How To Make The Most of Summer With Your Kids By Rachel Funnell, LMFT

The last school year has been challenging for everyone, especially to your kids. They have had to learn how to adjust and readjust to how they are taught and how they learn. They have gone from virtual to in-person, maybe a few times. While kids are very resilient, they, like adults, need breaks and time to re-energize. For kids, the best way that they re-energize and release stress is through play. Below are ideas to help you and your children have fun and release stress throughout the summer. 

• Set aside time daily to do something fun with your kids. 

    While many parents are still working throughout the summer, you can still take 10-30 mins to have some fun with your kids. Your children, especially the younger ones, will love any amount of time that you spend playing with them. Take advantage of the longer daylight hours and go play outside with your kids. 

• Balance the time with structure and play.

    Children need structure to feel safe and secure. However, too much structure and rigidity can lead to anxiety and depression. So it’s important to find a balance. The structure part of the summer is having a fairly predictable schedule as to what’s going to be happening within the day or week. For example, having planned times for playing, down time, chores and summer reading. The balance part comes in with how much time you spend on each. During the summer, you don’t want to have your kids doing too many educational activities where they feel like they aren’t getting a chance to release their stress from the school year. However, you can find opportunities to help your kids learn through play. For example, take a long nature hike and try to identify as many animals, plants and trees as you can. Or do fun science experiments. Or go to aquariums, museums and zoos. 

• Continue to restrict the use of technology.

During the school year, you were probably pretty strict with the use of technology. Now that it’s summer, you still want to restrict time spent on screens. While it’s okay to allow a little extra time for screens, you don’t want them to spend all day on it. Set up very clear expectations around how long your children can be on their devices. You may even need to add some parental controls to limit their time. 

• Make a list of things you and your children want to do for the summer

    Get the family together and come up with a list of activities or places or goals that they’d like to do or accomplish throughout the summer. Identify the most important to them and start to do as many as possible. At the end of the summer, you can look back at all the things you’ve done. 

• Try to do something new with your kids this summer. 

    Find something that you can do with your kids that you haven’t done before. Whether it’s going somewhere new, getting a pass to an amusement park or something as simple as going on bike rides as a family. No matter what it is, your kids will enjoy the experience and the memories that they are making. 

    No matter how you spend your summer, the best thing to do for your children is to have fun and play with them. Enjoy each other’s company and make memories. Below is a list of different ideas to help get you started on it. 

1. Run a lemonade stand
   
2. Make smores over a fire
   
3. Go fishing
   
4. Go to the drive in movies
   
5. Stargaze
   
6. Have a water fight
   
7. Play tourist in a town you’ve never been to before
   
8. Go on family bike rides
   
9. Run through the sprinklers
   
10.  Build an obstacle course inside or outside
    
11. Play board games
    
12. Garden
    
13. Go to the aquarium, museum or zoo
    
14. Go to the beach on the Atlantic side
    
15. Try to go to a new Splash Pad each week
    
16. Go camping even if it’s in your own backyard
    

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