How We Are Planning This Summer

This summer, with two vacations to work around, we ended up not having the kids join a swim team or do any summer camps like they have in previous summers. (Mollie is doing tennis camp, but it is much less time-consuming than the other camps they have taken.)  With so much free time, it became increasingly obvious to me that we were going to need to actually plan out our days so we didn't just fritter them away.

Enter in the chart.  (I should come up with a better name for it ... it certainly deserves it.)  I started out making paper slips with different activities on them.  (I later on "laminated" them with packing tape to increase their durability.)

Then I pulled out a dry erase sleeve I had purchased years before - when trying to make another check list of sorts - and a piece of dry erase poster board that I had purchased to use in a Barbie classroom for Mollie's dolls.  We get together every day and work out a plan for what we are going to do either for that day if it's morning or the next day if we manage to get to it the night before.  I use poster putty to stick the slips of paper to the poster board, slip the whole thing into the sleeve, and then use dry erase markers to add details like times, food we're having, and the occasional picture.

I usually don't get this fancy with the pictures, but I had a little extra time and a little extra space, something that doesn't often happen on our busier days.

This system has worked for our family so far.  The kids are able to check to see when we have to leave for appointments or to go out to run errands, and, more importantly, they are able to see what to expect from the day.  I am able to remember better what I have "promised" the kids we'd do, and so far I think we've only had to scrap one whole day because plans changed.

I hope that this system won't go the way of the other systems we have tried in the past.  It is so easy to maintain, and I can always add new slips of activities and to-dos when the need arises.  For now, though, it's working for all of us, and that's really all I could ask for.