With a little organization and planning, you can have a great summer!

The Busy Mom’s Guide to Summer Survival includes a variety of charts and checklists designed to help busy moms keep their kids and house in order this summer!

• By planning and using a daily and summer schedule, the kids will adjust to summer vacation with ease. Keeping them busy is essential to a smooth flowing day.
• Creating and following a weekly cleaning/jobs schedule, will ensure that your house stays clean and orderly (well as clean and orderly as a house with kids can be:) Kids of all ages can help with chores so mom is not overwhelmed.
• Also, the checklists will allow the kids to complete their jobs without mom having to stand over their shoulder! Yeah!
• You will have these checklists forever! You can save them to your computer and print them out to keep in your housework notebook or your Household Planner.

Busy Mom's Guide to Summer Survival

Click here for more details and to purchase the Busy Mom’s Guide to Summer Survival.

Other related Posts:

Moms, Are you Ready for Summer Vacation?

Summer Survival #1 ~ Tips for Maintaining Mom’s Sanity

Summer Survival #2 ~ Keeping the Kids in Order

Summer Survival #3 ~ Keeping the House in Order

Summer Survival #4 ~ Getting it Together & Organized

I had the great opportunity to chat with Cara at www.TheHouseholdHelper.com about the Busy Mom’s Guide to Summer Survival. She loved it and her favorite part was the Healthy Snack List which is now hanging on her fridge! We are giving away a free copy, follow the link below for details.

Click Here to Listen to Episode #25 – Mom’s Guide to Summer Survival and Frugal Family Outings.

Ok, it’s one of the first few days of summer vacation…

the kids are home, starting to get a little restless and you are scrambling for something to keep them occupied for 15 minutes!

If you don’t find something quick, they are going to start dragging out all of the blankets, pillows and towels they can find to make a fort!

Printable coloring pages to the rescue! I lined them up by the computer (4 kids 3yrs – 6yrs), they each got to choose something they would like to color. Spiderman? No Problem!

Type “spiderman coloring pages” into google search and presto! I know there are lots of great coloring page site out there, but I need spiderman now!

Next…

Hannah Montana? No Problem!

Please share your Summer Survival Quick Tips with us!

Now it’s time to get it all together and get it organized!

Some of your charts and lists can be kept in your Household Planner or in a folder or binder. Be sure to keep all of your originals in a safe place too, so you can use them again next summer!

Some of your charts and lists you will want to display in a place where the whole family can see and access them.

As you can see here, I have a narrow space in a hallway where I put up my Summer Survival cork board. I found the cork board for $10 at Menard’s, it was a generous sized 2.5 ft. x 4 ft, I did have to trim it, but it works great!

You can display whatever you want here; you may not need the same charts for your family as I need for mine. You can pick and choose what works best for you!

From top to bottom, here is what I have displayed:

• Things to Do this summer
• Older Kid’s Job Chart Calendar
• Healthy Snacks
• Weekly Summer Job Schedule
• Daily Schedule
• Healthy Snack Request List
• Detailed Job Descriptions (these are in page protectors so they can be used with dry erase markers and hanging on a tack)
• Summer 2009 Calendar
• Little Kid’s Job Charts

Good luck to you all in Surviving Summer Vacation this year!

And again, all of these templates can be found in The Busy Mom’s Guide to Summer Survival!

Please come back and share your stories with us:)

Here are some close up pics:

It’s impossible to follow them around all day long getting after them to pick up after themselves, plus that just makes mom extra irritated and stressed!

In order for your house to maintain some order this summer, you have got to have a game plan that you can stick to.

Tips for Keeping your House in order:

I’m sure your kids, like mine, are already accustomed to helping out and doing jobs around the house, but summer vacation is different. There are more kids and a much bigger mess!

Click the image to Download the Free Job List Template.

1.   Create a Job List

The kids can help out with the housework, start by creating a list (with the kids) of all the household jobs that need to be done daily, weekly and occasionally.

2.   Create a Weekly Job Schedule

Determine and record which days of the week specific jobs are to be done and keep this posted where everyone can see it.

3.   Assign Jobs

You can either let the kids choose their jobs or you assign age appropriate chores to the kids; these could rotate on a weekly basis or be permanent.

4.   Use Job Description Checklists

Create a checklist for each job. I tend to be very picky about doing good work, so I made up detailed job descriptions for each job. The checklists are easy to follow and a great way for the kids to do a good job without mom standing over their shoulder!

Detailed Job Description Sample

5.   Use Job Charts

Recording their jobs on job or chore charts can help keep them motivated, especially if they are earning wages on specific jobs they do. The little kids love to put stickers on their charts.

On a personal note…I like the idea of the kids earning money for their work.

I don’t pay for all jobs, some things you just have to do because you are part of the family! With the older kids we set a price for a specific job and when they complete that job they need to record it on their chore chart. Payday is Friday:)

This is harder to do with the younger kids, so I just set a specific weekly amount for them (my 6 year old gets $3 a week) and they can put stickers on their charts for their jobs. They are learning how the real world works and they have their own money (to save or spend) which means they don’t ask me for money!

The Busy Mom’s Guide to Summer Survival includes the following templates:

• Job List (pre-filled and blank)
• Weekly Summer Job Schedule
• Detailed Job Description Checklists for the Bathroom, Kitchen/Dining, Living Room, Dishes, Bedroom, Windows & Glass – Also includes a blank template
• Job Descriptions with Pictures for the Younger Kids – Also includes a blank template
• Summer Job Charts for Older Kids
• Summer Job Charts for Younger Kids

Hopefully you can use some of these tips to help you survive the summer!

What do you do to keep your house in order during summer vacation? Please Share:)