Free Printable Family Planner for Your Smoothest Summer Yet

Sharing is caring!

Are you looking for some ways to make the most of your summer, keep things easy and running smoothly, while enjoying a relaxed pace? Here is a summer family planner free printable to help you stay organized and take the guesswork out of where to put your energy! Free 15-page PDF download!

A Summer with a Plan (ner): Why Use a Summer Family Planner

On paper, I love the idea of an easy, breezy summer. But in reality, I sometimes feel a bit aimless and lost.

Remember that analogy about the kid who has too much freedom and feels antsy and discontent? Well, that’s me without a summer plan.

A summer planner provides just a little bit of guidance and structure, without being overly rigid and inflexible. 

It can also help re-direct my kids when the ‘I’m bored’s start (which is pretty early on, for us).

And if you’re anything like me, I’m super-indecisive. The thought of so many days to fill, so many activities to choose, makes me feel low-grade stress but on a pretty constant basis.

With a planner, I take some time to jot down thought, ideas, and plans ahead of time, removing the stress of deciding in the moment.

It also helps me to prepare ahead of time for whatever it is I’ve planned – whether that’s making some purchases or gathering information or getting materials together.

I’m excited to share you with you what I’ve come up with!

What Makes a Quality Functional Summer Family Planner

The definition of a good family planner is going to differ from person to person. I tried to create the one I’m sharing today based on what I think would be most helpful for most families. 

In my opinion, you’d want monthly calendars, weekly calendars, daily calendars, activity ideas, planning pages, and brainstorming lists. 

I put all of them in my planner, and today, I’d love to highlight some of that and give you some tips for using it.

Best part is that it’s free.!

You can get it all – 15 pages – for free by filling out the box at the very end of the post!

What You’ll Get in This Summer Family Planner

Let me highlight just a bit of what you’ll get in the download.

Monthly Calendars

Included are blank monthly calendars for June, July, and August. The calendars are blank, without numbers, so you can print these off year after year. 

I like a calendar like this because it’s easy to hang on the fridge or a bulletin board, even if you have another monthly calendar you use all year long.

Or, you can print off one for each kid or use this one just for the kids or summer activities.

Each month, fill in the dates that are already scheduled, such as vacations, play dates, dentist visits, etc.

Activity Ideas

I’ve created several categories of brainstorming lists for the summer. These are not meant to be burdensome – just a place where you can list off ideas and check them off as you get done.

(The above picture shows the lists with bullet points. I updated the files after I printed them out, and your version will have square checkmark boxes instead of bullet points!

In a bit, I’ll tell you specifically how I like to use them!

Included here you’ll get checklists for:

Reading List

Use for you or the kids!

Family Activities 

I like to use this one as a brainstorming list of places to go and things to do.  It serves more as an idea list for when we are looking to plan our calendar.

If you need some ideas, here’s a post with 50 staycation ideas that I’m sure you’ll family will love. You can put these ideas on this list or on the Bucket List below.

Bucket List

To me, the Bucket List are the top priorities that we want to fit into our summer. This Summer Bucket List (which also comes with a free printable) has ides you may want to include on this list or on the Family Activities list above.

Project List

I like to use this one for projects around the house or things we need to get done – such as going through our summer clothes, giving away toys, repainting the kitchen. 

In my mind, it’s more long-term projects that can be done any time through the summer.

You can print a separate one for each family member or just have one family list.

To-Do Task List

I use this planner a little differently than the previous Project List page.

For the to-do task list, I use it more along the lines of things like phone calls I need to make, bills to pay, errands I need to run. 

This is more of the ‘business-end’ of running the house, the more immediate things you need to do within the next week or two.

However, you’re always feel free to use it how you like!

Alone Activities

This one is for you, Mama! What are something you were hoping to do this summer – just you? A manicure? A morning bike ride? Coffee with a friend? Here’s a space where you can brainstorm some activities just for you.

Home Activity Ideas

Just want some lazy days at home? I hope the answer is yes! On this list, you can brainstorm activities to do when they are ‘bored’ at home. 

Hint: You can take a look at this post with 70 activities you can do while you’re at home, both indoor and outdoor. Choose the ones you like best!

Trackers

Even though summer is loose and casual, I think it’s important to work in some disciplines as well.

To that end, I included these 2: 

Habit Tracker

There are several habits I’m tracking this summer… 10,000 steps, healthy eating, Bible reading.

I’ve really gotten into using a tracker not just as motivation to do the task, but also to just see progress over a week period!

This can be used for several family members on one page – just leave a space between the habits.

Or, because this tracker has 18 lines, you can list of up to 4 habits, 4 times on this one sheet, so you can track 4 weeks at a time!

Chore Chart

I’m also a fan of wanting the kids to be contributors and get some discipline, too. Here you can write their chores and keep track, especially if they’re earning screen time or an allowance.

Also, I think you can use this chart to track ‘non-traditional’ chores such as 30 minutes of reading or a math worksheet. It’s probably a chore to them, lol.

Weekly and Daily Planners

Here, you’ll have sheets for a weekly plan as well as a daily plan.

If a daily planner feels like too much for you, I included a Daily Routine page. It’s a little looser and works well if your days often look the same.

All of these pages are used in conjunction with all the previous pages, as I’ll explain below.

How I Use and Fill Out the Summer Family Planner

As I mentioned before, I like to use the first set of pages  – all those lists – to help me create my other planner pages.

I like to move from big to small here.

Here’s an example.

1| First, I’ll also consult my monthly calendar where I put down some of the other major family activities and appointments, and fill those in on my weekly calendar.

2| Then, I’ll take out some of my lists… the To-Do List, Family Activities, Bucket List, Alone Activities.

I’ll see if there’s anything I want get done that week and schedule those in for the week.

At the top, I’ll put my priorities for the week… what are the important things I want or need to get done?

It could be a project around the house, phone calls I need to make, shopping for new sneakers for the boys – whatever.

I personally like to leave gaps and not overschedule. To me, that’s the beauty of summer, right? Having really big margins in your day.

There’s space on weekly planning sheet for other notes, reminders, or to-do lists.

3| Once my weekly calendar is done, I’ll take the daily calendar out each evening and fill that in, based on the weekly calendar.

There’s a space for daily priorities as well as meals, and a section for each part of the day.

Including times felt too rigid, so here, you can just loosely plan your morning, afternoon, and evening.

If a daily planner feels like too much detail for you, just use the Daily Routine page! This works well if your days are typically the same or what it might look like if your family is spending the day at home.

For example, your morning might have exercise, morning reading, or screen time.

Your afternoons might be pool time, nap time, crafts with the kids, trip to the playground.

Your evening might be a family devotion or activity, free time, and your bedtime routines.

It’s a little less redundant than a daily planner, if your days often look the same.

In total, you have 15 pages to use! Use them all, use a few, use just one – whatever works for you!

Make the Most of Summer with a Little Planning

There were years when my sons were little where I felt very overwhelmed by the idea of planning a full summer, where I felt like a camp counselor who needed to have a new activity every day.

To be honest, when they were small, I needed to get out of the house because the days were soooo long at home.

At that time, I needed a summer schedule that had daily themes and was a little more structured, because they needed so much more guidance.

They are 8 years old now, and we can be a little looser and less structured as they are more independent.

This planner is designed to be used in whatever way will help you the most, in whatever stage of motherhood you find yourself. I hope it’s something that will be useful to you year after year!

Don’t forget to download your free summer family planner! Just fill out the box below!

 

If you need a planner that is a full year planner for just about everything, be sure to check out this classy minimalist full planner with montly, weekly, daily calendar & so much more!

If you use any of these ideas, I’d love to see it! Tag me on Instagram @100affections, and I’ll share it in my stories!

Other thoughts? I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below!