Make a Flexible and Productive Summer Schedule
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Ah, summer. Sunshine, fun, and laid back days…. and boredom, fighting, summer learning loss. Combine the flexibility of summer with learning and accomplishment as you use my Summer Punch Card system for kids and teens. The best part? It’s a great way to earn electronic time or other rewards.
Save it for later, pin it now!
Each color on the punch card represents a different category. You can print out the one I use with my kids that breaks it down by school subjects and daily responsibilities or categorize them yourself. Each color has six boxes for six days of the week so you can keep Sunday a day of rest. Here are the categories we are using this summer:
Math, Science, and History
Art, Music, Typing, and English
Outdoor Fun (something to get them moving)
Daily Duties (daily chores and grooming)
Goal Progress (to encourage them in the Children and Youth Program)
Service
On the cards I use for my family, I have Art, Music, or Typing (AT) and English (E) every other day so they get three days of each. I did the same with Math (M) and Science or History (SH). The goal is to have some educational activities while having fun. I also chose categories that my 8-year-old, as well as my 16-year-old, could benefit from.
The beauty of the Summer Punch Card is the flexibility it allows while still requiring the same from each of my children. For example, my teens sleep in late while my younger ones wake up at the crack of dawn. They each can choose when and how they will accomplish activities in each category. And since we are marking things off by categories instead of specific activities, my 10-year-old can work on his rope climbing skills in the backyard while my 14-year-old can do softball training exercises.
Don’t worry, I made a list of activity ideas under each category to help your family jump into action. Summer learning is the best kind! You can work on your math skills while playing a favorite family board game or improve your English as you read a book in the hammock.
Why a punch card? It’s the perfect way to earn electronic time (or another reward). Choose how many categories must be punched in order to earn some time. Print your Summer Punch Cards to give some structure to your summer all while preserving the carefreeness that we love about summer.
P.S. Don’t want to print a card out every week of the summer? I laminated a card for each child instead (write their names on the back) and use stickers. You can peel off the stickers at the end of the week and use the cards again. We rotate between different colored stickers each week so it’s easy to tell if we forgot to remove some from the week before.
