Chances are good that you have some outdoor activities planned for your summer bucket list. But chances are bad that you’ll actually check off those activities if you don’t get organized. For example, a group bike trip won’t happen if you have to replace a tire and buy a bike rack big enough for your kids’ and friends’ bikes first. This week, we’ll make sure we’re ready for outdoor fun at a moment’s notice.
#1 Inventory supplies for outdoor activities
Take your summer bucket list and make a list of all the supplies you’ll need to do the activities. Don’t forget things like sunscreen, bug spray, sun glasses, water bottles, and sport chairs. If you’ll be doing some outdoor entertaining this summer, inventory these items as well. You may need chairs, citronella candles, and marshmallow roasting sticks, for example. Then send the kids on a scavenger hunt for these items or look through the garage and storage areas for them together. Have kids try on their swim goggles, ball gloves, and anything else that may be too small this year.
#2 Make a list of needed items
Add whatever you don’t have to a shopping list or make a note to ask a friend to borrow it. Why buy a tent when you only need one for a night or two?
#3 Organize sports and entertaining equipment
Before buying new supplies, get rid of things you no longer need. Ask friends and neighbors if they would like your old bike or picnic table and if not, donate them to charity. Once your space is decluttered, put materials together by function. I love this sports organizer, but there are lots of great ways to organize your garage. Be sure to check the Organized Homeschool Pinterest board for examples.
#4 Purchase needed supplies
Now that you have what you already own in order, you can buy what you need. While you’re at it, you may decide to buy storage containers or organizers.
I need to get organized for entertaining this summer. How about you?
If you’re like most homeschoolers I know, you love summer! You have the freedom to be more relaxed about school, many extra-curricular activities are on break, and you can enjoy the outdoors with your family.
The problem is, we imagine we’ll be able to do so many things with our extra time and then the summer seems to fly by. We can end up disappointed. This week we’ll get organized to make the most of this season.
#1 Discuss last summer’s likes and dislikes
Have a family discussion about what worked and what didn’t last year. What was super fun that you want to repeat and what did you miss out on that you need to plan for?
We do a lot of entertaining in the summer and it can become overwhelming if we don’t pencil in some dates and extend invitations.
It’s also important to schedule plans with the kids’ friends. If you don’t, “sometime” will become never.
#4 Plan summer school
Even if you take the summers off like we do, you’ll want to spend some time planning educational activities. We don’t want our students to allow their skills to get rusty from disuse. I want to make sure my kids do Summer Bridge activities, practice their instruments, read, and write.
I found the perfect tool for this: A Plan in Place Summer Planners. These are part student planner, part memory book, which will ensure that the summer doesn’t disappear unnoticed. I interviewed the two homeschool moms who created the summer planners for The Homeschool Sanity Show. You’ll love their tips for planning the summer AND the school year. I can’t wait to get my hands on a customized teacher and student planner from them for the fall, too. I am not an affiliate for A Plan in Place. I just love that they understand homeschool moms’ planning needs. I think you will, too.
Besides enjoying time with friends and family outside, I am really wanting to finish a first draft of a language arts curriculum I am creating. What are you really wanting to do this summer?
Vacations should be fun and relaxing, but after planning and packing for them last-minute, you can come to dread them. This week we’ll make sure that vacations we take any time this year are less stressful.
#1 Discuss plans with your spouse
What is your idea of a good vacation, whether you’re planning a trip for the family, just the two of you, or individual trips? Share your ideal and then pray about how these fit with your budget, schedule, and commitments. The earlier you plan, the more likely you can save money and avoid disappointments.
#2 Discuss activities with kids
My husband loves to tell about the time his parents took all six of them on vacation to Colorado, only for them to beg to go home to the lake they loved. Kids’ vacation preferences may surprise you.
As well as discussing vacation destinations you can afford, be sure to ask the kids about the activities they are most interested in. If you’re going somewhere that has a website explaining options, check them out together. Need to do a staycation this year? Here are 50 ideas.
#3 Create packing lists
Packing lists have made vacationing with six children so much more manageable for me. I use a simple Word document with a title for each child and a list underneath that I copied and pasted. I have had to update the list every year to remove things like water wings and diapers and add things like phone chargers, but the main work is done.
The best part of my packing lists (I have different lists for weekend and week-long trips that I store on Dropbox) is the kids use them to pack for themselves. They love doing it, actually! Depending on the age of the child, I will check to see what they’ve packed, but it takes very little of my time.
Mentally walk through your whole vacation. See yourself getting into the car and remembering that Sam has motion sickness and will need Bonine (my favorite) before you leave. Do you have any? If not, put it on your list.
A fun way to determine what you need is to ask the kids to help you make a list. As my children get older, I find I need more luggage. Buy anything you need that isn’t perishable now. It’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about when you’re getting ready to go. I also love having separate travel toiletries stored in hanging bags like this one.
Sorting clothes for six children each season has been one of my biggest organizing challenges over the years. I understand why some mothers of many don’t store clothing to pass down. It takes an enormous amount of time and space!
But like any big job, you’ve just got to dive in and this week is as good as any.
#1 & #2 Sort & Make Shopping List for Kids
Sorting kids’ clothes will likely take you more than 15 minutes. I am allotting two days to do this. You may need more time like I do. If you want to hand clothes down, start this process with your oldest child. Here is the process I use:
Do kids’ laundry
Collect same items (all short-sleeve shirts together, for example)
Put clothing in poor condition in the trash. That includes socks and underwear!
Determine which items are outgrown by eye balling or having your child try them on
Put clothing that is never worn or is too small in hand-me-downs or in a giveaway bag (I use the large leaf bags).
Store clothing that is too large in the closet to sort next season. I use white fabric storage bins and plastic drawers.
Count remaining items (how many casual shorts, etc.).
Decide how many of each item it’s reasonable to keep (I keep ten casual pieces because my kids are hard on their clothes and it gives me a little lag time on laundry. I keep three church outfits).
Have your children help you choose their favorites to keep and put the rest in the giveaway bag. You may want to do this in outfits. Put shorts and shirts together, for example. (I recommend against keeping these items as hand-me-downs. If one child doesn’t like it, the next one probably won’t either). Put keepers away.
Make a shopping list of items each child needs. I like to add this to my iPhone reminders list with the groceries. I often pick up groceries at Target or Walmart and having them on the list keeps me from forgetting to pick them up when I’m there. I also like to shop at home. My 14-year-old needed shorts and I just bought several pair for him from Kohls using Kohls cash and a discount code.
In my city, there are many charities that make pick-ups from your home of these items. We also have regular church sales so they accept donations most of the year. But there’s nothing like having my husband load it all up and take it away to Goodwill!
If you want to put clothes on consignment, select the best items and prepare them according to the directions of your favorite store. Put all items into the back of your vehicle so you’re forced to deliver them soon. You’ll be eager to do this the first time you go to load groceries into the back of a car that is already full of clothes!
Do you have any tips for keeping clothing organized at your house?
My oldest son is graduating from high school and I have a big party to plan. We also have a family wedding and two birthdays coming up. And don’t forget about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day! Even if your family celebrations are planned for later in the year, this is the week to get a head start on them.
#1 Review your calendar
What family celebrations do you have coming up this summer and throughout the rest of the year? Do you have any milestone birthdays coming up?
When planning for occasions, consider celebrations that still have to be planned like showers. If you have family out of town, now is the time to find out their availability. We are scheduling my son’s graduation party to coincide with his godmother’s visit home for a wedding, for example.
#2 Discuss preferences
Getting organized means not making assumptions. We may assume Grandma wants a 70th birthday party, when she wants to take a family trip instead. Having discussions ahead of time can avoid hurt feelings and ruined budgets. This is important when planning Mother’s and Father’s Day celebrations, too.
#3 Plan parties
I love to plan parties. We’ve enjoyed so many fun parties over the years. I will write up the creative birthday party ideas we’ve used another time, but I encourage you to have celebrations. Parties are memory makers and are worth the time and reasonable expense. One of the things we have done to control costs is ask family and friends to bring food rather than gifts.
Party planning is a great opportunity to get the kids involved. Let them express their creativity in planning with you or in making decisions (within reason). Stumped for ideas? Follow the Party Fun with Kids board on Pinterest. If you have an extended family celebration, be sure to allow everyone to feel included. My mom helped me cook for several birthday parties and seemed to really enjoy it.
#4 Organize cards and gifts
Family celebrations wouldn’t be complete without cards and gifts. This is a great time to have the kids make the cards you need for the year. A kit like this could get their creative juices flowing. If you’d rather not make cards, this Paper Magic kit includes an organizing box, so your cards are ready to go when you need them. If you like even less work, I recommend Send Out Cards which allows you to get reminders of family occasions and send cards right from your computer.
When it comes to gifts, you can certainly make treasures like scrapbooks if you start early enough (like now!). My best suggestion for being organized with gifts is to choose a standard gift for occasions like weddings, bridal showers, births, and baby showers. You’ll save time deciding and you can even save money, watching for the prices to drop before you buy. If you are interested in gift suggestions for kids’ birthdays, be sure to check out 60 of the Best Christmas Gifts for Kids. Finally, I love the mGifts app on iTunes. Sometimes I find a great deal on a gift, but I don’t know who to give it to at first. The app (and a gift storage area) allow me to stay organized.
What family celebrations do you have coming up and how are you getting organized for them?
I worried that I wouldn’t have enough friends and neither would my children when I was deciding to homeschool. Today we are all blessed with wonderful friends. I don’t think we could have continued to homeschool all these years without them. This week, we will work on establishing friendships and strengthening those we have.
#1 Plan activities with kids’ friends.
If you already have friends and acquaintances, now is a good time to make plans with them. Often, adult and kid friendships fade simply because no one takes the initiative to plan a get together. This is especially true over the summer.
Some of the things we have done in the summers to keep friendships strong include camping together, having regular barbecues, and vacationing together. Ask the kids what they would like to do with their friends this summer and even into the school year.
#2 Discuss options for new friends.
One of the best choices we made was to participate in a homeschool P.E. class. I had learned from veteran homeschool moms that this was the best way for kids to make friends and they were right. Ask other homeschoolers how they have established friendships for themselves and their kids and take their advice.
Of course, friendships don’t all have to be centered around homeschooling. Your church, neighborhood, and extracurricular activities are also opportunities to make friends. Don’t wait for someone else to make the first move. Invite people to your home and see if you click. If not, try again. Discuss people you’d like to approach as a family and pray about it. God may suggest a friendship that you hadn’t considered.
#3 Plan mom activities
I have never felt guilty for being away from my family to spend time with my girlfriends. I need that time to be the best wife and mother I can be. My friends have helped me see that my struggles are typical and have given me wonderful, godly advice as well.
Being in a homeschool co-op and attending homeschool P.E. classes have given me the opportunity to talk with my friends. But we have taken it a step further by going out to celebrate one another’s birthdays, going out as couples, and as I mentioned, taking family vacations together. Participating in a moms’ Bible study and women’s retreats at church have also been ways to connect with friends.
Discuss potential activities with your friends for the summer and ideas you could use throughout the school year.
#4 Plan a May Day surprise for friends
One tradition I really miss is May Day. When I was a kid, we would put baskets of goodies together (usually for a neighbor), put it on their doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run away before we were caught. Once when I did this, the woman caught me before I could get away. She proceeded to chew me out for pulling a prank. When she looked down and saw the basket, she started to cry.
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
