Don’t be confused with the title of this post! I absolutely love and worship the two months off I so luckily get to enjoy as a teacher. I look forward to my summers because it means I get to sleep in, enjoy a more relaxed schedule free of after school activities and spend more time with family and friends.
Summer brings about images of swimming, sunbathing, bike riding, BBQ, road trips, picnics, hiking, camping and so much more.
What I’m not looking forward to this summer IS the fighting that occurs when kids are with each other 24/7 and get on each others nerves.
I promised myself that I would not let the ipads, iphones and computer serve as child entertainers this summer.
I warned my girls that technology of any kind will be off limits during the day.
You can imagine their reaction to that, especially the teenager whose whole life revolves around the use of her iphone and laptop.
Needless to say, my girls were not impressed with my announcement.
“What will we do all day, mama?” said the youngest.
“Yeah”, said the middle child.
“Great”, said the teenager.
*Sigh* said this mother.
And so I began to explain to my kids the plan I had all figured out in my head for how us 4 girls were going to make this summer the most amazing one in the history of summers.
And that’s when I whipped out this …
A weekly planner.
Before the beginning of each week, the girls and I will sit down together and plan out the activities we’d like to do for the week. After checking on the weather and Googling about the events and activities available to us in our area, we would decide as a team what we’d like to do for the week, teenager included.
I made a separate weekly planner for my teen so that she can use it to organize/plan with her girlfriends activities they’d like to do together for the week. I can’t expect my 16 year-old to hang out with US every day. She needs time with her friends.
And so I’ve been researching things to do locally, Googling water parks in my area, looking for upcoming events we can attend and trying to find low-cost activities we can do that won’t break our piggy bank. Easier said than done but I’m trying.
I want to make great memories this summer. Memories with their mama – ones my girls will hold on to and remember forever.
Want to make a schedule similar to this? It’s easy to do in Microsoft Office or any word processing program.
Then print off and USE!
For us organized types, it’s like getting candy for Halloween.
Happy planning!

I totally see the teacher in you with this one! Haha! But it’s a great idea. I’m not sure yet that I can handle a no technology summer, but some days off would be nice. I remember this one time I forgot my cell phone and it the day wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be. The only downside was that I couldn’t take any pictures! 😉