Summer Responsibilities for Kids

The summertime is officially upon us here in the midwest. It is starting to become routinely warmer, the sun is shining a bit more and the pool is open. This summer I have the opportunity to spend the entire summer with my children at home. This is a privilege that I have not personally experienced before. I have worked in jobs that required me to work 40 hours per week all year round and I have never gotten summers off. I also have the privilege to work from home and have this unique opportunity to keep my children at home this summer.

I would be lying if I told you that I wasn’t slightly nervous about this undertaking. I know that I work as the best “parent version” of myself when I have some space from my children. I have not wanted to be a stay at home mom and I knew that for our family to reach our financial goals, I need to work and contribute to our income.

This summer both Chas and myself are working from home and we are keeping the two oldest children at home with us during the week. To make this manageable we have a routine and system in place to help everyone understand the responsibilities for the summer.

Summer Responsibilities

• Daily tasks:

  • Unloading the dishwasher

  • Completing 15 minutes of math/reading school work (in a workbook format, 1 page daily)

  • Read an age appropriate book for 20 minutes each day, once book is completed, take a quiz and earn $1

  • Practice a sport outside for 30 minutes daily

• Weekly tasks:

  • Gather trash from trash cans around the house

  • Take trash bins to/from road

  • Clean up the basement when messy

• Complete 4-H projects (during the month of June)

Fun Summer Activities

• Attend Summer Activity camp (three days a week for 3 hours each day during the month of June and July)

• Attend a week of Cub Scout camp

• Spend a week with grandparents attending VBS

I share this list of responsibilities as a prompt for you as a parent that structure and a schedule are useful and powerful tools. I know I benefit from a routine with clear expectations and I believe that our children also thrive with some responsibilities and expectations throughout their day. Now all of these daily and weekly responsibilities can honestly be done within 2 hours of the entire day so they have plenty of time to run around with friends and play outside. Hopefully my children at the end of this summer had fun memories that they made and a chance to sleep in and play outside casually with friends. We have such a busy school routine between activities and sports that some down town with a chance of them getting bored is just what I want for them this summer.