Give your family command center a summer makeover with these summer planner printables.
Right before school started this year, I created a kids command center to help my twins prepare for their new routine. It worked out better than I ever imagined and was a total game changer for our family.
Today is my boys' last day of school and we're all excited for summer to start. To get us off on the right foot, I'm updating our family command center for our new summer schedule. Gone are the before and after school checklists, and they've been replaced by our summer bucket list. Plus everything else we need to have the best summer ever!
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A Summer Family Command Center
Why do we have a kids command center in the first place? You can read all my reasons here, but the main one is that I've discovered that my boys need visual reminders of the important parts of their day. We don't schedule our days down to the minute or even the hour, especially in summer. I believe in giving my boys free time to play, explore, and yes, even get bored.
But our days aren't a total free for all. We still have chores to accomplish and appointments to keep. By using the command center, we're able to manage all of it while still giving my kids a sense of independence about their time and encouraging them to make choices throughout the day. And we've added in quite a bit of summer fun too! Here's how we did it.
New to the kids command center? See how I created this area and get all your supplies here.
Summer Command Center Printables
Giving our family command center a summer makeover was easy thanks to our printable summer activity planner. I've used these pages for the past two years as a stand alone binder, but this year we are making them a part of our command center and it couldn't be a more perfect fit.
Keep in mind that you can mix and match these pages for the best fit for your family. You can also add in pages from our original kids command center (we LOVE the time clocks!) for even more customizing.
Inside the Summer Activity Planner, you'll find:
- Daily To Do List - let the kids help decide what they'd like to do each day, with spaces for their top 3 must dos (chores, appointments, etc.), ideas for when they are bored, and more.
- Weekly Planning Page - with spaces for daily chores, daily fun, and family fun night ideas, you'll be able to fill each day with a balance of things you need to get done and ways to hang out and have fun.
- Summer Bucket List - brainstorm everything that you want to do this summer! Include day trips, vacation ideas, backyard fun, and special treats too.
- Summer Reading List - track your summer reading progress or keep a running list for the library!
- Monthly Calendars for June, July, and August - keep track of the month at a glance so you don't miss important events like birthday parties, vacation days, sports games, and more!
$4.99
Turning the Summer Activity Planner into a family command center is easy. Just print out the pages that you want to use (I recommend printing on card stock) and laminate them. This way they are durable and can be used again and again with erasable marker.
Once your pages are laminated, you can easily clip them to your command center in the order that works best for you. We started ours with our daily to do list, weekly schedule, and summer bucket list pages.
Next we added our summer fun ideas list as inspiration for those "I'm bored moments." We also added our summer reading list with a basket of books underneath (this is a great spot to keep your library books!).
Finally, I included a special surprise: a book of Summer Fun Coupons that is included with our Summer Activity Planner. The book includes 18 coupons for fun summer treats like a trip to the movies, a sleepover, and ice cream outings. It's the perfect reward for summer chores, summer reading, or just because.
You can get all of these printables in one set with our Summer Activity Planner - simply click the button below to grab yours and start creating your family command center!
I love how this family command center has helped us to kick off our summer. Giving my boys visual cues for the things that they need to do each day helps them to get (and stay) in a routine, while our summer bucket and reading lists help them to make decisions about how to spend their free time. It's the perfect mix of routine and free play that gives us what we need for a balanced summer break.
Family Command Center Essentials
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