Looking for ways to enjoy your summer with young children? These are 3 easy ways to enjoy your summer and beat the overwhelm!
Summertime with young children is wonderful, exciting and joy-filled. But it can also be overwhelming.
We want everything to be fun, but sometimes trying to make everything fun just feels like a lot of pressure.
We long for there to be less of a rigid routine, but without it, we can feel a little untethered.
We desire to be the best carefree versions of ourselves, but we still need to be responsible and get things done.
This post is all about 3 easy ways to enjoy your summer with young children!
1. Enjoy Your Summer By Deciding What Is Most Important To You
The first thing is to decide what’s most important for you this summer. Is it that you want summer to feel like an actual break? Or that you want to experience a lot together as a family? Perhaps you want to spend as much time as possible by the water? Or make the best use of your backyard?
You can enjoy all of the above in your summer but what is the ONE thing that if you weren’t able to do anything else, you would still look back with a full heart? What is the MOST important thing? Right here and right now. (Our important things are allowed to change as our kids grow).
The last 5 summers what was most important to me was keeping us all of us alive (LOL). I was either pregnant or chasing around very tiny humans. Keeping things simple during those summers was life-giving for me. I look back with so much fondness at our low-key summers at home.
Now that the kids are a little older and our youngest is happy to go-with-the-flow, the most important thing for us this summer is to have more experiences out of the house.
We want to be intentional about going out and experiencing fun activities, while also considering the ages of the kids, work schedules and this project and this project we have on the go.
How about you? What is most important to you?
2. Enjoy Your Summer By Living By The Motto: For Every Busy Day, Have A Relaxed Day
So much of the beauty of having small children is that they can be happy with simple activities. Bubbles, a hose and a kiddie pool can provide enough entertainment for an afternoon. At this age, it is a joy watching them take such joy in the little things. I’m a firm believer that summer doesn’t need to be go, go, go. The days can be a little mundane AND you can still enjoy your summer!
We fear boredom because we think we’re not living up every moment to its fullest. But I actually think boredom is a gift. It’s in the slowing down that we are able to take a breath and appreciate our surroundings. It also pushes us to be creative with how to spend our time. When we’re bored, we need to use our imagination to think of something to do. The activities we come up with can be some of the most rewarding because we have to be intentional about it!
3. Enjoy Your Summer By Having Simple Meals Planned Ahead
It can be challenging to find motivation to cook in the summer. Sometimes all it takes to have things run a little smoother is a (very simple) plan for meals ahead of time. This will help keep the stress out of the kitchen so you can have more time for fun!
For breakfast and lunch, try limiting the options. Maybe breakfast is always a smoothie, toast or cereal. Perhaps lunch is always charcuterie style or sandwiches with veggies. By simplifying 2 out of the 3 meals, you will already feel less pressure!
When it comes to dinner, why not have all of the meals feel like the kind of meals you eat on vacation? Simple, yummy, crowd-pleasing? Yes please!
I have a resource for you called the Simple Supper Summer Meal Plan. It helps you plan your meals for the whole summer with minimal effort!
The best part about the plan is that it is meant to accommodate your summer! Heading away for week? The meal plan will be waiting when you return! Eat pizza on Tuesday? Swap for a different meal on Friday. The meal plan is designed to a helpful resource for YOU.
My hope is that this summer will feel much easier without having to overthink your meals!
Your Sweet Simple Summer Awaits
Tell me in the comments below what you think of these 3 easy ways to enjoy your summer with little ones! Here’s to the summer sun and your cutie pies running wild and free!
