By Caroline Oas
Happy May! Cue longer, sunnier days, building excitement about the end of the school year, a crazy season of final concerts, games, and graduations, and of course, cue summer! While this change in season often brings about a feeling of long-awaited joy and freedom for the school-aged children in our lives, families can often feel thrust into three months of rapidly-changing routines, camps and activities, and a daily family rhythm that feels entirely new. How do you handle all these changes while keeping your cool and even, perhaps, feeling more connected as a family? Let’s talk about it!
First, and often most noticeable: In this transition to summer, kids are going from a daily routine of an early wake up, getting ready, and out the door to school to an opportunity to sleep in later – sometimes much later. As amazing as this sounds – more sleep for the kids, more time to drink your coffee while it’s hot in the morning as a parent – this can often lead to a new routine involving staying up half the night and sleeping in half the day, particularly for our middle and high schoolers. Consider keeping a routine on your weekday mornings. While they may not need to wake up as early as the school year, an 8 a.m. wake up followed by breakfast, hygiene routine and morning activity (reading, exercise, a creative outlet) creates a predictability that kids need and will make the transition back into the school year that much easier this fall.
Creating a new routine in the summer will also push you to set certain expectations with your family. While it might seem logical to just let things happen and change as they will, sitting down and deliberately choosing expectations for your family will set you up for success. Consider talking through these questions with your spouse or parenting partner:
- How much screen time do we feel comfortable with per day for our kids this summer? How will we enforce this?
- What is something we want to make sure happens once a day, week or month this summer? (i.e. going to the pool, visiting with grandparents, overnight camping)
- What do we want the “theme” of this summer to be? Adventure, connection, growth, learning?
Once you’ve answered these questions, try sitting down with your family for a pre-summer meeting to share these expectations. If you have teenagers, they could also be a part of the conversation to help form these expectations, creating more buy-in.
The summer season also presents a unique opportunity to create new rhythms that lead to spiritual growth for your family. While the school year often includes after-school activities and sports that can last until the sun sets, the openness of summer days allows for more spiritual exploration. What can your family do this summer to grow in your faith together? Maybe it’s a weekly prayer walk in your favorite park, where you take turns naming people in your world who you’d like to lift up to God. It could be a wall or poster of God-sightings in your home, where each day every family member adds a sticky note showing where they saw God that day.
The freedom that naturally comes with summer provides space for your kids to ask the big questions, too. A perfect place for them to explore and grow deeper in their relationship with God is with us at camp! As either a camper or a Teen Staffer, your child will experience thoughtful spiritual formation, welcoming community, and a safe place to ask those big God-sized questions.
So whether you have a kindergartener or high schoolers, know that you’re entering a season rich with opportunity. Here’s to making the most of it!
About Caroline Oas: Caroline is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) at Youthfront’s affiliate, Presence-Centered Counseling specializing in Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) with children aged 4-10. She holds a Certificate in Play Therapy from MNU. Caroline also works with teenagers using a person-centered approach and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques. She is passionate about working with young people and helping them find inner healing and purpose. Caroline is currently accepting new clients. In addition to her work, Caroline is a wife to Kinzie, mom to baby Josephine, and dog mom to Winnie and Oliver. She is a Dunkin Donuts enthusiast and follower of Jesus.
