FIVE TIPS TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR SUMMER

This post is sponsored by Degree Women but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

Summer is in full swing and we have been so busy filling our days with as many outdoor activities as we can.  I know that we only have a short time with our kids, and we’ll have a new baby joining us soon, so we are going out of our way to make it as memorable as we can.

Today, I wanted to share with you five tips on how to get the most out of your summer. 

Plan –  My kids love knowing what’s coming up next in their day.  They are constantly asking me “mom what’s the plan?” and “mom what are we doing next?”  Sometimes it can be a little overwhelming answering their questions on the whim, so we like to have a big family calendar where we jot down our activities and refer back to often.  At the beginning of the week, we write a list of things we WANT to do as a family and things we HAVE to do.  Then we incorporate everything we can on the calendar and set ourselves up for the week ahead.  This doesn’t have to be an elaborate plan.  Sometimes we schedule “cuddle time” or “song time” and write it on our calendar.  The point is to give them something to get excited about.

 

Get dressed – This is more for myself than for my kids.  If it were up to me, I’d live in pj’s all day long. Getting dressed in the morning really sets the tone for the day.  I look at our calendar and see what we have going on that day and plan my outfit accordingly. Some days getting dressed means throwing on my workout clothes (because we’ve scheduled gym time) and some days it’s just a maternity t-shirt and shorts and we are good to go.  Most of my workout clothes are black, and on days where I know I’ll be hitting the gym in the afternoon, I use Degree’s UltraClear Black+White Dry Spray Deodorant.   I love it because it helps prevent white marks on my black workout clothes and keeps me dry all day long. I pick mine up at my local Walmart.

 

Stay up late – Summer days are long! Where we live the sun comes out around 5:30 am and sets way past 9 pm.  It’s amazing how much more daylight we have in comparison to winter so we take full advantage.  These days we’re catching fireflies in the backyard, having coffee on our porch at 6 am and let the kids ride their bikes until they exhaust themselves.  Unless we have something planned, we like to be flexible with our summer evenings.

 

 

Learn something new – We try to keep our minds and our bodies active during the summer and one way we do that is by learning something new. This year we purchased a few topical booklets from the dollar section and are reading our way through them.  One is about dinosaurs, one is about the planets and one is about the USA.  This is strictly fun reading and researching, and the kids love having new fun topics to talk about.

 

 

Take it all in – We only have 18 summers with our kids and I am sure that they are going to fly by.  What’s most important than setting plans or having a full schedule is taking the time to look at your kids, to sit with them, to ask them questions and to study them.  Sure, having little ones it’s hectic and chaotic at times, but just like summer, it only lasts for a little bit.

So, whether you’re out and about this summer or scheduling time to color and have tickle fights on the floor… STOP AND ENJOY IT!

Have an amazing rest of your summer friends!