Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to organize your summer with a summer spreadsheet.
Speaker 1: By figuring out who will be doing what during each
Speaker 1: summer week, you can plan a more fun summer for
Speaker 1: your entire household. I have five children. As long time
Speaker 1: listeners know, we employ a full time nanny, but she's
Speaker 1: generally focused on the baby, and with my husband and
Speaker 1: I both working from home, it's good to get the
Speaker 1: big kids out during the day, and so figuring out
Speaker 1: how my school aged kids will spend their summers is
Speaker 1: always a big project. For starters. Some of their schools
Speaker 1: d at different times in June. Everyone has their own interests,
Speaker 1: which means that they want to do different camps in
Speaker 1: our area. My husband and I want to take some
Speaker 1: time off work for family vacations, and I like to
Speaker 1: do what I call mommy days, one on one days
Speaker 1: with each of my kids too. Keeping track of all
Speaker 1: these dates is far more than my brain can handle,
Speaker 1: and it's also hard to see everything and plan everything
Speaker 1: when I'm just looking at my week by week calendar
Speaker 1: as well. So a few years ago, I began creating
Speaker 1: what I called the camp spreadsheet. I sometimes still call
Speaker 1: it that are just referred to it as the summer spreadsheet.
Speaker 1: I put each child's name in a box across the top.
Speaker 1: I put the weeks of summer down the left hand side,
Speaker 1: starting from when the first child's school ends and going
Speaker 1: to our school district's post Labor Day start. I mark
Speaker 1: our vacations, and I have the kids go through the
Speaker 1: camp brochures and choose what weeks they'd like to go where.
Speaker 1: Then I do my mommy triage work and do my
Speaker 1: best to ensure that these weeks overlap. If you would
Speaker 1: like to go to theater camp and your sister also
Speaker 1: wants to go to theater camp, well you will be
Speaker 1: going to theater camp at the same time. I try
Speaker 1: not to have more than two different camps going on
Speaker 1: in any given week, because I have learned the hard
Speaker 1: way that all camps start at nine am. Even if
Speaker 1: I have two drivers, it's hard to go for different places.
Speaker 1: The upside of doing this is that I can see
Speaker 1: at a glance who is doing what when. I can
Speaker 1: see if some weeks are getting full. I can see
Speaker 1: if one child is doing less than other children and
Speaker 1: needs to be nudged to figure out something else for
Speaker 1: the summer that's more edifying than watching videos all day.
Speaker 1: That is, attending what I call camp YouTube. I can
Speaker 1: also aim to have each kid have a week off
Speaker 1: here or there during which we can do our mommy days. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is a fair amount of work, and sometimes the
Speaker 1: work is for not like during summer when all the
Speaker 1: camps I had carefully selected wound up canceled. However, in general,
Speaker 1: creating the summer spreadsheet lets me look at the summer holistically.
Speaker 1: I can see at a glance what the summer will
Speaker 1: look like, and by taking time in the first quarter
Speaker 1: of the year to do this, I am almost guaranteed
Speaker 1: to get spots at the camps I want. Often, I
Speaker 1: get an early bird discount, and I'm generally able to
Speaker 1: book summer vacation spots too. Now, I am guessing that
Speaker 1: most listeners don't have five children, But if you have
Speaker 1: more than one and you live somewhere where there isn't
Speaker 1: year round school, then I heartily recommend creating a summer spreadshee.
Speaker 1: This can help you and other family members get organized
Speaker 1: around vacations as well. You might decide to take a
Speaker 1: personal day here and there to hang out with kids individually,
Speaker 1: or you and your partner might see when you need
Speaker 1: to split kid coverage or when you have kid coverage.
Speaker 1: And maybe the two of you could even take a
Speaker 1: during the week mini vacation, a day trip somewhere during
Speaker 1: camp hours. How nice would that be. I know that
Speaker 1: the words summer and spreadsheet don't seem like they would
Speaker 1: go together, but you know what, I take my family's
Speaker 1: fun seriously, so I have made another summer spreadsheet for
Speaker 1: this year, and I encourage you to try it too.
Speaker 1: You will feel far more organized about the summer, and
Speaker 1: your family will know that there is some serious fun
Speaker 1: coming up in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: I look forward to Staying in Touch Before Breakfast is
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