Parenting Bloggers Share Tips On Keeping Kids Engaged During Summer

For most people, summer is the most anticipated season of the year; rightly so, what’s not to love about it?!

Especially for kids, summer usually means a break from school!

We’re excited to bring you this post because it covers a topic many parents are looking for answers to.

We wanted to put together a list of tips based on real-life experiences, and what better way to do that than to ask parents and hear what they have to say.

So to find out the best ways to keep kids engaged during the summer vacation period, we reached out to several parenting bloggers to find out their top tips.

We asked them, “What’s your #1 tip for keeping kids physically and mentally engaged during the summer vacation period?”

They took time out of their busy days and schedules to share their answers, and now we share them with all of you!

You can see what they had to say below!

Nicole Wears – Traveling Canucks

Connect with Nicole – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

Nicole is a wife, world traveler, and Mom to two young boys.

Together with her husband, she has been to 75 countries and territories  in the past 10 years.

She regularly blogs about travel stories and tips learned while balancing travel, work, and family, hoping that it will inspire you to travel more or help you plan that next big adventure you’ve been dreaming about.

Now that both our kids are school-aged, we carefully plan our summer to include several trips and activities to keep them engaged. We like to read a lot and work through exercises like spelling and math to keep up with academics.

In addition, we plan a trip for each weekend, where we go and do something new and fun. We also often plan a bigger vacation. This year we are going on an Alaskan Cruise.

Our kids go to daycare during the day, but we also send them to a day camp for a week (this year, they are doing a mountain camp), and they also go to their Oma and Opa’s for a week. Variety is our goal.

 

Debbie O’Connor – Mums the boss

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Debbie has been a stay-at-home mom for over 15 years. She’s a Mom to two teenagers.

She hopes to reach out to all moms with her blog, whatever you are the boss of.

I have two children with 2 years difference between them, so many activities we do in the summer are suitable for both of them. At the beginning of the holidays, we have a planning session, where we get to decide between us what we all want to do for the summer.

This is brainstorming, so it all goes down on paper, no matter how wacky. And I get to choose some things I want to do too, like having a garden tidying session, or filling some bags with rubbish from our bedrooms and taking them to the dump – also shopping for school uniforms, getting haircuts and going to the optician (joy of joys).

Then we put a list together, making sure we equally balance some things my daughter wants to do, some things my son really wants to do, and some things I want us to do. They get to see that not everything on the list is their favorite, but it’s still fair; they each get to do their favorite things, even if that is not the favorite of the others. Once we agree on a balanced mix of stuff, we pin the list up and see how much of it we can get done in six weeks.

 

Talya Stone – Motherhood the real deal

Connect with Tayla – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

Talya is a former Editor in Chief turned parenting blogger. She’s Mom of a six-year-old daughter.

Motherhood: The Real Deal is a digital parenting magazine that publishes honest parenting articles and interviews and curated lifestyle updates, including travel and leisure, health, beauty and wellbeing, and interiors.

Sit down and create a summer bucket list or a “Bored Jar” together. Fill up the list or jar with lots of different things they can do over the summer, making it a mix of fun, learning, things that help others, trips, and downtime.

That way, when your kids are hanging off you complaining about being bored, you’ll have something to direct them to. It tends to go down a lot better because a parent straight out makes suggestions of things to do, usually met with eye rolls!

Tanita Taylor – Just Motherhood

Connect with Tanita – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

Tanita is a mom to three children.

She regularly blogs about her family life and adventures. Just Motherhood is one of the Tots100 Top UK Parent blogs.

Lots of outdoor trips, we have a national trust membership which we make lots of use of.

We also do lots of bike rides and visit our local outdoor adventure parks like Bedgebury and Bewl water.

Kim Croisant – forever green Mom

Connect with Kim – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

Kim is grandmom to Brody, who she affectionately refers to as her little booger.

She regularly blogs about various health & wellness topics, eco-friendly options, family adventures & fun places to travel to – ALL of which can help you feel better and live the life you want!

Keeping kids engaged in nature and the outdoors is my favorite tip I like to give parents.

But my best tip would be to take time each day to have your kids read for 45 mins so they can keep up their reading skills.

It can be a book, magazine, or even a map.

Sarah Anguish – boo roo and tigger too

Connect with Sarah – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

Sarah is the Mom of three children.

She is an award-winning family lifestyle and top 10 UK parenting/mum blogger.

She blogs about sharing family life, home decor, travel, and everything in between.

Children tend to take more in when having fun, so we will set little challenges while enjoying days out.

From taking turns in map reading at an attraction to reading out signs and information boards.

Stefanie Cornwall – Making of a mom.

Connect with Stefanie – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

Stefanie is a wife & Mom to four cute kids.

She blogs to connect with other Moms and aspires to build a meaningful online community of strong, humble, intelligent, and amazing women and together share our journey day by day.

My best tip for keeping kids physically and mentally engaged during summer break is to keep a routine. At our house, we have a daily checklist of what each child must do. I believe children function best when they have a routine and anticipate what will happen daily.

When you start your day being active and with goals in mind, that mindset will continue throughout the day. That includes an hour of reading, two pages from their workbooks, practicing their musical instrument, an hour of outdoor play, and one chore. Once these things are completed, they are free to do whatever activities they wish.

Wrapping things up

So there you have it, folks, some truly excellent tips and advice from wonderful parents.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and found something valuable for yourself.

Finally, we’d like to say a huge thank you to all the bloggers above that took the time to contribute.

I would love what you think about their answers, whether you agree with them or not!