How to Make a Stay at Home Mom Summer Schedule THAT WORKS FOR YOU
Summertime can be one of the best parts of the year—full of memories and sunshine and friends all the things. But for stay at home moms and families who need routine (and we all do at some level!), it can also feel chaotic when there’s no rhyme or reason to the days.
With a 5-year-old, 3-year-old, 2-year-old, and 6-month-old, our list of things to enjoy in the summer is unending! There are parks to visit, pools to splash in, friends to play with, trips to take, and the everyday joys of picking produce out of the garden and reading books together and so much more.
BUT, we could hardly do any of it without a schedule! YES, there is a lot more room for flexibility in the summer, but without a schedule (especially if you have lots of littles!), it’s easy for the days to become overwhelming and feel out of control.
Our summer schedule gives us freedom! And it works for us. At the end of this post, I’ll share what our current schedule looks like. But the more important part of making a summer schedule as a stay at home mom is creating something that works for you. Your family’s priorities, your lifestyle, your goals, and your resources.
Here are 7 ways I thought of that we stay on track by creating a schedule that works for our family, and how you can use them to create your own summer schedule, too!
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7 Tips for How to Make a Stay-at-Home Mom Summer Schedule That Fits Your Family
- Prioritize what matters to your family
- Have a good routine (not every day has to be something new)
- Have goals
- Plan ahead (or wing it)
- Make time to be home
- Make a list of summer must-dos
- Simplify where you can
1. Prioritize What Matters to Your Family
There are literally so many ways you could go with your summer. But what matters to your family?
Lots of camping trips? Homestead projects? Seeing friends as much as possible? Teaching the kids to swim? Reading all the books? Visiting every park within a half-hour radius?
One of the most amazing benefits of being a stay at home mom is that you (and your husband) get to choose how you and your children spend your time.
Some of our priorities this summer include:
- Lots of outdoor play
- Extra time with friends
- Scripture memorization and reading through our children’s story Bible
- Plenty of reading aloud together
- Completing kindergarten prep with our oldest
Our kids do not get screen time, so we have lots of freedom and quality time for doing all of the things we really want to do together! (And they also are [usually] amazing at playing together independently!)
2. Have a Good Routine (not every day has to be something new)
Some of the most memorable parts of summer are the fun things that are not routine, like family vacations and county fairs. But if you’re constantly chasing the next novel, once-a-year thing, summer can get way too exhausting. (Also, always living for the next high is such a letdown!)
One way we truly enjoy the season is by making daily life fun and having a structured routine. This way, even if we don’t go out or do anything especially special for the day (or even the week), we still have lots of fun in our “normal” summer routine.
Regular days include our morning time, meals together (more often outside), gardening, read alouds (we’re currently working through the Little House on the Prairie series), walks down the dirt road, playing in our small pool or sprinkler, cooking together, independent play, and more.
I’ll share more about our daily routine below! We always have many projects going on, and home is truly our favorite place to be!
3. Have Goals
If you get to spend the whole summer hanging out with your kids, you are so blessed. (I never can get over what a gift this is!!!). But, if summer (or any time of the year, honestly) is just about having fun or passing the days all the time, it can actually get kind of depressing.
Enjoy your kids, plan the outings, take it slow. But also, set some goals!
Whether they’re centered around exercise, reading, learning new skills, or some other project, having something to work toward is important.
Your goals can be for yourself, your kids, or your whole family. We have some of all of these!
Some of my goals include: reading a little each day, writing a little each day, preparing for the upcoming school year, and preserving as much as possible from the garden.
For the kids, we have goals revolving around books, Scripture memorization, chores, and personal projects they’re working on.
Other ideas goals could include:
- 1000 hours outside
- Summer reading challenges
- Business projects
- Exercise or physical goals
- Relational goals (like hosting or getting to know your neighbors)
- Creative goals (like sewing projects, leveling up your cooking skills, or preserving all the things)
The possibilities are endless!
As a mom, I also love having both goals that I do with my kids and other personal goals that I work on during their nap time/quiet time or in the evenings.
4. Plan Ahead (Or Wing It)
Maybe you are a professional go-with-the-flow type of lady, but for many of us, a lot of the best parts of summer just don’t go well without a plan. At this stage in life, we have a lot of responsibilities and projects at home, and both winging it and being out every day of the week tend to equal a lot more chaos than fun.
In order to keep up on laundry, cooking (so, so much cooking!), cleaning, and family goals (and priorities), we try to stay home at least 2 days per week. Sunday is the Lord’s Day—for worship and fellowship and rest–and Saturdays are always something different, so that leaves only three days per week for friends, errands, or other activities. I cannot believe how fast these three days fill up! And if I don’t plan them, they will just happen to us, and they will usually happen in a way that doesn’t align with our priorities.
It sometimes feels crazy to me to be as scheduled as I am, but it’s also the only way I’ve found to make sure we get to do the important things! Like playdates with the people we love, seeing family, and our top summer activities. (Even grocery trips are planned, which helps tremendously in allowing the house to run smoothly!)
So before the next month begins, look at your calendar and schedule the things that are most important! Text the friends you don’t want to go without seeing and plan a day. Pick a morning for the zoo and put it on the calendar. Plan a park play date with church friends. Schedule a family get-together.
Also, I’m not sure if older moms feel the same way I do (probably not exactly), but with your monthly or weekly planning, don’t forget daily planning, too. Knowing what’s going on tomorrow makes things so much smoother. You can plan your dinner around what you’ll be doing (don’t set out meat for your most intense dinner of the week on a beach day!), prep anything you might need to pack for the day, or start a load of laundry early in the morning. Or, if it’s a stay at home day, you can prepare to knock off some extra chores or cooking tasks (don’t forget to feed that sourdough starter!).
5. Make Time to Be Home
While you’re planning your fun outings (#4 above), don’t forget to plan time to be home, too! Figure out how much time you need each week to accomplish the daily tasks of being a mom, wife, and homemaker, and schedule those into your week. Maybe they don’t always have to happen on the same days every week, but they do have to happen at some point.
If I don’t plan time to make bread, do the laundry, create a meal plan, read to my kids, make dinner, do basic cleaning, or work on reading with my 5-year-old, we will be hungry, messy, and feel a bit empty!
In addition to time for tasks at home, we all also need time for free play and rest time! It’s not healthy for anyone to go-go-go… kids need to be proficient at independent play, free time with siblings, family time, and just plain old down time.
As moms, we have the amazing privilege and responsibility of setting the tone for our homes, so let’s make them joyful places to be! Make being at home fun!
Turn on music, dance with your kids, stock the cabinet with craft supplies, grab a stack of new children’s books (here’s how we find lots of books inexpensively!), make delicious food together, pick snap peas out of the garden, and just include them in what you’re doing. ❤️
6. Make a List of Summer Must-Dos
Summer goes by SO quickly! At the beginning of the season, make a list of things you really want to do before the summer ends. Don’t forget to ask your kids, too! Their goals might be different than yours! You may have your heart set on a grand road trip while all they REALLY want to do is take a day trip to the local splash pad.
If you don’t schedule these important summer memories into the weeks, they may not happen! Sit down with your family and make a list of the things that you don’t want to miss out on.
It could be everything from a trip up north to family bike rides. Here are some more ideas for your summer bucket list:
- Visit the zoo
- Have a pool party
- Try out a specific park
- Have a picnic
- Go to a parade
- Visit the beach
- Go berry picking
- Go camping
- Visit the farmers market
- Go fishing
- Visit the nature center
- Make tie dye
- Go to the fair
- Go mini golfing
- Get ice cream
- Visit local attractions
7. Simplify Where You Can
A simpler daily routine makes for more time to enjoy the sunshine with your kids. Make things a little easier where you can—simplifying daily tasks sometimes makes some of the best memories anyway!
Eat outside. Make easy dinners with simple sides—think lots of watermelons and fresh cut veggies.
Do as many activities outside as possible—you’ll spend far less time cleaning this way! Read outside. Play outside. Fold the next load of laundry outside if you can!
Then, have a great time together blasting music while you vacuum the living room, sweep the floor, and make the beds.
Create mini routines and regular ways that everyone can help with chores.
Our Current Daily Schedule
Here’s how our schedule currently looks during the summer months with four kids under age 6.
Morning – 5:30am – 11:30am
5:30am – My stay at home mom schedule all year long looks like starting the day with time in God’s Word and getting a little bit of work done before the babies wake up and the hustle and bustle of the day begins. Even just a half hour of time to pray and read the Word, collect your thoughts, make a list for the day, get dressed, and maybe complete a quick chore before the kids come out of their rooms can make a huge difference in the flow of the day.
7:00am – Kids wake up and breakfast! I get all the kids up and dressed while my husband makes a simple breakfast—usually eggs and sausage or homemade granola and kefir.
8:00am – Morning time (if we’re not going anywhere). If we’re staying home for the morning, I find that it works well to start the morning by spending some time with the kids before we get into chores and play time. Right now we’re reading through The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos. We’ve also been working on Scripture memory and phonograms during this time. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes.
If we go out in the morning or have friends over (which is typically about 3x/week), we’ll usually start getting ready right after breakfast and aim to be home before noon for lunch and naps.
9:00am – This is when the baby naps and we get some of our less baby-friendly projects or activities out of the way. Often we’ll get a kitchen chore done, work in the garden, or do another “big kid” activity together.
10:30-11:30am – Baby’s up! More time together or free play. The kids spend a LOT of the morning just being outside. Often they’ll play independently during this time and I’ll get some more chores done. Or, we’ll go on a walk or do another activity together.
11:30am – Lunch time!
Afternoon – 1:00pm – 5:30pm
1:00pm – Naps and quiet time. The younger kids nap while the older ones play outside, color, do magnatiles, or listen to audiobooks for a couple of hours. I usually get some work done during this time. Sometimes we just enjoy being in the A/C during the hottest part of the day.
3:00pm – Homeschool time or activity with the bigs. Before the younger kids get up, we’ll work through our K-Prep language arts book for a half hour, or sometimes we’ll opt for crochet lessons instead.
3:30pm – Snack time and reading together. This is one of my very favorite parts of the day! Whenever possible, we take our snack plate outside and sit under the tree. I’ll nurse the baby and read out loud (the Little House series is what we’re into currently!) while the kids enjoy their snacks and then finish listening while they’re climbing a tree or swinging or playing in the sandbox.
4:30pm – Prep dinner. The three big kids usually play outside while I prep dinner. If it’s a rainy day, they’ll do play doh, color, or play some make believe game inside.
Evening – Dinner and Bedtime
5:30/6:00pm – Dad’s home and dinner time!
6:30-8:00pm – Family time after dinner. This usually include some sort of mix of playing outside, family worship, reading books, wrestling in the living room, or taking a walk before our bedtime routine.
8:00pm – Time for bed!
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