In this post, I’ll give you a glimpse into how I plan our weeks in the summer so my kids do some learning, some chores, and learn responsibility. I am also sharing a free printable so you can plan your week digitally and easily too!

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Update: This is what we used in 2018, be sure to check out what we’re doing in 2019 here.

Since we are a homeschooling family, our life doesn't change too much in the summer. We ease up a little bit but we are still learning (right now, we are making multiple batches of slime!) and spending lots of time together.

You can find a typical schedule for a normal "school" day here. I’ve heard from readers that it is helpful to check out if you’re looking for both a sample but also some things you haven’t thought of and might want to change up!

I shared about why I plan a week at a time for our homeschooling during the school year here, but for now - the summer edition is super simple for you as a mom too regardless of if you homeschool or not. 

Sometime between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, I open up the previous week’s sheet and create a new one for the upcoming week. I am currently using this for my seven year old and five year old.

I have broken it down into three basic sections:

The first section is for anything fun or "scheduled" for that day. Pop in small trips you want to take, any lessons that are scheduled (which will be there from last week - so it's easy after you put everything in the first time), or events. This is great for my kid that always wants to know "how many days until that one special thing". 

The middle section is for the things I want to put on auto-pilot and get "done" in a normal day. This section probably won't change all summer. Again, easy! I love that I don't have to re-write things!

You can completely change this for your kids and the routines you want them to have. For us, they have until 9AM to clean their room and get ready for the day (they all wake up before 7AM so this should be managable). Then at 9AM we do our Catechism and Bible Time at the Kitchen Table, which is when they also get their daily vitamins. 

Since it's summer, I don't give my kids assignments. Instead, they have a set number of things they need to do (free quiet reading, free writing/coloring usually using their Fun Schooling books, a daily chore, and a lunch clean up task). We do also do a few things throughout the week that are "educational" (reading books using the book lists from The Read Aloud Family, switching to a few weeks of Five in a Row, science experiments, children's museum, zoo trips, etc.). I really embrace unschooling in these summer months!

As the first motivator, my kids can only have "screen time" if they have completed everything in this section. I like this because it means no one even asks for television or the iPad before lunch since they have to complete a lunch clean-up chore in this section. 

Everything that needs to be done is printed, so as tasks are completed, my child just highlights the words in the box with a highlighter! We keep them on our fridge for easy access. Easy! (Are you seeing a theme? Easy! Simple!)

The third section is for having a good bedtime and then totaling their allowance for the day and marking if I have paid them. You don't have to use this section if you don't want to give your kids an allowance. For us, this works well right now.  They have to do at least 5 of the 8 (7 tasks from the middle section and then having a good bedtime makes 8) to get any money and then it’s a sliding scale upward where if they do all of them, they receive the max for the day. 

I know there is some debate about giving an allowance but my kids do help with other tasks as needed and right now their last few purchases have been things I would have bought them anyway (vending machine snacks, a tomato plant, and this science kit from our Children's Museum in town). I really like that they have the responsibility and the choice to spend their own money. It's a judgement free zone here - regardless of what you do!

This simple method of scheduling has really helped us this summer as I've been busy helping with VBS at my church, leading a book study, and even launching a shop but my kids still have some structure (although it still gets crazy a few times a day and they don't always get screen time or their full allowance - don't worry!). 

Get Your Copy of the Summer Schedule Now and Make It Yours!

You can access your copy of this planner sheet right now by clicking here!

I have included the one that you see in the image which I use for my 7 year old and a second page with my 5 year old's sheet as well. From there, you can completely change it as you need to include what your kids do.

It is a simple table format that should work in any word processing application. You could copy and paste it into the application you prefer (like Word or Pages) or if you want to use it right in Google Docs, just go up to “File” and select “Make a Copy”.

If you need help with this or have any questions, feel free to comment below. Did I forget to explain something? Let me know!

Also, if you found this helpful, please save it on Pinterest or direct your friends to this post instead of right to the Google Doc! I really appreciate that simple way of supporting my blog!