Slow and Simple Weekly Summer Routine with Little Kids
A simple, weekly summer routine is a game changer for helping families with young kids enjoy their summer.
One of the best parts about summer is its flexibility and slowing down to enjoy and savor life. But when a household with young kids doesn’t have a routine, life can feel hectic and overwhelming trying to respond to needs constantly!
If you have small children in your home, you’ll want to find balance between maintaining structure in the summer for peace of mind, but also flexibility for fun and spontaneity.
In this post, I’ll break down our simple weekly summer routine by days of the week to give an overview of how our family of six has implemented a flexible routine into our summer.
For context, we are a home-based family. We homeschool our eldest two children (ages 7 and almost 5), and live a simple life spending the majority of our time at home.
I don’t thrive when I feel rushed, busy, and am constantly loading kids in and out of the car and trying to remember to pack everything I need to keep 4 kids happily engaged and cared for away from our home systems for hours on end.
So we keep our summers simple and plan to spend the bulk of our days at home. It’s cheap, it’s easier for me, and our children are flourishing.
If you are on the fence about whether you need to plan a bunch of activities for your kids or whether you can enjoy a simple summer at home, I encourage you to keep reading and catch a glimpse of what your summer at home could look like.
Daily Summer Routine Structure:
We view our days as five blocks of time, with four transition phases between each block of time. This rhythm is built around our family’s meals and nap needs, along with our family values of relationship, connection, and unstructured play time.
I’ve shared in more detail how our daily summer routine unfolds, so if you want more information, you can check out my Slow, Simple Daily Summer Routine with Kids post.
I also have several other posts about Summer which might be helpful for you if you’re brainstorming different aspects of a simple, home-based summer.
- Simple Summer Sabbath Routine for Families
- Summer Out-and-About Activities for Kids
- Screen-Free Indoor Summer Activities for Kids
- Old Fashioned Outdoor (at home) Summer Activities for Kids
- Simple, Healthy Summer Dinners for Families
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Set Your Priorities for a Simple Weekly Summer Routine:
Every intentional routine must start with prioritizing what you want to do with the time you have. So as we were winding down the school year, I started thinking about what I wanted to prioritize this summer.
If you are building your weekly summer routine structure, I encourage you to identify your priorities.
There may be some big items on your summer plans list, like a special camping trip or involvement in the local fair or a visit to friends or family. Those are great things that will happen outside your normal, day-to-day summer routine.
So I recommend identifying a handful of things you want to make sure happen most weeks during the summer. And assume the routine will pause during those big events, but then you can get back to the weekly summer routine when the events are over.
For our family, we have several simple priorities for our weekly summer routine:
- Sabbathing as a family together on Saturdays most weeks (so we protect this time)
- Making sure the baby gets at least one good nap per day (he usually naps morning and afternoon)
- Creating regular chunks of time several days a week to let our kids have self-directed play time
- Spend time with friends
- Enjoy the beautiful area of New Zealand where we live
With that in mind, we developed our simple summer weekly routine!
Mondays: Setting the Tone for a Simple Weekly Summer Routine
Mondays are usually a home day to get our week off to an intentional start, establishing the daily rhythms. Of course, sometimes something comes up, but in general, I try to protect Mondays from outside commitments so that we can be intentional about moving through our daily routines.
Early Morning: My husband and I get up early to do our deep focus, power hour before the kids wake up. We try to do this every morning (Sunday through Friday). Once 7:30am comes, we move into our first transition of the day, getting everyone breakfast.
Morning Time Block:
- Morning walk and the morning chores
- Sourdough Bread Baking while the kids play
- Phone calls or communication about scheduling for the week
Afternoon Time Block:
- Lunch and quiet rest time
- Unloading a box of food rescue items and making a plan for how to use the food
- Video call with my mom and my sister – the kids jump in and our of our conversation
Evening Time Block:
- After dinner walk with the kids before bedtime once the house has been reset from the day
- If it isn’t too late, some readaloud time as part of the kids’ wind down
Tuesdays: Outdoor Chores during our Weekly Summer Routine + Park Play
Tuesdays usually start with a focus on outdoor productivity around our home. And the afternoons often include a park meet up.
My husband is around on Tuesdays either doing schooling from home or yard work for our landlords, so the kids and I will often join him outside while he’s mowing or trimming hedges, and then I try to get everyone out of the house so he can focus with fewer distractions for a bit in the afternoon.
Early Morning:
- Power Hour of Focus
Morning Time Block:
- Morning walk and the morning chores
- Weeding the veggie garden beds
- Tidying up around the yard and deck or cleaning out the chicken coop
Afternoon Time Block:
- Lunch and quiet rest time
- Play with the neighbor kids or head to a park
Evening Time Block:
- Our friend, Ashley, comes and joins us for dinner some Tuesdays
- After dinner walk with the kids
- Read aloud or stories
Wednesdays: Enjoy our Area + Food Prep
Wednesday morning is usually a social time with friends, and then I move into household admin in the afternoon while the kids have some down time.
I try to have a Click and Collect grocery order set up, if I’m organized, to grab whatever groceries I need on the way home to fill gaps from the rood rescue box that come on Monday, so I’m well prepared for the afternoon and the next day.
Early Morning:
- Power Hour of Focus
Morning Time Block:
- Beach or walk + park with friends
- Quick grocery run or Click and Collect Order
Afternoon Time Block:
- Lunch and quiet rest
- Put away groceries, wash and chop produce
Evening Time Block:
- After dinner walk with kids
- Read aloud or stories
Thursdays: Cooking + Socializing Staple of our Weekly Summer Routine
Thursday is a home day for productivity, and then we enjoy one of our favorite summer traditions, which is Picnic in the Park.
I like to have some meals made in advance for the weekend, so I’m not having too think too hard about food on our Saturday Sabbath, and then we have freedom to work on projects on Sunday afternoon.
So Thursday I like to batch cook several dinners during the morning, and then we head to a park and meet up with several friends for a BYO dinner hang out.
Early Morning:
- Power Hour of Focus
Morning Time Block:
- Morning walk and the morning chores
- I cook while the kids play
Afternoon Time Block:
- Lunch and quiet rest
- Wrap up cooking and clean up the kitchen
- Pack up dinner for the park
- Tidy the house to prepare for a quick bedtime
Evening Time Block:
- Dinner with friends at the park
- Quick bedtime process once we get home
Fridays: Weekly Summer Routine House Clean + Hosting Friends or Family Game Night
Fridays are the day I clean our house so I can really relax during our Saturday Sabbath. Usually about every second Friday we have our friends, Jemima and Ewan, over for dinner. On the weeks they don’t come, we have been trying to integrate a family game night with our kids.
Early Morning:
- Power Hour of Focus
Morning Time Block:
- Morning walk and the morning chores
- Either errands, like the library and an Op Shop drop off, or a little more focus time on my blog while the kids play at home or with the neighbor kids, or a deep clean task
Afternoon Time Block:
- Lunch and quiet rest
- Clean the house
- Heat up dinner (usually I’ve made it the day before) and welcome our friends
Evening Time Block:
- Dinner with our friends, or a leisurely dinner with candles for our family
- After dinner walk with the kids
- Visiting with our friends, or card games with the kids
Saturdays: Weekly Summer Routine Sabbath + Family Time
Saturdays we try to keep our phones turned off and our computers shut down. During our weekly summer routine, we typically spend the majority of the day outside in our yard. We drag our dining room table outside, also, so we can eat our meals outside and keep the house a little cleaner for a little longer!
Early Morning:
- No Power Hour – we usually try to sleep in until the kids wake up!
- If I am awake early, I’ll go for a 3 mile (5k) walk
Morning Time Block:
- Gabe builds a fire in our fire dish in the driveway, and we snack on buttered toast and coffee while the kids draw chalk designs and climb trees
- I whip up Sheet Pan Swedish Pancakes and we eat it al fresco on the deck
- Card games or board games or readaloud time if the kids want it
Afternoon Time Block:
- Quiet rest time
- Pop popcorn and pack a few other snacks into the stroller
- 3 mile (5k) walk with the kids, snacks at the halfway point
- Come home to quickly heat a meal I prepped on Thursday
Evening Time Block:
- Card games or board games or readaloud time until bedtime
- I outline our menu for the week and make a plan with Gabe about how to use our Sunday afternoon
Sundays: Jump Start to the Week + Family Adventure During our Weekly Summer Routine
Sundays we go to church in the morning, but since getting four kids to church is not super restful, we decided awhile ago to use Sundays as a bonus productivity day after resting intentionally on Saturday. So our Sundays are sort of our “pre-launch” to the week.
Early Mornings:
- Power Hour of Focus
- If I didn’t walk the previous day, I’ll usually leave for a walk about when the kids wake up
Morning Time Block:
- Gabe calls his parents to video chat with them during or after breakfast
- I get myself and the kids ready for church
- We attend church and socialize for a little bit afterward
Afternoon Time Block:
- Lunch and quiet rest
- Gabe works on projects for his youtube channel while the kids nap
- I either make some breakfasts for the week, make up Monday and Tuesday’s dinners, or work on my blog
- About every 3rd week, we pack a simple picnic dinner and take the kids for a family hike
Evening Time Block:
- Tidy the house
- If we didn’t go on a family hike, we’ll do our normal after dinner walk
- Try to make bedtime happen at a normal time so we can start Monday on track!
Reflections on Living with a Simple, Weekly Summer Routine:
We have really enjoyed implementing this weekly summer routine in our home, and we feel like we are thriving this summer.
Of course, there have been some weeks that we are completely off our routine, such as our friend getaway with three other families, and the week we did swimming lessons every morning for the three older kids!
But those have been the exceptions of how our summer has unfolded, rather than the rule.
I believe having a simple weekly summer routine allows you to maintain balance, flow, and harmony in your family’s summer. It sets you up to live the summer you want to live with your kids.
And it doesn’t have to cost a fortune, your productivity, or your sanity!
And if you’re looking for ideas specific to keeping preschoolers entertained during some of those at-home blocks, check out 8 Screen-Free Activities for Preschool Age Children.
I hope this glimpse into a simple weekly summer routine of a family living a simple, intentional life at home has been helpful for you and given you some ideas of how to approach your own summer plans.
Let me know in the comments below what your summer has or is looking like! I’d love to hear from you.
