It’s officially summer, and I’m home with the kids this time around. Over the last year, our family scraped together just enough to make it through taking time off and working from home with the kids home from school. Well, now that it’s summer the kids are still home, now with no school, and I’, still busier than ever. It’s the season of maintenance as some say and our family has planned several repairs all over the house, we have a new baby on the way and need to make room for a baby room. Plus my sister’s wedding is just one month out, and we’re still talking about getting the driveway redone since one of the panels has a major crack running down the middle of it. With all of that in mind, I’ve made a plan and hope you too can prepare for childcare during the summer with some tips and tricks I’ve gathered over the last few weeks and months.

Forming a pattern

The first major piece of advice I came across from a mom’s Facebook group was forming a pattern for the kids…and me to stay sane and keep some semblance of balanced home life. The biggest pitfall of taking care of kids during the summer is not having some kind of schedule or routine down. This means setting a somewhat set yet flexible schedule that the kids learn to follow on their own. Not only will this help the kids stay on track, but it will help the parents around the house plan around the kid’s activities and make planning a little more predictable and therefore easier. So, I started out with a schedule for the kids and me. For example, I wrote out a general timetable of when certain activities should be done by. Wake up at 8 AM, breakfast should be done by 9 AM, the kids play outside from 9 AM to 10 AM (whether they like it or not), and so on. This routine not only kept our sanity but it massively helped me plan for our first major summer house project, the driveway.

A New Driveway, A New Lesson

Our first major project of the summer was a new driveway panel where we usually park the van. Last winter a large crack had begun to form down the middle of the slab and we got an estimate from a driveway paver my husband was friends with. Thanks to the schedule I had made for the kids, I was able to get both my sons to swimming lessons at 11 AM and put my youngest daughter down for a nap. That way the concrete crew could come in do their job and be mostly done by the time the kids would be up and running around. The only real problem was my daughter was woken by the sounds of heavy equipment breaking up then pouring concrete. That little lesson taught me one thing, day camps and out-of-the-house activities are very important and crucial to your survival. Luckily both my boys were already gone at swimming lessons, but my daughter wasn’t as pleased.

Y,M,C,A

The next big project for the house was moving the boys into the same room and making way for the coming baby. My husband was at work the whole day and being 4 months pregnant I didn’t have much energy let alone the strength to move bedroom furniture. So, the plan was to have a moving company arrive around noon and move the boys into the same room while having a furniture company move in and put together some furniture and a bedroom set for the baby. This is where I learned the importance of the local YMCA. I had to be home to tell the movers where things need to go, yet I also had three kids to look after. Fortunately, the local YMCA has a summer youth program where kids can hang out for the day with adult supervision. The program was perfect since it meant my two boys got to go play sports and be active for a few hours while I took care of the new baby room. So, I dropped off the boys at the YMCA and went back home with my daughter. Even though it was stressful having to know exactly where to put everything and telling the movers where everything went, I still had some peace of mind knowing the boys were busy and safe.

GPS Tracking

After the boys came home from the YMCA, the new baby room was done and the boys quickly checked out their ‘new’ room. Luckily boys are easy and they thought it was great to share a room and have bunk beds. However, I had one more ‘project’ to get done for the day, hanging custom window drapes for the new baby’s room and the boy’s new room. Since all of my kids were home and bouncing off the walls like usual I decided to let both the boys ride their bikes outside. Being 7 and 9 I knew they’d be okay and they knew to stay close, yet I couldn’t help but worry. So, I looked into ways to track my boys while they played on their bikes outside. I quickly found tons of options for GPS tracking apps, products like wristbands and little tracking boxes, and more. Luckily our phones came in with a built-in feature that can GPS track any phone on our account for no extra charge. Even better was I could prevent the boys from accidentally turning it off on their own phones. So, I turned on find my iPhone and told the boys to stay within a block of the house. With that off, they went and back into the house I went to hang the new custom window drapes. Not 1 minute later I get worried and couldn’t help but check the tracking app. I could see my boys circling around the block and saw them move in real-time, which gave me a real sigh of relief and let me hang the drapes without worrying so much.

Burning Off Energy Through Day Camp

The next major challenge this summer was getting an HVAC repair service, which meant being home and having a repair crew walk throughout the house to check and service any components of our HVAC system. The only time they could come out was our ‘quiet’ time when my daughter would be sleeping and the boys would be either watching a movie or playing quietly in their room. So, I knew I needed to ‘burn’ the energy out of my kids to get them ready for when the HVAC guys would stop by. I decided to lookup more local summer activities and came across a local sports camp. The deal was the kids could go a play/practice a sport of their choosing while I supervised from the sidelines. It was a short day camp if you will, and it worked out great. They had activities for my children for all age ranges of kids and I found something each of my kids wanted to do. So the kids ran and played with other kids their age. By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted and my daughter went straight to sleep while the boys decided to lay down and watch a movie (they quickly passed out). Once the HVAC guy came by he was impressed with how quiet the kids were and told me in most homes the kids are loud and usually in the way. In any case, the job was done in a day and the kids didn’t make a peep.

Calling on the Village

Another major obstacle this summer was my sister’s wedding reception. My husband and I were both going and decided it would be easier if the kids stayed behind. So, I decided to call people I knew in the area and ask around if anyone could babysit. This is where is so important to not be afraid to call a friend and ask for help, after all, they say it takes a village to raise one kid, let alone three. So, I called an old girlfriend who I knew a daughter around the babysitting age. I made sure to do this a few weeks in advance to make sure her daughter could make time. Sure enough, she was available and willing to help out, but I wasn’t done yet. I had the babysitter locked down, but I still needed to make sure I could check in when needed. So, I had my husband go out and get a home security camera for inside the house that I could also talk through. That way I could check in on the kids and talk to them at a moment’s notice without needing to call the babysitter. While at the wedding I occasionally checked the wifi-connected cameras and could see what the little rascals were up to, which leads to me my next point.

Technology Is Your Ally

Through GPS tracking for my child and home security camera’s I quickly found out that technology was a huge help to childcare while at home during the summer. In fact, I even did all of my schedule planning and activity planning on my phone instead of a paper calendar. This helped me keep track of everything and share events and time with my husband or other people to work around their schedules too. It also helped that I could quickly pull up my day’s plan at a moment’s notice to plan for things like the driveway paver crew or the moving team.

Give Yourself Time

Another major lesson I learned is that planning for childcare also means planning for yourself. That’s right, staying at home with kids is no easy task, especially when it means planning each day and keeping the house in order. So, I decided to plan some ‘me’ time when I could. For example, when the boys were at YMCA on certain days I would have the babysitter come over and watch my daughter for an hour or two. I would then go do ‘me’ things, like get a massage or get my nails done or just go on a mini-shopping trip. What I learned is that it really does take a village, because sometimes you get burned out, but you also can’t stop because your kids never stop being your kids. Anyway, don’t be afraid or feel bad about needing someone else to help you out. Often times as moms we think that needing others to help with the children means we’re bad moms. When in fact it just means we’re human and have needed to. So, make sure you plan for yourself and give yourself some time to relax, decompress, and decompress from a long day and hard work. Also, try to practice mindful thinking and let yourself know that you are doing a great job.

Summer Childcare Doesn’t Need To Be Hard

Over the summer I’ve learned a lot when it comes to taking care of children at home. Perhaps my biggest lesson was that making a schedule, even if it’s completely arbitrary is so important. A schedule will maintain some kind of homeostasis that will keep you and your kids busy and on track. The next thing I learned was that you need to think local and really utilize your local community programs and summer activities for your kids. Also, be open-minded and ready to use technology to its full advantage in order to keep tabs on your children and make sure they are safe and sound. Don’t be afraid to call for help and use the ‘village’ mentality when it comes to getting help with your children. After all, it takes a village to raise a child. Finally, make time for yourself and don’t feel bad if you need some time away from the kids and the house, it’s totally normal and is part of a healthy perspective on family and keeping the home in order. That’s what I learned this summer while taking care of the kids without daycare.

 

It’s officially summer, and I’m home with the kids this time around. Over the last year, our family scraped together just enough to make it through taking time off and working from home with the kids home from school. Well, now that it’s summer the kids are still home, now with no school, and I’, still busier than ever. It’s the season of maintenance as some say and our family has planned several repairs all over the house, we have a new baby on the way and need to make room for a baby room. Plus my sister’s wedding is just one month out, and we’re still talking about getting the driveway redone since one of the panels has a major crack running down the middle of it. With all of that in mind, I’ve made a plan and hope you too can prepare for childcare during the summer with some tips and tricks I’ve gathered over the last few weeks and months.

Forming a pattern

The first major piece of advice I came across from a mom’s Facebook group was forming a pattern for the kids…and me to stay sane and keep some semblance of balanced home life. The biggest pitfall of taking care of kids during the summer is not having some kind of schedule or routine down. This means setting a somewhat set yet flexible schedule that the kids learn to follow on their own. Not only will this help the kids stay on track, but it will help the parents around the house plan around the kid’s activities and make planning a little more predictable and therefore easier. So, I started out with a schedule for the kids and me. For example, I wrote out a general timetable of when certain activities should be done by. Wake up at 8 AM, breakfast should be done by 9 AM, the kids play outside from 9 AM to 10 AM (whether they like it or not), and so on. This routine not only kept our sanity but it massively helped me plan for our first major summer house project, the driveway.

A New Driveway, A New Lesson

Our first major project of the summer was a new driveway panel where we usually park the van. Last winter a large crack had begun to form down the middle of the slab and we got an estimate from a driveway paver my husband was friends with. Thanks to the schedule I had made for the kids, I was able to get both my sons to swimming lessons at 11 AM and put my youngest daughter down for a nap. That way the concrete crew could come in do their job and be mostly done by the time the kids would be up and running around. The only real problem was my daughter was woken by the sounds of heavy equipment breaking up then pouring concrete. That little lesson taught me one thing, day camps and out-of-the-house activities are very important and crucial to your survival. Luckily both my boys were already gone at swimming lessons, but my daughter wasn’t as pleased.

Y,M,C,A

The next big project for the house was moving the boys into the same room and making way for the coming baby. My husband was at work the whole day and being 4 months pregnant I didn’t have much energy let alone the strength to move bedroom furniture. So, the plan was to have a moving company arrive around noon and move the boys into the same room while having a furniture company move in and put together some furniture and a bedroom set for the baby. This is where I learned the importance of the local YMCA. I had to be home to tell the movers where things need to go, yet I also had three kids to look after. Fortunately, the local YMCA has a summer youth program where kids can hang out for the day with adult supervision. The program was perfect since it meant my two boys got to go play sports and be active for a few hours while I took care of the new baby room. So, I dropped off the boys at the YMCA and went back home with my daughter. Even though it was stressful having to know exactly where to put everything and telling the movers where everything went, I still had some peace of mind knowing the boys were busy and safe.

GPS Tracking

After the boys came home from the YMCA, the new baby room was done and the boys quickly checked out their ‘new’ room. Luckily boys are easy and they thought it was great to share a room and have bunk beds. However, I had one more ‘project’ to get done for the day, hanging custom window drapes for the new baby’s room and the boy’s new room. Since all of my kids were home and bouncing off the walls like usual I decided to let both the boys ride their bikes outside. Being 7 and 9 I knew they’d be okay and they knew to stay close, yet I couldn’t help but worry. So, I looked into ways to track my boys while they played on their bikes outside. I quickly found tons of options for GPS tracking apps, products like wristbands and little tracking boxes, and more. Luckily our phones came in with a built-in feature that can GPS track any phone on our account for no extra charge. Even better was I could prevent the boys from accidentally turning it off on their own phones. So, I turned on find my iPhone and told the boys to stay within a block of the house. With that off, they went and back into the house I went to hang the new custom window drapes. Not 1 minute later I get worried and couldn’t help but check the tracking app. I could see my boys circling around the block and saw them move in real-time, which gave me a real sigh of relief and let me hang the drapes without worrying so much.

Burning Off Energy Through Day Camp

The next major challenge this summer was getting an HVAC repair service, which meant being home and having a repair crew walk throughout the house to check and service any components of our HVAC system. The only time they could come out was our ‘quiet’ time when my daughter would be sleeping and the boys would be either watching a movie or playing quietly in their room. So, I knew I needed to ‘burn’ the energy out of my kids to get them ready for when the HVAC guys would stop by. I decided to lookup more local summer activities and came across a local sports camp. The deal was the kids could go a play/practice a sport of their choosing while I supervised from the sidelines. It was a short day camp if you will, and it worked out great. They had activities for my children for all age ranges of kids and I found something each of my kids wanted to do. So the kids ran and played with other kids their age. By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted and my daughter went straight to sleep while the boys decided to lay down and watch a movie (they quickly passed out). Once the HVAC guy came by he was impressed with how quiet the kids were and told me in most homes the kids are loud and usually in the way. In any case, the job was done in a day and the kids didn’t make a peep.

Calling on the Village

Another major obstacle this summer was my sister’s wedding reception. My husband and I were both going and decided it would be easier if the kids stayed behind. So, I decided to call people I knew in the area and ask around if anyone could babysit. This is where is so important to not be afraid to call a friend and ask for help, after all, they say it takes a village to raise one kid, let alone three. So, I called an old girlfriend who I knew a daughter around the babysitting age. I made sure to do this a few weeks in advance to make sure her daughter could make time. Sure enough, she was available and willing to help out, but I wasn’t done yet. I had the babysitter locked down, but I still needed to make sure I could check in when needed. So, I had my husband go out and get a home security camera for inside the house that I could also talk through. That way I could check in on the kids and talk to them at a moment’s notice without needing to call the babysitter. While at the wedding I occasionally checked the wifi-connected cameras and could see what the little rascals were up to, which leads to me my next point.

Technology Is Your Ally

Through GPS tracking for my child and home security camera’s I quickly found out that technology was a huge help to childcare while at home during the summer. In fact, I even did all of my schedule planning and activity planning on my phone instead of a paper calendar. This helped me keep track of everything and share events and time with my husband or other people to work around their schedules too. It also helped that I could quickly pull up my day’s plan at a moment’s notice to plan for things like the driveway paver crew or the moving team.

Give Yourself Time

Another major lesson I learned is that planning for childcare also means planning for yourself. That’s right, staying at home with kids is no easy task, especially when it means planning each day and keeping the house in order. So, I decided to plan some ‘me’ time when I could. For example, when the boys were at YMCA on certain days I would have the babysitter come over and watch my daughter for an hour or two. I would then go do ‘me’ things, like get a massage or get my nails done or just go on a mini-shopping trip. What I learned is that it really does take a village, because sometimes you get burned out, but you also can’t stop because your kids never stop being your kids. Anyway, don’t be afraid or feel bad about needing someone else to help you out. Often times as moms we think that needing others to help with the children means we’re bad moms. When in fact it just means we’re human and have needed to. So, make sure you plan for yourself and give yourself some time to relax, decompress, and decompress from a long day and hard work. Also, try to practice mindful thinking and let yourself know that you are doing a great job.

Summer Childcare Doesn’t Need To Be Hard

Over the summer I’ve learned a lot when it comes to taking care of children at home. Perhaps my biggest lesson was that making a schedule, even if it’s completely arbitrary is so important. A schedule will maintain some kind of homeostasis that will keep you and your kids busy and on track. The next thing I learned was that you need to think local and really utilize your local community programs and summer activities for your kids. Also, be open-minded and ready to use technology to its full advantage in order to keep tabs on your children and make sure they are safe and sound. Don’t be afraid to call for help and use the ‘village’ mentality when it comes to getting help with your children. After all, it takes a village to raise a child. Finally, make time for yourself and don’t feel bad if you need some time away from the kids and the house, it’s totally normal and is part of a healthy perspective on family and keeping the home in order. That’s what I learned this summer while taking care of the kids without daycare.

It’s officially summer, and I’m home with the kids this time around. Over the last year, our family scraped together just enough to make it through taking time off and working from home with the kids home from school. Well, now that it’s summer the kids are still home, now with no school, and I’, still busier than ever. It’s the season of maintenance as some say and our family has planned several repairs all over the house, we have a new baby on the way and need to make room for a baby room. Plus my sister’s wedding is just one month out, and we’re still talking about getting the driveway redone since one of the panels has a major crack running down the middle of it. With all of that in mind, I’ve made a plan and hope you too can prepare for childcare during the summer with some tips and tricks I’ve gathered over the last few weeks and months.

Forming a pattern

The first major piece of advice I came across from a mom’s Facebook group was forming a pattern for the kids…and me to stay sane and keep some semblance of balanced home life. The biggest pitfall of taking care of kids during the summer is not having some kind of schedule or routine down. This means setting a somewhat set yet flexible schedule that the kids learn to follow on their own. Not only will this help the kids stay on track, but it will help the parents around the house plan around the kid’s activities and make planning a little more predictable and therefore easier. So, I started out with a schedule for the kids and me. For example, I wrote out a general timetable of when certain activities should be done by. Wake up at 8 AM, breakfast should be done by 9 AM, the kids play outside from 9 AM to 10 AM (whether they like it or not), and so on. This routine not only kept our sanity but it massively helped me plan for our first major summer house project, the driveway.

A New Driveway, A New Lesson

Our first major project of the summer was a new driveway panel where we usually park the van. Last winter a large crack had begun to form down the middle of the slab and we got an estimate from a driveway paver my husband was friends with. Thanks to the schedule I had made for the kids, I was able to get both my sons to swimming lessons at 11 AM and put my youngest daughter down for a nap. That way the concrete crew could come in do their job and be mostly done by the time the kids would be up and running around. The only real problem was my daughter was woken by the sounds of heavy equipment breaking up then pouring concrete. That little lesson taught me one thing, day camps and out-of-the-house activities are very important and crucial to your survival. Luckily both my boys were already gone at swimming lessons, but my daughter wasn’t as pleased.

Y,M,C,A

The next big project for the house was moving the boys into the same room and making way for the coming baby. My husband was at work the whole day and being 4 months pregnant I didn’t have much energy let alone the strength to move bedroom furniture. So, the plan was to have a moving company arrive around noon and move the boys into the same room while having a furniture company move in and put together some furniture and a bedroom set for the baby. This is where I learned the importance of the local YMCA. I had to be home to tell the movers where things need to go, yet I also had three kids to look after. Fortunately, the local YMCA has a summer youth program where kids can hang out for the day with adult supervision. The program was perfect since it meant my two boys got to go play sports and be active for a few hours while I took care of the new baby room. So, I dropped off the boys at the YMCA and went back home with my daughter. Even though it was stressful having to know exactly where to put everything and telling the movers where everything went, I still had some peace of mind knowing the boys were busy and safe.

GPS Tracking

After the boys came home from the YMCA, the new baby room was done and the boys quickly checked out their ‘new’ room. Luckily boys are easy and they thought it was great to share a room and have bunk beds. However, I had one more ‘project’ to get done for the day, hanging custom window drapes for the new baby’s room and the boy’s new room. Since all of my kids were home and bouncing off the walls like usual I decided to let both the boys ride their bikes outside. Being 7 and 9 I knew they’d be okay and they knew to stay close, yet I couldn’t help but worry. So, I looked into ways to track my boys while they played on their bikes outside. I quickly found tons of options for GPS tracking apps, products like wristbands and little tracking boxes, and more. Luckily our phones came in with a built-in feature that can GPS track any phone on our account for no extra charge. Even better was I could prevent the boys from accidentally turning it off on their own phones. So, I turned on find my iPhone and told the boys to stay within a block of the house. With that off, they went and back into the house I went to hang the new custom window drapes. Not 1 minute later I get worried and couldn’t help but check the tracking app. I could see my boys circling around the block and saw them move in real-time, which gave me a real sigh of relief and let me hang the drapes without worrying so much.

Burning Off Energy Through Day Camp

The next major challenge this summer was getting an HVAC repair service, which meant being home and having a repair crew walk throughout the house to check and service any components of our HVAC system. The only time they could come out was our ‘quiet’ time when my daughter would be sleeping and the boys would be either watching a movie or playing quietly in their room. So, I knew I needed to ‘burn’ the energy out of my kids to get them ready for when the HVAC guys would stop by. I decided to lookup more local summer activities and came across a local sports camp. The deal was the kids could go a play/practice a sport of their choosing while I supervised from the sidelines. It was a short day camp if you will, and it worked out great. They had activities for my children for all age ranges of kids and I found something each of my kids wanted to do. So the kids ran and played with other kids their age. By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted and my daughter went straight to sleep while the boys decided to lay down and watch a movie (they quickly passed out). Once the HVAC guy came by he was impressed with how quiet the kids were and told me in most homes the kids are loud and usually in the way. In any case, the job was done in a day and the kids didn’t make a peep.

Calling on the Village

Another major obstacle this summer was my sister’s wedding reception. My husband and I were both going and decided it would be easier if the kids stayed behind. So, I decided to call people I knew in the area and ask around if anyone could babysit. This is where is so important to not be afraid to call a friend and ask for help, after all, they say it takes a village to raise one kid, let alone three. So, I called an old girlfriend who I knew a daughter around the babysitting age. I made sure to do this a few weeks in advance to make sure her daughter could make time. Sure enough, she was available and willing to help out, but I wasn’t done yet. I had the babysitter locked down, but I still needed to make sure I could check in when needed. So, I had my husband go out and get a home security camera for inside the house that I could also talk through. That way I could check in on the kids and talk to them at a moment’s notice without needing to call the babysitter. While at the wedding I occasionally checked the wifi-connected cameras and could see what the little rascals were up to, which leads to me my next point.

Technology Is Your Ally

Through GPS tracking for my child and home security camera’s I quickly found out that technology was a huge help to childcare while at home during the summer. In fact, I even did all of my schedule planning and activity planning on my phone instead of a paper calendar. This helped me keep track of everything and share events and time with my husband or other people to work around their schedules too. It also helped that I could quickly pull up my day’s plan at a moment’s notice to plan for things like the driveway paver crew or the moving team.

Give Yourself Time

Another major lesson I learned is that planning for childcare also means planning for yourself. That’s right, staying at home with kids is no easy task, especially when it means planning each day and keeping the house in order. So, I decided to plan some ‘me’ time when I could. For example, when the boys were at YMCA on certain days I would have the babysitter come over and watch my daughter for an hour or two. I would then go do ‘me’ things, like get a massage or get my nails done or just go on a mini-shopping trip. What I learned is that it really does take a village, because sometimes you get burned out, but you also can’t stop because your kids never stop being your kids. Anyway, don’t be afraid or feel bad about needing someone else to help you out. Often times as moms we think that needing others to help with the children means we’re bad moms. When in fact it just means we’re human and have needed to. So, make sure you plan for yourself and give yourself some time to relax, decompress, and decompress from a long day and hard work. Also, try to practice mindful thinking and let yourself know that you are doing a great job.

Summer Childcare Doesn’t Need To Be Hard

Over the summer I’ve learned a lot when it comes to taking care of children at home. Perhaps my biggest lesson was that making a schedule, even if it’s completely arbitrary is so important. A schedule will maintain some kind of homeostasis that will keep you and your kids busy and on track. The next thing I learned was that you need to think local and really utilize your local community programs and summer activities for your kids. Also, be open-minded and ready to use technology to its full advantage in order to keep tabs on your children and make sure they are safe and sound. Don’t be afraid to call for help and use the ‘village’ mentality when it comes to getting help with your children. After all, it takes a village to raise a child. Finally, make time for yourself and don’t feel bad if you need some time away from the kids and the house, it’s totally normal and is part of a healthy perspective on family and keeping the home in order. That’s what I learned this summer while taking care of the kids without daycare.