Don’t Let Your Summer Just Happen {Design the Best One Ever!}

Do you ever have those summers where you have so many new things you want to try but by the end of the summer you haven’t done anything? It’s never fun to feel like you’ve wasted the season where there tends to be more free time and have nothing to look back on to show for it. I’ve had summers disappear in a flash and, sadly, because I didn’t purpose to design my summer, the time was lost.

Purpose to Simply Design Your Holistic Summer

As you purpose to create your own holistic life. seasons can come and go quickly, so it’s important to take captive the season and make it the most enjoyable one ever! To do this, we find that, as a family, when we create our Ultimate Holistic Summer List, we are able to forge ahead in the season with enthusiasm, excitement, and lots to look forward to.

The list takes us as a family anywhere from a half hour to an hour to fill in and gets us really excited for the adventures that will {hopefully} happen during the summer. *That being said, don’t be a slave to the list. Just use it as a guide to be able to do the stuff you really want to do during the season.

What to Put on Your Holistic Summer List

While I can’t tell you exact items to put on your summer list because every family is different, I can share with you the best way to make your Ultimate Summer list Holistic!

Holistic means well-rounded and multi-faceted.

In our home, we like to make a list that has several sections in it. These sections incorporate all facets of a balanced lifestyle. We treat our summer list as family goals as well as individual goals.

The summer list sections we include are:

• Spiritual
• Intellectual
• Entertainment
• Self-Care

It’s amazing the power of having a visual list you can all see and activities to check off as they are completed.

Ideas for Each Section of Your Holistic Summer List

Even though some of these sections don’t exactly sound like summer fun, they are!

I’d like to share with you a short list of ideas that could go in each section of your Ultimate Holistic Summer List (UHSL). After you read these ideas, then it’s up to you to print your own UHSL and fill it in the perfect way that fits your family.

Ideas for Spiritual Summer Goals

The spiritual part of the list is meant to help you and your family purpose to grow in your faith, even during the summer.

• Pick a book of the Bible to read through as a family during the summer.
• Memorize 3-5 verses together as a family during the season.
• Keep a gratitude journal of ways God is working in your life, complete with praise reports and verses that inspire you.
• Go through a devotional book as a family through the summer, not forgetting to actually include your Bible during the time.
• If you’re musical, write a worship song as a family.
• Pick two or three character qualities like prudence, honesty, self-controlled, etc., to focus on as a family and, using a concordance, and word searches learn about each quality in depth. We personally love these Character Sketch Books (volume II, volume III) for this goal.

These are just examples, of course. The best part is that you can adjust these to meet your family’s goals and needs. Just fill in your personal list on the printable UHSL provided below.

Possible Intellectual Summer Goals

This section is meant to help your family grow their brains during the summer and not become stagnant!

• Purchase an inexpensive logic or activity puzzle book for each family member to complete during the summer.
• Choose two books to read aloud together during the summer. These three are some of our favorites because they’re well written and have great life lessons involved: One, Two, Three.
• Choose a skill individually or together to hone in on during the extra summer light. Maybe woodworking or archery?
• Learn how to play one or two new games. They can be board games, outdoor games or any other type. These are best if not on the screen. Two of our favorite games are this and this!
• Teach a cooking class for your family or attend one.
• Choose a topic individually or as a family that you want to research and learn more about.
• Research your family history and create a family crest together.

Personalize these ideas or come up with your own distinct ones that fit well with your family.

Possible Entertainment Summer Goals

This list is the easiest one to fill in! There’s a lot of fun to be had during summertime. It’s really important for your health to incorporate fun into your days and have lots of things to look forward to.

Here are some of the items we like to put into our entertainment section:

• Visit a waterpark. (Use essential oils to detox the nasty chlorine.)
• Have a backyard barbecue with friends
• Enjoy backyard pool time with friends.
• Eat Paleo smores.
• Have water balloon fights.
• Take some morning hikes to new places.
• Take some mountain biking trips as well as pretty, green meadow biking (to make mom happy).
• Have an entire day dedicated to board games complete with lots of whole food finger foods.
• Go camping.
• Create a chalk mural in your driveway.
• Go to the beach.
• Complete a 1000 piece puzzle.
• Make gummy Legos.

Possible Self-Care Summer Goals

Self-care is not to be dismissed during the summer. Actually, in every season it’s very important to prioritize this and create goals for taking care of ourselves.

For Kids: (I have boys so you’ll have to laugh with me on this)

• Learn to floss.
• Take a shower at least 5 times a week.
• Get outside at least once a day and play a sport, do lawn games, jump on the trampoline, etc.
• Keep screen time balanced and no screen time 2 hours before bed.
• Get at least eight hours of sleep a night.
• Do 25 things that make you laugh.

For Adults:

• Some of these are the same as the kid’s section like getting outside, screen time, sleep time and laughing. Additionally, here are some other ideas:
• Build in at least a half hour of downtime each day.
• Take an Epsom salt bath with essential oils 3 times a week (this one is for guys too!)
• Find and make 5 new, whole food recipes that make your body feel good.
• Oil pull 3 times a week.
• Try to go to bed and get up at the same time most days to help keep circadian rhythms in check.

Put Some of Your Holistic Summer List Items on the Calendar

• To get started creating your Ultimate Holistic Summer List you’ll first need to print out your list.
• Second, brainstorm individually and as a family what should appear in the spiritual, intellectual, entertainment and self-care sections.
• Third, write the agreed upon items on your Ultimate Holistic Summer List.
• Fourth, and most important, put the items that need scheduling on the calendar right away. Trust me, if you don’t they won’t happen. Summer whizzes by!
• Lastly, be sure to keep your Ultimate Holistic Summer List hung up in a prominent place where everyone can see it.

Get Your Ultimate Holistic Summer List {Worksheet}

Click here to get your printable Ultimate Holistic Summer List. 

Are You Ready to Design the Best Holistic Summer Ever?

I hope I have been able to help you to realize that a well-designed summer is one that you’ll look back on with fond memories and that’s it’s pretty simple to create a summer you love.

It’s important to think about the different areas of your summer that require purpose and intentionality so that your summer can truly be wonderful.

Take some time to sit down with your family and brainstorm spiritual, intellectual, entertainment and self-care goals for the summer. Fill out your worksheet and schedule the fun! Let me know how your summer goes in the comments down below.