Routines and rhythms are pretty easy to fall into during the school year, but once summer hits it can be challenging to get into a groove. But just like during the school year, my children do well when they know what’s coming, and they also need to learn to be flexible because things come up (this is life, after all!). Today I wanted to share how I structured our summer days for many years in a way that’s flexible but also intentional for families with young children. And how our Children’s Summer Book Club has helped us do that by providing both structure and intentionality in a way that’s super easy for parents and caregivers.
Our (Flexible) Daily Summer Routine
Before each week begins, I will check out or gather a few books within a specific theme in our book club (there are six themed weeks total). I look ahead to when we have open days to plan an outing and choose one from our pdf that goes along with the theme we are doing. So for the “Things That Go” week, we might go to the airplane museum or ride the local trolley. If we go to a museum we will seek out paintings of airplanes, boats and horse-drawn carriages (things that go!). Our book club printable suggests lots of outings at home activities but we usually just do one outing and a few of the activities at home. Here’s how our day breaks down:
6:30 -8am — Children wake up and watch TV or play quietly.
8am — Eat breakfast and get dressed. (I might read a picture book while they eat breakfast).
8:30-9:30am — Morning chores (Need a chore chart? Click here!).
9:30am – 12pm — Outing (Swim at local pool or run errands) or play at home.
Our Summer Book Club provides enriching (and simple!) activity suggestions that help children make connections with the wonderful literature they are reading. Many of the activities are things they can do themselves or I can give them an idea and they run with it. Nothing too complicated, but something that fills the void if you are trying to cut back on screen time (and especially if you are going to be at home more).
12-12:30pm — Eat lunch.
12:30-1pm — Tidy up!
1-3pm — Nap or rest time.
Even if you don’t have a napper, you might want to enact a rest time. We did! Older ones can page through a book club book or listen to an audiobook (many of our book club books are available on audiobook) while resting in bed or playing quietly in their room.
3:30-5 pm — Play time, or outside time. We might pick an idea off of our handy book club printable of something we can do inside our outside.
5-6:30pm — Prep dinner (have older ones help!) and then eat together.
6:30pm — Finish dinner, take baths, and then read bedtime stories using books from our book club.
7:30pm — Bedtime for younger ones. This is a great time to read a favorite story from the day!
Again, this is a flexible summer routine. Other days we will stay home all day and just play and go outside. Some days we will get off our routine because of an event, unforeseen circumstance, or sickness — but our goal is to always get back to the routine the next day. And that has been good for our family over the years. Even though my older daughters are now teenagers we still have a similar rhythm to our day.
Our book club has given our family so many wonderful memories at home and around our city. There’s still plenty of time to incorporate our book club into your summer! Click here to join today!
What do you think?