Mom’s Summer Survival Guide

10 Tips To Keep Your Sanity By Debbi Witt

10 SUMMER SURVIVAL TIPS FOR MOMS

Ah, Summer!

The kids are excited about being out of

school. . . for the first week. Sounds

increase in the house during the second

week of summer. Fighting and arguing

among your precious ones commences

and you are ready to tear your hair out.

Over and over, you hear, “I’m bored.”

Over and over, you hear,

“I’m bored.”

Here are ten tips on making this the best

summer you have ever experienced. It

might take a little planning and executing

these ideas but it will be well worth it. You

can keep sanity in your home and enrich

your children’s lives while strengthening

your family.

Involve the kids in making a calendar of

what you will do during this summer.

Don’t worry about the details and if things

don’t go as planned, sit back and laugh as

a family.

Laugh as a family.

This is the time when your

family has more flexibility due

to the longer days of sunshine

and your children’s freed up

schedules. There is no

homework to complete, no

schedules to meet and some

flexibility to how your days will

pass. You can plan lots of fun

and learning experiences.

Take time to be outdoors.

There are many things you can

do without leaving home.

Take time to be

outdoors.

One thing to remember! You are not a

cruise director. You need to enlist the help

of everyone in the family in the planning

process. I understand you can’t keep up

with all your duties and expect to play all

day.

Assign the children age appropriate tasks

around the home so you all can play

together, building memories. You’ll be

amazed at ideas the kids come up with and

how they will be enthusiastic about putting

the “plan” together.

Have fun! Now, go build some memories!!

Go build some

memories!!

A note about those pesky teens ~ They

will enjoy this summer too. Give them

responsibility for planning a day for the

family. Have them develop a plan,

budget, and schedule for a family event.

This will not only teach responsibility, but

develop their leadership skills. Who

knows, maybe they will become class

president and take these skills learned at

home and apply to school leadership.

Develop leadership

skills.

Keep It Family Oriented!

Let the kids plan and execute a picnic in the

backyard. Set up a tent and have a sleep out. (It’s

really special if you join them in the tent.) Plant a

vegetable garden; there is nothing better than

fresh vegetables on the table. Meet Dad in a

designated park after work and have a picnic

complete with bat and ball to play a family game of

baseball. Let the kids make a menu, cook, and

serve a meal, in a “restaurant” they name. Lie

down together in the yard and watch clouds drift

by, naming shapes you each see. Tell stories after

dark in the backyard. Have them write a script and

film a family movie to send to grandma. Host a

“Favorite Quiz” – “What is ....’s favorite color (TV

show, food, etc)?” Kids ask parents; parents ask

kids. How well do you know each other?

SURVIVAL TIP # 1

SURVIVAL TIP # 2

Keep ‘em Learning!

Trips to the library are in order. Scan the books

on your shelves at home; have they been read?

Create a challenge and make a chart for everyone

in the family to take part in a reading program.

Think of awards. After a designated number of

books assigned to their appropriate age are

completed, they receive a reward. Set a family

goal and when that goal is met, everyone goes out

to a special pizza place or your family’s special

restaurant. Make it fun! Choose books together

that open up a new world of animals, bugs, places,

humor, or whatever is especially interesting to your

family.

Here’s a wild idea - Turn off the TV in the evening

and read TOGETHER!

Science Centers are full of hands-on fun. Take

advantage of the one in your city. Forts and zoos

are fun. Kids love to visit the dinosaurs in the

museum. Learn a foreign language together.

Begin with words like please, thank you, good-by,

etc. and use them all week.

SURVIVAL TIP # 3

Develop A Giving Attitude.

Show your kids how to think of others year round,

not just at holiday times. Do some crafting

together to prepare for visits to nursing homes,

grandparents, or members of your church and

community. Visit elderly people together. Serve in

a soup kitchen. Make homemade Christmas gifts

now to give later.

Show your kids how to rake a yard, walk

someone’s dog, clean flowerbeds, paint, or other

skills that would be a help to those who aren’t able

to accomplish those things anymore. Challenge

them to do something for someone in need each

week during the summer. Our family used to

clean a portion of highway near our home when I

was a kid, picking up bags of trash.

If you have the opportunity, engage the family in

missions whether it’s in your neighborhood,

through your church or through a foreign mission.

SURVIVAL TIP # 4

Take Mini Trips.

Maybe jobs or finances keep your family from

taking a vacation this summer. Don’t despair.

Take day trips to places around you. Check out

your city online and find many things you didn’t

know existed. There are places like the zoo,

various museums, historical monuments that you

have driven by a thousand times and never really

read. Find a boat rental place nearby and go

boating. Visit the courthouse. Go to your local

theme park and have a blast, riding the roller

coaster with your kids. Begin a search for the

best ice cream in town by visiting a different ice

cream store each week as a family and keeping

track of votes to determine which store wins by the

end of summer.

SURVIVAL TIP # 5

Go Back In History.

Visit grandma with a video camera and ask her

questions about her life.

Teach your kids games from the past; even if you

haven’t played them, look them up and learn

together. Marbles, jacks, Chinese jump rope, and

Statue and a host of other games you or your

parents played will fascinate them.

Find an old fashioned drive-in (where they used to

roller skate your meal to you) and order root beer

floats for everyone on a hot summer day.

Search for a full service gas station and let the kids

watch the attendant check the oil, fill the tank, and

wash your car windows. (Yes, you have to look

hard but there are some in the country that still

exist.)

SURVIVAL TIP # 6

Do The Unexpected!

Do the unexpected! Let the kids plan some way

out activities with you. Declare a Backwards Day

with dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner.

If you have certain tasks assigned each day in an

order, change it up.

Find a place to swim at night. Go on a night hike

as a family. If you are able, build a campfire on

your property and roast marshmallows. Sleep out

together, even in the treehouse if possible.

Cook dinner differently. Have your kids ever drunk

blue milk or eaten red pancakes? Maybe they can

help you construct some really scary spiders out of

salad items.

After everyone is in bed, perhaps wake them up

and take them outside to star gaze.

Unusual happenings are what memories are made

of. And next fall, when the teacher asks your child

what she did during summer vacation, she will tell

about midnight hikes and red pancakes. That will

get everyone’s attention!

SURVIVAL TIP # 7

Develop Spiritually.

Use the summer months to assign a

portion of scripture to everyone in the

family including mom and dad. Even the

little ones will enjoy this and they can do it.

Read the Bible together daily and challenge

each member of the family to come to the

dinner table with one question or comment

about what they’ve read that day. You can

read to the little ones or have any older

sibling assigned to read to them and

explain it.

Present the “Bible Memory Trophy” each

Friday to the one who memorized the

assignment first. The next week, the

trophy would be presented to someone

else.

Don’t forget to attend church as a family.

Summer is not a time to take off from

learning God’s Word.

SURVIVAL TIP # 8

Keep ‘em Active.

Take family bike rides. I recently saw a

family riding together in their cul-de-sac

and the littlest was using her walker. How

creative!

Go swimming. Better yet, sign them up for

swimming lessons. Host a neighborhood

Olympics or a backyard Bible club.

Electronics can be shelved for the summer

or at least given only certain hours of

operation.

Keep fit together! Develop a chart with

challenges for each member of the family

to complete. Simple challenges like how

many push-ups, jumping jacks, or sit-ups

can be accomplished by the end of the

summer.

SURVIVAL TIP # 9

Get Dad Involved

Don’t forget about Dad. Plan family

picnics, boating trips, fishing, or hikes on

Dad’s day off.

Chores that need to be done around the

property? Work as a family. I’m sure Dad

would appreciate the help and the company

while he works. Teens can mow. Little

ones can pull weeds. Everyone can rake or

stack firewood for the winter.

Dad can spend one-on- one time with each

child, taking them out for ice cream or

flying a kite.

Dad’s time off to build memories as a

family. .

SURVIVAL TIP # 10

Send ‘em To Camp

Camp is a great time for your kids to learn many

things and develop new friendships, many of

which will be life-long. They will meet other

students from other school districts,

neighborhoods, or other locations around the

U.S. It expands their world.

They learn independence in a safe and controlled

environment while trying new things that are not

available at home and they are introduced to new

challenges.

Camp breaks the monotony of summer. And

camp is just plain fun!!! Campers can totally let

down and act silly for a week without any

judgment from friends. Last, but not least. . .

You get a break for a week!

Teen Quest offers weeks and weekends

throughout the year for students to experience

fun while being challenged from the Word.

Check out the section about camping Teen Quest

offers at www.TeenQuest.org/Camps.

Use these ten tips for your summer survival and enjoy. The idea is not to make you worry

and fret that you are not doing enough. These are to help you.

Think up your own ideas of how to make your summer the best ever. You know your family

better than anyone else. Be creative! Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Definitely let the kids help you plan. As they plan and help you execute each activity, they

will take pride and develop leadership skills. It will mean more to them as they have a part

in the activity.

Make sure they are involved in household chores so you are free to enjoy these activities

with them.

If you’d like to share your own summer tips or stories of excitement or peril - feel free to

email me at debbiwitt@teenquest.org.

Have a great summer and build some memories !!

Debbi Witt is a mother, grandmother and

the Camp Director for Teen Quest Camps.

She has been in youth ministry for over

40 years and has been involved in

organized camping for over 48 years.

Debbi and her husband, Mark founded

Teen Quest in 1976 to reach a world of

children and teens. Teen Quest now

ministers to thousands of students each

year. Mark & Debbi have two grown boys

and six grandchildren. You can eMail Debbi at debbiwitt@teenquest.org

To find out more about camps for your children or grandchildren contact us here: www.TeenQuest.org | 814.444.9500

ABOUT THE AUTHOR