It is finally the summer holidays and we are so excited! We aren't going overboard this summer with loads of activities every day, as the kids are so tired from a busy year at school. But we are going to have lots of fun and want to remember it all in years to come, so we are going to keep summer journals. In the past I have just bought the children a cute notebook and expected to be able to keep them motivated to write in it every day, which hasn't worked, so this year I was more prepared and had special notebooks ready for them.
I started with a plain notebook for each of them, the size to fit in a half a piece of paper (is that A5? All these years and I still haven't quite got my head around UK paper sizes). That way it is easy to stick in any of these print outs with just a bit of a trim. Then I decided on a few different sections that I wanted to include, and prepared my print outs.
This is where they can draw their own title page, then I have done a print out of a summer bucket list so that they can colour in or circle all of the activities that we do over the summer. There is also space for them to draw in any other activities that they would add to their own bucket list that I might have missed.
I've also made a days of the week inspiration list, so on the days that we have no plans we can look to our lists and follow a daily theme for ideas. So on a lazy Wednesday at home we could decide to follow a 'water play Wednesday' plan and get out the sprinkler for some water fun.
I really wanted journal pages with room to draw a picture and to do some writing. This way it is suitable for both Ethan and Ivy at their different ages and will suit the differing days as well.
I left room for the date, added little location pictures which they can circle based on if we're at home or on holiday or a day out, and also little pictures for the weather. Then there's space for them to draw a picture as well. This gets stuck on a page opposite a lined page where they can write about their day.
We love to read every day and over the school holidays we always have our daily Smoothies and Books session which we started last summer! Both of the children are doing really well with their reading, but it can be so easy to fall behind over the summer, so we are going to try very hard to keep reading every single day!
After the summer began I decided to add a section for movies as we were having such hot days and spending the afternoons indoors watching films. So just for fun we're keeping track of how many Disney movies we can watch this summer!
These journals are definitely a work in progress and I could see us adding a few more sections throughout the summer as well. What other sections would you include?
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I started with a plain notebook for each of them, the size to fit in a half a piece of paper (is that A5? All these years and I still haven't quite got my head around UK paper sizes). That way it is easy to stick in any of these print outs with just a bit of a trim. Then I decided on a few different sections that I wanted to include, and prepared my print outs.
Summer Activity Inspiration Section
This is where they can draw their own title page, then I have done a print out of a summer bucket list so that they can colour in or circle all of the activities that we do over the summer. There is also space for them to draw in any other activities that they would add to their own bucket list that I might have missed.
I've also made a days of the week inspiration list, so on the days that we have no plans we can look to our lists and follow a daily theme for ideas. So on a lazy Wednesday at home we could decide to follow a 'water play Wednesday' plan and get out the sprinkler for some water fun.
Daily Journals
I really wanted journal pages with room to draw a picture and to do some writing. This way it is suitable for both Ethan and Ivy at their different ages and will suit the differing days as well.
I left room for the date, added little location pictures which they can circle based on if we're at home or on holiday or a day out, and also little pictures for the weather. Then there's space for them to draw a picture as well. This gets stuck on a page opposite a lined page where they can write about their day.
Summer Reading Lists
We love to read every day and over the school holidays we always have our daily Smoothies and Books session which we started last summer! Both of the children are doing really well with their reading, but it can be so easy to fall behind over the summer, so we are going to try very hard to keep reading every single day!
Summer Movie Lists
After the summer began I decided to add a section for movies as we were having such hot days and spending the afternoons indoors watching films. So just for fun we're keeping track of how many Disney movies we can watch this summer!
These journals are definitely a work in progress and I could see us adding a few more sections throughout the summer as well. What other sections would you include?
For more fun, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest and sign up to receive our newsletter for regular updates!
Follow Play & Learn Everyday's board Play & Learn Everyday - Crafts and Activities from the Blog on Pinterest.
