reading and learning into our summer. I had thought of possibly having a weekly theme of study, for example a country the kids want to learn about or the civil war or whatever. I thought we could do activities and read books that would help us learn about that topic.
One thing I definitely want to do is get my kids away from tv. How do you deal with screen time??
Thanks for the ideas!
Good question on screen time, Emily. The kids can each have 30 minutes of screen time each day once they’ve finished their “must-do’s.” But mostly, we’re ready for lunch and excited to move on to lunch and then our fun afternoon activities so many days, the kids don’t end up having any screen time and don’t even ask for it. Sometimes we have some family screen time together in the evening, watching a favorite movie or show together.
I love having a little more structure–my oldest will too. Have you ever heard of the Super Summer Challenge? I think you would love it…similar in concept.
http://farmfreshiowa.blogspot.com/2010/06/super-summer-challenge.html
Great idea!! I am copying down notes. I have 4 kids and one more on the way. We homeschool and I have been thinking how to come up with fun and learning activities and motivation to get reg chores done! Thanks! Kristy from http://www.apronsandapples.blogspot.com
I virtual school my kids so I’m trying to figure out something fun to do over the summer but I still want to work on things I don’t want them to forget with school. I think I like your set up. That’ll work. A little bit of reading and writing and we’re good. =o) Love the ideas! Thank you!
A couple of my friends and I are going to do a Craft Camp with our kids this summer. Wish us luck!
http://wanibug.blogspot.com/2012/05/craft-camp.html
I love all these ideas and I’m excited to check out all the additional blog links! I do theme weeks over the summer where each week is a different theme. We then read books, do art projects, take field trips, bake, and learn all related to the theme. Weeks we’ve done: post office week, garden week, space week (pretty much do this one every year!), art week, ocean week, all about me week, animal week, fairytale week, and poetry/music week. I have some of my theme weeks up on my blog: http://www.talesofalibrarianmom.blogspot.com
I love this blog!!! I am homeschooling my 4-yr-old (he’s so smart – so it’s easy for now! lol) and plan to home-school the rest as they come along… Thank you so much for sharing your summer ideas! I was home-schooled growing up and half of the time we ended up doing school through the summer just to give us something to do, but this is an AWESOME way for them to keep learning but not have to do actual technical school. I love it!! 🙂
Can you tell us more about how you use Raz-Kids? I looked at the website but it looks like it more for teachers to use in a classroom. There is about a $90 yearly fee. Is there a way to use this program at home? I really like the idea of it.
thank you so much for this Saren! Such great idea’s, that I am happily going to put together for my kiddo’s this summer! I love the idea of homeschooling, too, but know for now it isn’t a right fit for my family, so doing it during the summer is a fantastic idea. Thanks!
This goes a little further than what I already do with my four children. I will be copying the better points of yours to add to mine. One thing we will be adding this year is trips to the community garden. Thank you so much.
I love this, it totally inspired me! My 2 kids are younger and I’m in my first trimester of my 3rd pregnancy – and so sick – This gave me the perfect amount of inspiration to keep structure and make sure we are keeping our mind and bodies active – thank you for taking your time to share with us!
How did you deal with neighborhood friends? Would you let them participate in the things your family was doing or did you try to keep it just family time (except on Tuesday and Fridays)?
We invited neighborhood friends to join us for our afternoon adventures quite a bit – but we made sure friends knew that our mornings were mostly booked as the kids worked on their “must-do’s.” We did have one neighbor who wanted to play so badly that he’d help my son complete his “home” point by helping with a household chore and helping him practice basketball. That was fine by me!
I”d love to hear more from her!
Great article…some really wonderful ideas!
These are great ideas! Fits right along with our summer bucket list. : )
http://www.suchakingdom.com/2012/05/summer-bucket-list.html
your kids are so beautiful!!
we are currently doing this same type of thing! my husband just deployed, so i knew we were going to have to get some kind of schedule together for this summer. we live in the midwest and it’s HOT here, so it means that morning times are for outdoor activities(walks, play, zoo, etc.), afternoons for art, journals, reading, working on sight words for K & 1st grade computer(teaching the kindergartener, for computer time at school), trips to indoor facilities(science museum, library, etc). i’ve been keeping my own “journal” of our activities on my blog for the grandparents. 🙂 the kids have really been loving the activities so far!
We did this very (similar) thing the past three years… & during the year for learning supplementation for my daughter in school & the curriculum for preschool at home. Our days are slightly different but same idea: Music Monday (music learning & appreciation), Tell-Tales Tuesday (literary activity), Who-What-When-Where-Why-How Wednesday (science & discovery – like your wonder list research day), Thankful Thursday (where we do intentional acts of service), & Fun Time Friday (adventures & outings w/ family & friends) I’ve also heard of & like the idea of “Friends-day Wednesday!” cuz it rhymes! 🙂 hee hee.
Anyway, we do a lot of the things on the daily list too – chores, reading, journaling. It’s nice to have a routine that the kids can come to expect… coupled w/ the excitement in the variety of activities/lessons! I like your summer version – simple & fun!! Thanks!
Ive done summer school at home every year and love it! Ijust finished putting together our folders and cirriculum. I live your ideas. All I need to plan now are our physical activites and weekly field trip.
Do you mind if I print up your Summer-Must-Do-Chart?
Caren:
For just $15 you can get all the print-outs you need to put together a fabulous program. The little thumbnail sized chart in this article is missing a few things – it’s just to give you the idea.
Best of luck with your summer!
Hi,
To conduct a summer camp, do I need to take any kind of permit ? Or I can plan and start the camp after planning out all details.?
Thanks
Adventures of Summer on a Budget
As a mother, I understand a child’s desire to “go, go, go” and a mom’s desire to “save, save, save”. In our area, as in many others, there are so many summer activities offered but there are also so many ways to spend money that one can really end up in a battle of wills between fun and budget. Each of our children (ages 8 and 4) participate in one week of camp and take two weeks of swimming lessons. Other than that, I am very blessed to have two children who truly enjoy the simple things in life. Where our summers can get a little hazy (besides being in the sun) is remembering those simple activities. Halfway through last summer, we developed an ABC of Summer Fun list so when there are those cries of “what is there to do?”, we have a place to turn. I plan to sit down with my children and update it for this coming summer vacation and posting it on the fridge as a constant reminder of how lucky we are to have so many activity choices. My hope is that this tradition continues from year to year to help keep their love for the simple things alive. Here is last year’s list (found at: http://tipstermom.blogspot.com/2012/05/abcs-of-fun.html)
Attend storytime
Basement sports
Coloring/crafts
Dot Art
Eat lunch at Daddy’s work
Fun day at Grammi’s House
Games
Head to a park
Indoor swimming
Jump at monkey joes or pump it up
Kiddie Pool
Legos
Make paintings
Nature Center
Open gym
Playdoh
Quiet time reading
Ride Bikes
Sprinkler park
Train sets
Ugly bug hunt
Very long day at the beach
Walks
X out things on the scavenger hunt
Yell outside
Zoo
Thanks for your great ideas, Lisa!
So glad these ideas have resonated with so many moms! We’ve now had several hundred thousand moms read this post. Wow. I had no idea when I wrote it that there’d be such an interest. Thanks for being part of our Power of Moms community and please keep sharing your ideas!
I ordered the kit a couple of days ago and haven’t been contacted by you. Will I get the kit in the mail, or is it downloadable?
The kit is all online and you should have instantly received instructions for accessing your materials. Perhaps your instructions inadvertently went to your spam folder? I’ll email you with the instructions and you’ll be all set.
Love it, love it, love it! We do something very similar, but it’s not quite so well articulated. Each child has certain expectations for schoolwork and chores – and then the rest of the day is to be spent engaging in something outside. I love your approach and just might have to print your charts if I run into some resistance over the next few weeks.
Words cannot express how much I love this! I am sharing this on my Friday Cool Stuff I Like list and THANK YOU for putting together such great ideas and a wonderful post.
This is wonderful! It is so cool that activities can be customized. Thank you for sharing. I definitely will be trying this.
Wow, what great ideas. I am goint to try this out with my two daughters this summer. Thanks so much for sharing your family time.
Great way to spend the summer! So many factors go into making an educational decision for your kids. We really enjoy homeschooling (we’re just finishing up our fourth year), but this is a great alternative for Summer since I don’t want to “fully school” all Summer long. This mommy needs a little break. 😉 Fun ideas. Thanks!
Interesting.
So excited to jump on the bandwagon this summer!! Thanks! 🙂
such great ideas!! thanks so much for sharing this!!
Great ideas. And what a beautiful family!
Love all the ideas. As a former kindergarten teacher (SAHW, but not yet a mom) I did myself craving a schedule of fun leaning activities. I can’t wait to implement something similar to this in our family routine when the time comes.
On another note, how lucky is your daughter to have FOUR brothers! I’m the only girl in a family of 5 boys and it was the absolute BEST way to grow up! I hope she realizes how special it is to have them!
I love all these ideas as well, but can I ask one quick question? When do you allow kids to just sit with their boredom, uncomfortably, and come up with their own ideas of what to do? There is tremendous value in boredom. It forces them to get creative. I’m afraid that having a list to consult whenever they get bored will prevent that natural spontaneous creativity. Am I off base here?
Great point! We have some structured activities each day, but with maybe 2 hours devoted to their “must-do’s” and maybe another 2 devoted to a fun family activity in the afternoon, there’s still plenty of time in the day for “boredom”! My kids have become really good at figuring out great activities that come right out of their own imagination and ingenuity. It is so important for kids to have unstructured and not overly-supervised time every day.
Love the ideas that are presented here, but wondering how I can implement effectively with my own children children ages 4, 6, 8 and daycare children ages 1-5 (noticed yours are a little older.) Any suggestions?
I really nedeed this today! Thank you! Today has been one of those days that I just don’t think that I measure up to all the expectations of what it is to be a stay at home mom. My three beautiful children are the light in my world and yet I feel like I’m failing because I don’t have enough time to do it all. And I miss my Mom! She lives so far away and it’s so rare that I get to feel one of her embraces or snuggle into her crook when I need to. I get to be that for my children but there are days like today that I just want to snuggle next to my Mom and feel her love for me. Even as an adult and a mother, I still want my Mom especially on a day like today.
Lilly, I can definitely empathize. I want my mom all the time, it seems. I’m not sure if there’s ever a point where I’ll feel “adult” enough not to need her so much. But how fortunate we are to get to have children who need US. Thanks for visiting Power of Moms and leaving such a beautiful comment!
When our kids were ages 2-7, we started doing most of the ideas included in this post. Younger kids do great with the simple charts and short list of things they need to do each day but just need a little more hand-holding. When my children were younger, I found it worked best for everyone to do reading together, then everyone to do writing (or drawing or art or handwriting practice for younger kids), then everyone to do their physical point together, etc. As they got older, they could do things on their own timeline but just had to accomplish all their must-do’s before lunchtime. And younger children really enjoy the theme afternoons (make-it-Monday, Take-a-Trip Tuesday, etc.). In some cases older children can help younger children with some things and that’s great for both parties when it’s set up right. Best of luck to you this summer!
Thank you, Irina and Saren, I was just going to ask the same thing – mine are 4 months, 3 and 5 years. Some days are still survival, but I like to do activities when we can. We need our afternoon nap/quiet time. Saren – how did you handle your schedule when you had babies as well as school age kids?
Karena – great question.
When you still have babies and toddlers who need naps, it works well to do activities like “Make-it Monday” and “Thinking Thursday” with your older children while the little ones nap. Then for field trips and other activities where everyone needs to be involved, you can plan around naps and go when the little ones can be awake and happy. Or you can get a babysitter to listen for the little ones while you take the older ones out during nap time. When I had morning nappers, I had my older children do their “must-do’s” while the the little ones slept – worked out great.
– Saren
Hello
What a spendid idea! I wish my kids were still kids, I doubt that I can make them interested in a plan like yours now at age 18, 21 and 25. Sadly. But some day they will give me grandchildren to do summercamps wiht, and then I´ll remeber this. Thanks.
Hi Saren, I just saw your post on Pinterest. Love it! We’ve done something similar here in Minnesota for the past few summers and I wrote a book about it. Would you be willing to review it on your blog? I’d be happy to send it. Have a great summer 2013.
Megan:
I’d love to hear more about your book. Email me at contact(at)powerofmoms(dot)com. Thanks!
Love Your ideas!!!
I would definately implement them this summer if my husband`s definition of summer wasn`t “having no plans.. Blah! Your kids are Lucky to have you as their mother!
I love this idea! I was already pushing some of these ideas around in my head, I’m so glad to have more – and to hear how you do it.
Thanks!
Lindsay
With school ending this next week I am VERY excited about doing this!! THANKS
Thank you soooo much for this!! I recently became a nanny, and it is total chaos. I desperately needed something to fill the summer and help keep everything in order. This is so great!
Great ideas, as has been mentioned before:)
Great ideas for my Grandma’s Summer/Boot Camp! We’re a little behind in ‘planning’ as they have been out for 2 weeks. However, Camp has been in full effect…swimming (100+ in AZ), Father’s Day Cards for Dad & Grandpas, sorting handouts for Grandma for Susan G. Komen (COA), Vacation Bible School (free with dinner for 5 nights…Woo hoo!!!). My plan is to sit this week to make a colorful calendar/list. My grands are making a list of 5 things today, while Grandma is recovering from the last 2 weeks…I’m a 2 time SURVIVOR, so my energy runs low at time or I’m in pain. I have 5 grands locally and 1 in NYC. They know both breast cancer/prevention/cure and that I might need to rest. My oldest taught me YOLO, I have Veteran benefits, and my son & daughter-in-love just moved into a huge new home…trifecta for me to live the dream…Spend the Summer with those I love so!!!
What a wonderful, thoughtful, and thorough post! There is SO much GOLDEN advice and you have taken the work out of coming up with daily activities. I can see this being a HUGE hit in the work from home arena since summer really makes everyone think out of the box. I hope you don’t mind I shared your link on my facebook page for small business owners.
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing the link, Kelly. I agree, these ideas work very well for moms who need to get some work done during their summer while their kids are happy engaged in doing their own productive activities. I’m in that boat and it works great for us!
I loved reading through this post and listening to your podcast on summer plans. I have planned out my summers for the last few years and have worked out some systems that work really well for our family. Last year we did a monthly children’s book group with friends and neighbors that was fun, encouraged a lot of families to read, and brought us together to talk about books and share. Below is the post I wrote to share what books we read and our schedule.
http://lemonverbenablog.blogspot.com/2013/06/summer-read-aloud-book-group.html
This year I’m trying to get a head start on my summer plans. I’m sharing 6 steps to prepare for an awesome summer on my blog over the next few weeks. I have linked to the first post below.
http://lemonverbenablog.blogspot.com/2014/05/6-steps-to-awesome-summer-schedule.html
Thanks so much for all of your ideas. I love to hear what other moms are doing, such great inspiration for things to try with my own kids.
Camille:
Great ideas! I just re-posted your comment on our DYI Summer Camp Facebook page so others can see. Thank so much for sharing.
Forgot to include the link – our DYI Summer Camp Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Power-of-Moms-DIY-Summer-Camp/285684874942910
I bought the summer kit and I emailed you guys and i haven’t heard back from you. Please email me back about the questions I had. I can not get the printables to print out in a full 8 by 10 piece of paper. It prints out smaller and I can’t read some of them. Please answer my emails. Thank you
I can’t read the “home point activities printable. Could you let me know how to zoom in and still be able to read it?
Jessica,
I have tried to email you several times, but keep getting the emails returned to me saying that your address doesn’t exist. Very strange! I am sorry about that!
I think that you are clicking on the picture of what the form looks like and that just takes them to a larger picture of that form rather than to the PDF itself (which is to the right of the picture of the form and highlighted in blue with a link). Does that make sense?
Please let me know if that doesn’t work.
Awesome write up! Is also like to add that your children are beautiful from one mom to another. I can’t wait to implement this when my kids get out of school
Thanks so much, Amber!
Hi Saren! Enjoyed your post and the idea is intriguing…I have one 6 year old son and I am wondering if something similar will still work when there are no extra kids in the house…I sort of have a feeling he’ll think I’m just making him do lots of stuff..
Thank you for the reminder to do this! School got out for us a week ago. This past week has been all about not having a schedule, but now I want to bring some structure into it. My kids are all teenagers, but I do still think much of this is applicable. Thank you!
This is great! My family is excited to try this out this summer. Thank you for sharing! I wrote up a blogpost about our plans, inspired by your Do It Yourself Summer Camp idea! https://storyofahomeschoolingfamily.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/its-summertime/
Thank You from a Dad! If you need to know how to do something go to the experts! Love the Summer Camp Program.
Scott! Thanks for letting us know! We love to hear from the dads out there. 🙂
Thanks for sharing keep sharing this type of thing
Hey Saren! I just love listening to your podcast and I am now discovering your site. I would love some advice for ways my younger teens can earn some money over the summer break. Thank you much!
I read your article and it was very interesting about Stitching but i’ve seen a best Stitching website. Must visit for a once. Best Stitching in Dubai
Hi Saren,
You are such a lovely mother. I love the ideas you shared for a DIY summer camp. In my case, I let my kids choose what summer camp they want and I will enroll them. They are only kids once, so I see to it that they will enjoy it.