3 Real-Life Tips for Staying Sane Over Summer Break with a 4 and 7 Year Old (with a FREE Before Screen Time Checklist!)

Hi there! It’s summer break! But when you have school aged kids (who refuse to go to camp🤪) you might be googling “tips for staying sane over summer break with kids at home” on Day 2😅

I’ve been sharing some things we’ve been doing to keep myself sane while having both of my boys (currently 4.5 and 7 years old) home all summer break on Instagram stories.. and so many of you have told me what I share has been helpful! So I’ve decided to make a post about it so it’s easy to find all the summer tips in one place!

Tip #1: Make a Summer Bucket List

First, sit down with your kiddos and brainstorm all of the fun activities you want to do over summer break! This will give you a starting point for filling in your summer calendar and also an idea bank to pull from when you’re planning your week. After the kids offer their ideas I add my own, adding in new experiences that I want to try with them!

We used this page from my Grade One Summer Review pack to write down our ideas:

Some of the things that are on our bucket list this year are:

• Cedar Park, Bowmanville
• Watson Farm, Bowmanville
• Pingles Farm, Bowmanville
• Willow Tree Farm, Port Perry
• Brooks Farm, Uxbridge
• Toronto Zoo, Scarborough
• Ripley’s Aquarium, Toronto
• Centre Island, Toronto
• Space Centre, Vaughn
• Minecraft Experience, Mississauga

Plus we have a membership or passes to…

• Reptilia Zoo
• Flying Squirrel
• Sky Zone

so I’m keeping those in my back pocket for rainy days!

A list of indoor playgrounds near you are also good to keep in your back pocket for rainy days! Some of our favourites are:

• Squishy Goose, Cobourg
• Treehouse Clubhouse, Pickering

Tip #2: Decide on a Loose Schedule

We like to do M/W/Th (I would do M/W/F but we get a lot of cottage traffic on Fridays here so I don’t like getting on the highway on Fridays over the summer months) as outing days and Tu/F as errands/home days (where I at least attempt to get a few hours of work in).

Then I decide our outings. I make sure to make at least one of the days a free activity like an out of town playground so our summer doesn’t get too expensive!

If you live in the Durham Region/Clarington area, some of our favourite FREE activities are:

Playgrounds (they ALL have Splash Pads!):

• East Beach Park, Bowmanville
• Lakeview Park, Oshawa
• Kiwanis Haydenshore Park, Whitby
• Lynde Creek Park, Whitby
• Baycliffe Park (also known as Rocketship Park!), Whitby
• Des Newman WhitBEE Park, Whitby

Other Free Activities:

• Kid’s Safety Village, Whitby (Tues-Thu, 10-2): They have some there but I recommend bringing your own bike + helmet!
• EarlyON (Check your nearest EarlyON calendar! 0-6 but especially great for ages 0-4)
• Riverview Park & Zoo, Peterborough: Admission is FREE and there is a splash pad, multiple play structures and of course animals! There is also a train ride that is $2 per person.

3. Implement a Daily MUST Do Before Screen Time Checklist

During the school year we do screen time for about an hour after school (while I make dinner) but we decided they could have screen time any time after noon in the summer because

• 12-2PM is the hottest time of the day and it’s nice to stay inside during those hours
• It’s actually been nice to have screen time already done before dinner is ready, sometimes it’s a struggle getting them off once dinner is done and ready😅

So we move it up to noon… but I was still getting “I don’t know what to do” and was reminding them a million times (or getting a lot of resistance🙄) to do their basic jobs (like brushing their teeth, doing their summer workbook etc.) My husband said he saw a “Before screen time you must…” checklist on socials so I decided to make one for them to try!

I printed each of them a checklist (I printed it on coloured paper and put it on each kid’s favourite colour so it’s easy for them to see whose is whose), laminated it and put some magnetic dots on the back. Then I put it on our fridge along with a dry erase marker with a magnet on the lid (I had one of these handy but I originally bought them at Dollarama!)

Today was our first day. So far so good! I told them other than cleaning their room they could do the things on their checklist in any order (cleaning their room has to be last). And noon was still the earliest they could get screen time.

The pros were that it got them to do some of the things they are usually very resistant to do (their learning book) more easily or they forget to do (brush their teeth). The cons were that one of my kids drew a picture in like 5 seconds and checked off “I’ve done something creative” 🙄 and they got into a big fight first thing in the morning because they were attempting to eat breakfast on their own so that they could check off “I have eaten breakfast” 😅 But it’s only the first day and I think the pros outweigh the cons so far! I’ll come back and update this post if I have anything to report back about 😉

I got these little timers for them so that they could keep track of their reading time on their own. It didn’t arrive until after they were done reading today, but they used it for their screen time and I think it was even helpful for that (being able to see how much time they had left).

A lot of you asked me to share this printable, so here it is! You can grab both a version you can print and fill in by hand (just your child’s name), a version you can type the name in and a version where you can edit all of the words. The editable versions are in PowerPoint!

Click here or on the image below to grab them!

I have some other tips but I know a lot of you are waiting for the pre-screen checklist so I’ll stop here for today! I’ll post on Instagram stories and come add them here when I have time… so be sure to follow me over there if you want to be the first to know what else helps me out over summer break!

Hope that was hepful!