School is officially out in most parts of the country, and that means that your kids will now be home for the summer! It’s a great, fun time of year for moms, but it can also be complicated if you work from home.

Since your work life is very closely connected to your home life – quite literally! – it helps to have  a plan in place to keep kids busy and juggle the demands of kids and work.

Plan ahead

You can prevent a lot of chaos and stressful days by doing some simple planning head! Begin your search earlier in the year, and now if you haven’t started yet.

Are your kids interested in summer camps? Some type of swim or tennis lessons?  Get together with them and schedule a time to discuss what they’d like to do this summer.  Although summer is a more spontaneous time of year, it doesn’t mean you can’t plan and make everyone’s time more efficient and productive.

Look into your local colleges or schools for free or inexpensive classes and discovery sessions of various activities.  There are also inexpensive sports leagues that only take place in the summer and often run for most of the day.  If your kids are older, talk with them about potentially getting a summer job or scheduling some activities they may enjoy.

Work ahead

Just as you can plan your kids’ activities ahead of time, you can do your best to get some work done ahead of time.  Determine the time(s) of the week that you’ll be spending time with your kids over the summer break and work around that.  If you know Monday mornings are your time to hit the pool or an activity together, put in a little bit of extra time on Friday to make your morning less stressful.

Another helpful tactic is to add 15-20 minutes per day so that you don’t have to spend hours at the end of the week working ahead.  If you dedicate a small portion of your week to this every single day, it’s not overwhelming and can truly give you that free time that you so desire with your kids.

Allow for some space

Despite your best planning, things don’t always go as planned in the summer.  Whether a storm comes up that cancels swim practice, or you have to reschedule a call to pick up your kids in the middle of the day, it’s important to allow some space for the unexpected.

This can’t really be planned for, but by working ahead as in the aforementioned tip above, you can be much more prepared for those unexpected times.  Another way to allow space is to be sure that your kids understand your job, and that it requires you to work during most of the day.  This is much more effective for those with older kids, as they’ll be able to entertain themselves.  Create times of the day where you can do things together or offer a ride, but let it be known that you are working and you do have tasks that need to be accomplished.

When you allow for some space, keep in mind that schedule is always the #1 tip to keep things under control and juggle it all.  Create a family schedule that everyone can see, along with a personal work schedule so you know you’re completing all of your work task