Reading Time: 4 minutes

summer with kids

There’s always this weird tension for me when summer break splats on our family like an ice cream cone on a sidewalk. 

The kids are fatigued, even exhausted, from school. Heck, I’m tired from the school year.

But do I want them to be total slugs for all three months? I don’t. 

Summer can be a great time to 

  • let our kids be kids, and learn through sheer play, exploration, adventure, and new experiences (I’m looking at you, summer camp, camping, and grandparent trips). (You might like A Mountain of [Surprising] Reasons to Get Our Kids Outdoors this Summer (…and Maybe Follow Them)
  • teach our kids about the beauty of rhythms of rest. Their value doesn’t just lie in what they can produce. Rest is part of a useful, fruitful life. (Curious about this in your own life? Check out INFOGRAPHIC: Ideas to Take Back Your Sabbath.)
  • connect as a family and make some memories. We get (sniff) 18 summers with these guys.
  • have more leisurely, meaningful conversations.
  • practice other disciplines, like exercise, or maybe trying out a new skill (computer coding for kids?) or an instrument.

Need a few other ideas to strike that balance between rest and holistic rejuvenation during summer with kids? 

4 Ways to Get More Out of Summer with Kids

Versify.

I’ve mentioned before that I like this for my older kids, who are openly bribed with memorizing Scripture when cash-poor. I have also not been above using Scripture memory for my kids to earn extra screen time… (If you would prefer to reprimand me for poor life choices, the comment section is open.)

Find this free app in the Apple store or Google Play.


Learn another language: Duolingo.

I’m actually personally participating in this summer-with-kids idea!

My family purchased a Duolingo family plan for now, though any of us can do this for free, too. My Spanish from high school and college has successfully resurrected, and I’m on a 40+ day streak with the program–though there are 37 languages currently available (my other two kids have their eye on Latin and German).

Each lesson takes about 4 minutes. 

With the family plan, my 14-year-old, 18-year-old, and husband are doing it, too, and we can pursue challenges together, or even with cousins around the world.

(Totally gratuitous anecdote time:

My youngest told me one of the kids on his soccer team speaks a European language–turns out he’s Polish–with his family. He and his dad, as parents do around the world, yell at each other in their native tongue during the game.

My husband told my son that my husband, too, could run down the field yelling in Spanish. But it might be things like, ” I WOULD LIKE A TABLE FOR TWO!” or “I LOST MY PASSPORT!”)

Book club.

Shout-out to my friend Tony Wee on this one, who also fears not bribing his kids for higher purposes. His son is reading through books and delivering a short book report on them–for a video game he wants. 

So after Tony told me this, my 14-year-old and I struck a deal, involving him reading, for now, Just Mercy (he wants to be a lawyer), Mere Christianity, and maybe even How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being THAT Guy). 

My son then needs to give me a summary paragraph of his own, followed by a paragraph of his personal interaction with the ideas of the book. Or maybe we’ll do it verbally. 

But for he and I, and our shared and separate goals? It’s looking like…if this succeeds…a win-win. (I always hesitate to write “good ideas” in my posts before I have living proof they make it to the end.)

I do know a hard copy of Just Mercy made it into his bag this week for camp, and before he left–listening to the audiobook from the library–he pulled off his headphones: “This book is like reading John Grisham!”

And it’s even better than Theodore Boone, because Bryan Stevenson is a follower of Jesus creating real-life change. 

Got younger kids?

Library summer reading programs may provide all the help you need.

Or if you’d like more character-targeted book club lists, I’ve got some in Permanent Markers: Spiritual Life Skills to Write On Your Kids’ Hearts.

Also check out (see what I did there?) the book lists within these posts:

32 Ideas to make the most of reading time with kids (includes free download)

Spiritual Life Skills: 10 Ways to Teach Compassion (with book list!)

Spiritual Life Skills for Kids: Courage (with Book List & Printables!)

10 Fun Ideas for Kids this Summer!

Loosely structure your days with routines.

It’s okay to have a checklist kids need to complete (at least partially) before running out the door, through the sprinkler, or to the park. 

Maybe this summer-with-kids routine includes

  • personal hygiene. (That one’s not a “maybe.”)
  • personal quiet time with God.
  • chores.
  • an act of service.
  • reading. 
  • music practice and/or exercise.
Grab more ideas at DO I LET MY KID VEG OUT ALL SUMMER?

Maybe this looks like a good old-fashioned sticker chart, or making an electronic list, if that works better for your family. 

Hungry for more summer-with-kids ideas?

I’ve collected more ideas–because ideas are a thing I do–in these posts.

(Could bookmark this post for the days the kids are stretched over the arm of the couch: “I’m so booooooooored.”) 

Tell us!

What are you doing

to make the most of summer with kids

in all the right ways?

Comment below!