Kids Summer Holiday Ideas (Your Survival Guide)

If you’ve got school-age children, then you’re likely soon heading into the summer holidays. 

Do you have a strategy for what the kids will do and how you will keep your sanity during that time?

The summer holidays can be anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks long. 

Whether you’re a working mama or SAHM, that’s A REALLY LONG TIME to have your school-age kids around when you are used to them being occupied with school and their extra-curricular activities.

By the time the end of the school year comes around, most kids are exhausted and most mamas are ready for the holidays to give everyone a break from the academic routines.  But, if you’re not careful after a couple of weeks break from the structure, you can find yourself tearing your hair out and wishing the start of the school year to arrive early.

So, here’s your condensed guide to having a summer strategy so that you and your kids can make the most of this precious time off!

Plan Ahead

If you know that you’re going to working or need some time without the kids to get stuff done, it helps to plan ahead and enroll them in some summer camps or other structured activities ahead of time. 

Depending on where you live and what activities are offered, registration for summer camps can fill up quickly so it’s best to think ahead and book those in.

Equally, if you will be relying on grandparents, other family members or a summer nanny to look after your children while you work, then make sure you get the dates in their diaries and get them committed as much in advance as possible.

It helps to have some idea of what you might be doing each week of the holidays, even if it’s just a “we’ll be hanging out at home and doing activities close to home” sort of week. 

For each week of the summer holidays, having some idea of where you’ll be and what you and the kids will be doing will help you balance out structured and unstructured time so that neither take over.

Summer Camps

There are day camps (where they return at the end of the day), half day camps and residential camps (where they spend the night for a few nights or more). 

Generally, most half-day or day camps start from around age 4 and residential camps from around age 7.  This will vary depending on where you live and what is offered.  These days there is a camp for every interest - including arts and crafts to dance, sport, gaming, computers, languages, etc. 

Signing your kids up for a summer camp is a great way for them to get exposed to a new interest or develop an existing one, whilst being social with other kids and giving you some much needed time without them to do something for yourself. 

There are often government-run or sponsored camps for those who might find them otherwise challenging to afford, so do some research into what would work best for your kids and family.

Summer Routines

It’s easy for the mornings to roll on and the days to float by when the daily structure that school provides is absent.  This is especially the case the older your children get and the more interested they are in staying up later, sleeping in later and “just hanging out”. 

To ensure that basic personal and family standards are met each day, implement a “summer routine checklist” that your kids can follow listing your “must do’s” for each day.  Things to include might be getting up by a certain time, personal hygiene, basic nutrition and helping out around the house.  You might also include a minimum time for “reading” if this is important to you.

Even if you have younger children, having a routine checklist can help them begin to be more independent and learn to consistently do things for themselves, decreasing their reliance on you to help them or remind them.

If your child isn’t yet reading, you can put pictures on the checklist so that they can follow it that way.  And “reading time” to them might be quiet time looking at their picture books - again, to give you some peace and reinforce a love of reading at the same time.

Grab a copy of a sample holiday routine checklist you can use/adapt for your own children by popping your details in the boxes below.

A Bucket-List

At the start of or before the summer holidays, you could have a family meeting and talk about all the things that everyone would like to do. 

You may be surprised at some of the ideas that your children come up with and how simple they can be to cater for.  Some ideas may be unrealistic and you can always welcome these ideas and then have a conversation about how they might need to wait for another year or other circumstances to happen.

If you can generate a family “wish” or bucket list of things to do over the summer holidays, you’ll find that you probably won’t have a “there’s nothing to do today” day.  You’ll always have the list to refer to you and you can work your way through it depending on the weather, everyone’s availability and other relevant factors. 

Be sure to grab your download of summer activity ideas by completing the boxes below.

Summer Projects

You and your children may decide to do a summer project of some kind so that by the end of the summer you can say with certainty that you “did” or “achieved” something.  This could be anything from a gardening project to arts and crafts writing a storybook or building a Lego sculpture. 

Be creative and take advantage of the time that the kids have over the holidays that they don’t have during the school year.  What kind of project will get them excited and engaged?  This can demonstrate that they “can do it/achieve something” with dedication and persistence and can really build on their confidence.

Get the Kids Involved

If you have housework or house projects to accomplish over the summer, get your kids involved! 

That could be starting to teach them how to do the stuff that just needs doing around the house, from clearing up the breakfast table, to wiping down the bathroom sinks or loading the laundry. 

Summer is a great time to develop those life skills that we all need to teach our children so that one day they can become independent adults - think: cooking, cleaning, washing, organising.  Kids from 2 can start to help out and if you have school-age kids, they should definitely be spending part of their days contributing to the running of the household.

If the house turns into a tip every day because of all the great fun the kids have had, then consider a “family tidy-up” party before or after dinnertime each day.  Put on some music, make it fun, and get everyone involved in putting the house back into “order” for the next day.

Simplify Meals

Having your kids at home over the holidays generally involves feeding them a lot more frequently than you are used to. 

Get them involved in planning meals so you don’t have to come up with all the ideas, but also so that they can get excited about what’s being served.  Older children might start helping prep meals and tweens/teens can start cooking simple meals for the family on their own (you might be close by to supervise!). 

Another idea is also to simplify family meals during the summer period.  Generally, in the hot weather, most people prefer to have lighter meals anyway - simple salads, picky foods or one-pot meals are always good options.

Be sure to put a meal plan together each week so you’re not caught out at the last minute scrambling to put food on the table for hungry kids!  (click here to get a free meal planner template)

Don’t Forget You

Too often, we are so focussed on thinking about our kids summer that we forget about ourselves. 

Maybe you go for a run or to the gym when the kids are in school or do some other activity for yourself - how are you going to fit that in when they are on holiday? 

Try to make sure that your summer is not railroaded by your kids’ activities.  It’s important to look after and plan for yourself too and have some time to yourself so that you can then enjoy the time with your children.

You might have a summer reading list, a fitness plan or personal development or work goal. 

If you struggle with this concept, then start by thinking - what would I do for myself if I had 10-30 minutes a day?  Or 1 hour?  Allow yourself to dream big, and then break that down into small steps that you could achieve in whatever daily “me” time you can realistically carve out.

“Time flies never to be recalled” - Virgil

Summer holidays with the kids can be a really special time for families.  It’s a great break from the daily grind and many lasting childhood memories are made during this time. 

However, like surfing the internet, when you don’t have a vague plan or strategy for your kids summer holidays, time can run away quickly and before you know it, it’ll be back to school time and you’ll wonder what you have done over the past few months.

Not that you have to “do” anything in particular, but if that's your plan, let that happen intentionally rather than because you didn’t think ahead so that you have no regrets in the autumn.

Have a great summer!