Ah Summer! As kids we rolled our eyes when the adults talked about how “time flies” and how fast we were growing up.
But as with so many things, the adults were right about this one! It’s hard to believe the kids are about to leave another grade behind and the little ones are that much closer to starting school.
There’s much excitement in the air. Excitement that can quickly turn to terror when you stop and realize they’re going to be home all. day. long.
The free babysitting is over and they’re all yours once again.
Don’t worry if you’re feeling a little guilty for secretly wishing they’d keep disappearing for 7 hours every day.
Chances are, your business doesn’t have a summer break. And shuffling the kids off to camps all day every day so you can keep up your work routine can be as expensive as private school.
Fear not. As with most things, all it takes is a little conscious planning and you can have a cheap, fun, amazing summer with your kids and still keep your business momentum strong.
Follow these 10 tips for your summer planning and activities, and both you and the kids will have your best summer yet.
1. Set Expectations: Life is about to change radically for your children. But for you, it’s business as usual.
Have a little sit down and remind your kids that as thrilled as you are for their impending freedom, you’ll still be working so that they can eat more than ramen noodles all summer.
Share your work schedule and your availability with them. Let them know what to expect from you and what you expect from them.
If last minute plans don’t work for you, tell them how many hours or days notice you need if they expect a ride or some other involvement from you.
2. Get Your Children Involved in Your Business: You can avoid many of the complaints and eye-rolling accompanied by “mom’s working again” if you’ll get your kids invested in your business success.
Depending on their age, share a part of your business with them. It can be a story about how you’re helping someone and what an impact it will have in that client’s life.
It can be a monetary goal you’ve set for the summer. The best ones include a little treat for them. Something like, “As soon as I finish this project I was thinking I’d have enough left over to buy you a trampoline.”
Their excitement level for your work will skyrocket.
For the older kids, you can actually find small tasks for them to help with your business. Just make sure it’s something they enjoy doing.
3. Set a Goal For Your Child: Get your child invested in completing something over the summer. Make sure it’s something that peaks her interest so you won’t spend your days nagging her about it.
Sign her up for the library’s summer reading club, encourage her to write a book, draw a cartoon, sew a quilt.
Work with her to come up with a project that takes awhile but is still fun. You can even make up a chart where she can mark off and track her progress. Include small treats as rewards for milestones along the way.
If the outcome of completing the project isn’t a sufficient enough reward, establish some type of satisfying prize she’ll receive when the goal is reached.
4. Stick to a Routine: Routines can be hard for us entrepreneur types, but children thrive on them (as do adults, actually).
While every week may not look the same over the summer, keep consistent with bed times and other parts of the day.
If there seems to be a lot of chaos in a particular day or week, let your child know what tomorrow will look like when he goes to bed, and review the upcoming day when he gets up in the morning.
5. Family Calendar: Keep a calendar somewhere that everyone can see it. Write down your commitments and each child’s commitments and activities. Use a different color for each child.
This makes it easy for your child to quickly check in and see what’s going on each day.
The family calendar will also be the first thing she looks at when trying to make plans. It will save you time and cut down on the frustration of hearing you say you can’t drive her to the movies that night because Johnny has soccer.
It’s also a great lesson in learning how to manage and plan her time.
6. Get Outside: Schedule some outside time with your kids every day (or most days at least!) Make this part of your summer routine.
This can be as simple as a 15 minute walk.
Getting outside with your kids is a nice way to give yourself a break and to spend some quality time with your child.
It feels good to be outside so your child will look forward to this. And, it’s just a simple activity that gives you a chance to connect and almost guarantees to result in everyone feeling good about it.
7. Camps!: Try to do at least a week or two of summer camp. Your child will need this break from you as much as you’ll need it from him.
The good thing is, the number of summer camps available is almost endless. Do a google search for “summer camps in <your city>.” There’s likely a website or two that gathers most of the possibilities in one place.
Start this process now for best selection and to find lower priced options if this is a consideration. Most camps offer a limited number of scholarships, but you need to apply early. Don’t be afraid to ask if you could use the financial help, that’s what the scholarships are there for.
Getting these camps on the family calendar as soon as possible also gives your child something to look forward to as summer begins.
8. Do the Free: Kids tend to see summer break as a summer-long vacation. It can get pretty pricey when you’re expected to come up with some entertainment for your child each and every day.
If you haven’t spent much time researching this, you’ll be amazed at how many free activities there are in your community. Spend an hour at the computer and you can fill the weeks with free concerts in the park, community days, and one day workshops and activities for the kids.
Your local library and your city’s website are good places to start looking for free activities.
9. Do a Service Project: Find some way for your child to help her community or other people and schedule this as a weekly activity.
You may have to do a little digging, but these opportunities are out there. Local churches, community centers in disadvantaged areas, and food pantries are good places to start calling and asking if they know of volunteer opportunities for kids.
It could be something as traditional as spending a day serving lunch to those in need, mentoring or tutoring younger kids, or even making crafts such as baby blankets for the crisis nursery.
Work with your child as to what her interests are here, then get on the phone and see what’s out there. This will provide your child with a very rewarding experience and a positive memory of her summer break.
10. Plan a Wrap Up: At the beginning of summer, schedule an end of summer celebration with your kids. This can be a weekend getaway or a cheap staycation.
Again, it gives them something to look forward to and can be something they work on planning throughout the summer.
Where you go and what you do can even change as the summer progresses if you come up with better possibilities.
This is just another great way to connect with your kids by including them in the process of planning the details. It can also motivate good behavior and lift their spirits when they have those inevitable summer moments of “I’m bored.”
In a Nutshell, Have a Plan
Whatever you do for the summer, plan as much as possible and include the kids in the planning.
This doesn’t have to be vacation-style planning. It can be as simple as, every Wednesday morning, we walk to the park and play for a couple of hours.
You’ll just want to avoid waking up every morning and thinking, “How am I going to get through this day with these kids?” That’s no fun for them or you.
Summer is also a great time to start your own children’s entertainment business with KidsPartyCharacters.com. Company owner Cheryl Jacobs is making a limited number of memberships available that allow you to license your own Kids Party Character business.
If you think summer is too hectic of a time to start a business, get on a no-pressure call with Cheryl and discover how easy she’s made it for you to have a fun business that your kids will love so much they probably won’t want to go back to school!
A membership with KidsPartyCharacters.com gives you an exclusive area in which to book parties, the right to use all 200 plus KidsPartyCharacter.com costumes, access to our casting director and actors, and full support and training from Cheryl and the whole team at KidsPartyCharacters.com.
Membership could also give you some much-enjoyed extra spending money for the summer.
Summer is actually the ideal time to get your KidsPartyCharacters.com business started, and you can work as much or as little as you’d like. Book a chat with Cheryl on our website and she’ll help you figure out whether this is the right opportunity for you.
Be sure to connect with us on Facebook too, and keep up to date with all the fun we’ll be bringing to children’s summer parties. You might even get a little inspiration for planning your child’s next party!
No comments:
Post a Comment