The Crew: Preventing the Summer Backslide

As I alluded to in my weekly update on Sunday, I have been working hard on the kiddos' summer packets. I really like to emphasize reading during our off-time—not only to build their love for it, but to keep their little minds working and not entirely consumed by screens.

In my house, we have a clear system: the boys have to complete their household and hygiene tasks and get their reading time in before any screens are turned on. Thankfully, we have discovered several programs that allow us to "multi-dip" and incentivize their reading even further.

I still have to coordinate the logistics of which books and how many we need, but for the local library, the Barnes & Noble summer reading program, and the Pizza Hut Camp BOOK IT! program, we can use the same book to check boxes across multiple systems. They get to count completed books for Barnes & Noble, while tracking the minutes toward the other two programs.

The rewards are a great hook, too:

• The Local Library: Offers small tokens to encourage reaching milestones, ending with a journal and pen.

• Pizza Hut: Awards monthly personal pan pizzas.

• Barnes & Noble: Gives them a free book of their choice from a selected list.

• Books-A-Million: Requires them to read and summarize four books from the store's section to receive a prize.

• The Stretch Goal: Unlikely to be fully completed this summer, but we are looking at the Mensa Foundation reading list. We'll select a few of those for the summer and see what we can tackle.

(Click on any of the logos below to be directed to their sites and sign up your own crew!)

Math, Writing, and the "House Charter"

With reading goals under our belt, I like to tackle the basic math skills they learned over the past year. Reinforcing those concepts helps maintain their academic literacy before the new school year hits. I found several sites with a handful of free worksheets, downloaded them, and placed them in a binder for the boys to work on periodically.

Working on these worksheets will earn them extra screen time—or at least, that's what they think. In reality, it’s all beautifully intertwined with our new house charter and existing token system. I also made a series of writing prompts that they'll complete each week, mainly to help with handwriting skills but to also maintain that creative line of thinking. Similar to the reading links, you can click the images below to find these exact math and writing resources for your own children.

"Lifeing" Tasks & The Ultimate Critical Thinking Test

In addition to math skills, I stumbled onto a great resource on the Chuck E. Cheese website. They have a ton of free printable reward charts you can choose from (everything from cleaning your room to good sportsmanship). Upon completion, they earn the kids 10 free game credits with a food purchase, which definitely lightens the cost of a quick, fun outing.

I round off our summer list with what I call "lifeing" tasks. In past summers, we’ve kept a running list of activities the boys need to complete so they can grow into competent, self-sufficient humans by the time they walk out the door at 18. We started small with basic self-care: proper teeth brushing, showering, and nail clipping.

As they've gotten older, the tasks have evolved. Now we're tackling:

• Learning how to do laundry start-to-finish.

• Stripping and making a bed.

• Store-to-Table: Creating a grocery list, navigating the store, buying the ingredients, and cooking the meal.

• How to properly clean toilets.

• Using screwdrivers and hammers to fix something or hang a picture.

Layered into this summer's tasks is a brand-new critical thinking challenge (shoutout to my friend for this idea). I want them to do the actual mental load work, moving a project from conceptualization to execution. Their assignment? Planning a solo, one-on-one "Yes Day" or field trip with me. They are entirely in charge of figuring out what we do, working within an allotted budget, mapping out the logistics, and leading the day. We'll see how this one goes, but I'm incredibly excited to watch how their minds work and to have them fully engaged in the amount of planning and energy a single day out actually requires.

Hope this helps with your kiddos and maybe appeases that inner teacher in you!