A summer routine printable that will stop the arguing and feel fun for everyone!

If your kids are anything like mine, Summer comes with a lot of arguing and complaining - maybe I am the only one, but I have a strong suspicion I am not. My husband works from home and I work part time (1 week a month) so we are all home together A LOT in the summer. As May was coming to a close we were excited but also worried about the upcoming Summer break. My husband mentioned being a little worried about the chaos that would undoubtedly ensue and it made me wonder why Summer often feels so unmanageable. 

The following were the reasons I came up with that cause us the most problems for us during summer:

1. Less routine 

2. House becomes a mess in 2.3 seconds

3. Arguments about screen time

4. Our kids getting tired of doing the same chores 

So naturally I looked at that list and knew I could attempt to organize our summer and create a schedule that will help with each of these areas of stress. Emphasize ATTEMPT, I had no clue if anything would help, but I had to try. 

and thus my Summer Routine Poster was born! 

The 1 and 2 next to the weeks in colored ovals are how we planned out who was "Child 1" and "Child 2" our 9 year old daughter was the pink color and our 11 year old son was the green color. So they would look at the week and see if they were child 1 or 2  and know which chores they had to do for that week. (we have arguments constantly on who did what last time, so this helped us a lot, not all families will need this

And to my surprise it helped!

1. The routine was there for everyone to see and follow

2. The kids were helping with chores to keep things stay more tidy and they had ownership of their space

3. There was designated screen time and rules/boundaries around it in place that took it off me to manage and argue

4. We had the kids switch which chores they were doing every week which helped them to become less bored

5. Bonus I added what they would eat for lunch every day which helped with grocery shopping and kept us from eating the same thing every day or having decision paralysis about what to eat for the day

I will also note that our son has been diagnosed with ADD and has a hard time being given multiple instructions at one time, this poster took the stress away from both of us, he could come down and consult what to do as many times as he needed and I didn't need to manage him. Both of them flourished with knowing exactly what to expect and where to look if they had questions. I can be more of a homebody so putting our activity on the routine helped to keep me accountable too and it also created a blueprint for us to make plans with others and even just having that decision of which day to do what taken off my plate helped a ton. (self diagnosed ADD mom here - lol) Having the screen time as a motivator to get their stuff done also helped a lot, I would recommend having something fun for after chores - board game, outside activity or anything they enjoy - I don't love screen time but I also try to allow things in moderation and also try to work from home/clean at that time as my 3 year old was napping when they had screen time (and it kept them quiet for his naps as well). 

If you want to try and use my poster you can use this Canva template link:

Summer Routine Template Linke Here

(If you do not already have Canva you are able to make a free account, edit the poster and download the image to print it for free)

I printed it at OfficeMax/Office Depot as a "Custom Poster" in the size 24x36 for $30.99. I do think you might be able to print it a little smaller but I am not sure how easy writing in the calendar sections would be if it were smaller as it was designed for this size.

If you have any questions as you go through the template feel free to ask them below! 

Hope this helps my fellow tired mamas!