School’s out… fooorrr the summerrrrrr!!!
Finally.
No more back-to-back sporting events.
No more homework.
No more concerts, recitals, or showcases.
No more birthday parties or end-of-year chaos.
No more limbo about what next school year might look like.
Just. Simple. Summer.
Camp. Beach. Repeat. That’s our rhythm—and I love it.
Because summer is a simpler season for us, I finally feel like I have the bandwidth (and let’s be honest, the patience) to focus on some bigger life skills.
Enter: Mom’s Summer Life Skills Camp! 🎉
This tradition started unintentionally during the COVID summer. That year, I had the kids help more in the kitchen, and pretty soon they were alternating weeks cooking dinner. We kept it going (somewhat inconsistently) over the years.
The next summer? Laundry.
Yes—I still sort whites, pastels, medium darks, darks, and reds. (Don’t @ me.)
My son learned how to run the washer and dryer. I still mostly do the laundry since I work from home and batch it all in one day, but folding and putting away? Maybe next summer.
The summer after that, the focus was folding pajamas and putting them away—instead of throwing them willy-nilly across the bedroom. My son caught on. My daughter… not so much. Pick your battles, right?
Last summer, I finally cracked down and said, “You will learn to type properly.”
Ten minutes a day—just one lesson or more. Begrudgingly, he stuck with it and is now a decent typist. If I catch him hunting and pecking, I threaten him with restarting the program. Works like a charm.
This spring, though, I had a realization: I need his help cooking.
Two kids. Two schedules. Zero time for me to make dinner, let alone have everyone sit down together. One night, I handed off the cooking to him. He shoved some marinated chicken and broccoli in the oven, made some rice—and it turned out great! I’m not asking for Michelin stars here.
Then, not long ago, he came to me and said, “I know what I want to work on this summer: cooking and Spanish.”
I was thrilled.
A friend of mine once told me her son had five meals he could cook on his own. So I challenged my son to do the same. Here’s what he came up with:
- Hamburgers
- Chicken cutlets (+ Chicken Parm for the adults)
- Hamburger Helper (from scratch, not the box)
- Meatballs
- Chicken: wings and/or marinated chicken breasts
The plan: he’ll cook one dinner a week.
Eventually, I want to pass off the shopping too—checking what we already have, making a list, finding the ingredients, checking out, paying. All of it.
As for Spanish? We downloaded Duolingo. He started using it a month ago and told me, “I’ve learned more from this in a month than I did in a year of Spanish class at school.”
Self-motivation is magic.
So, in this slower season…
What can you work on with your kids?
What can you teach them that their school year pace doesn’t allow time for?
I’d love to hear—share in the comments!
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