Helping Your Kids Make Summer Meaningful:

How will your kids spend their summer break from school? Will they laze around the house all day, glued to video games? Or will they make memories, learn new things, and become even closer to the rest of the family? The choice is up to you, and now is the time to give your kids the gift of a summer to remember. These tips will give you ideas of where to start:

Giving Your Kids A Summer To Remember:

1. Spend time with them

If your work schedule permits, make sure you spend time bonding with them, while squeezing in some of the fun you don’t have time for during the school year. For example,

Help them run their first lemonade stand
Take family hikes or bike rides together
Go on a road trip, take a family trip to the beach, or go camping for a weekend
Try out some new summertime recipes with them
Garden with them, or take them to pick berries or fruit at an orchard
Spend time at your local pool, wading pond, or splash pad
Check out as many new playgrounds as you can
Visit a zoo, farm, or a children’s/science museum in a new city
Plan a spa day with your daughter, and/or help her host a spa-themed sleepover

Consider setting aside one day a week for “special summer fun day,” so you can have time set aside for these special activities. And remember, bonding time doesn’t have to be big or expensive. The important part is creating new memories while spending time together.

RELATED POST: 55 Frugal & Free Summer Fun Ideas

RELATED POST: Your Summertime Rainy Day Cheat Sheet

2. Find their “perfect place”

Think back to your own childhood summers. What memories were most magical for you? For many adults in the U.S., summer camp ranks somewhere on that list. I sure feel that way about the summers I spent (first as a camper, later as a counselor) at Girl Scout resident camp. I know many others feel that way about Boy Scout camp, or church camp, or some other special place.

RELATED POST: 10 Tricks to Save on Summer Camp

RELATED POST: Is My Child Ready for Sleepaway Camp?

While summer camp is a key childhood memory for many of us as we grow up, its importance looms especially large for kids who, for whatever reason, are “different.” Maybe they’re academically gifted. Maybe they have a learning difference, or are differently-abled on a physical level. For these kids, finding the “perfect” summer camp for them, a place to get away from it all, can be a real lifeline.

3. Teach them essential skills

Summer is also a great time to learn some life skills, like how to make (and manage) money. or take on new responsibilities at home. They may not like this at first, but getting a head start on adult responsibilities while still at home with your parents will serve them well down the road.

For younger teenagers, it might simply involve paying them some extra pocket money for doing new chores around the home. If your child is old enough, you can encourage and/or help them to find a summer job. Summer work experience can help them learn both independence and responsibility while practicing financial skills and budgeting.
If your tweens (or even younger!) want to earn extra spending money, you can help them brainstorm ideas and even start their own business. It could be as simple as a lemonade stand, or cleaning and selling their old toys/clothes at a yard sale. Or it could be setting up a pet-sitting, babysitting, or plant-watering business for neighbors on vacation.
And starting your own business doesn’t have to be hard. My 7-year-old has always had an entrepreneurial bent; even when her older sister was 5, three-year-old Essie was the one doing most of the “selling” when she tagged along door-to-door as Kimmie and I sold Girl Scout cookies. Well, this past weekend, Essie decided she was going to sell bookmarks door-to-door; within an hour, she’d put her older sister and our twin 6-year-old neighbors to work, helping with the manufacturing and marketing. Much to everyone’s amazement, they made $17.60 for their afternoon’s efforts, which they divided evenly amongst themselves.

Are you ready to help your kids make summer meaningful? These tips will help you ensure that your children have a summer to remember. — The girls divvying up their proceeds from last weekend’s bookmark sales.

But making money and showing up aren’t the only important skills you can teach them over the summer. If you’re going to take a family trip by car, get out an old-fashioned road atlas and get your kids involved in the planning and navigating. They love being able to track your progress with a map, and get great satisfaction out of being able to do so. You can also have them help budget expenses for the trip, and/or track spending as you go.

RELATED POST: When Should You Teach Your Kid To Budget?

4. Give back

It’s also important to teach our kids that money isn’t the only thing worth working for. If you’re planning a family vacation, have you considered taking your kids on a volunteering trip or church mission trip? Having the chance to give back and help others can do so much more than build a child’s own self-esteem, compassion, and awareness. Such trips or events can also help your child gain some much-needed perspective and learn to think of others’ needs, instead of just their own.

The ability to help communities in need, help protect wildlife, or to otherwise give back to those in need is critical for building adults who seek to make the world a better place. If you want your kids to grow up into compassionate, charitable people with interests beyond themselves, there’s no better way, than to volunteer together. Even if you’re not up for a big volunteer vacation overseas, look for local volunteering efforts you can spend some time contributing to together.

As parents, it’s up to you to help your kids make the most of summer. So if you don’t want them spending their time indoors stuck in front of their devices, now’s the time to make those memory-building plans for a summer to remember.

If you enjoyed this post on giving your kids a summer to remember, why not share it with others by pinning this image?

NOTE: This site contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from any purchases made through affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. For more information, please read the full disclosure/privacy policy.