Start summer strong with healthy habits for you kids! Awesome routines rule! Your child already is accustomed to morning and evening routines, from school schedules. Let those routines be the bookends for healthy summer habits, in the middle of the day, include all-natural cleaning chores and plenty of outdoor activities!
Here’s the rundown on the four healthy summer habits for kids. We’ll unpack them in more detail below.
1. Make a habit of keeping daily morning/evening routines.
2. Make a habit of cleanliness.
3. Make a habit of being outdoors.
4. Make a habit of being generous.
Let’s unpack these healthy summer habits for kids and get you off to a great summer break!
Make a habit of keeping daily morning & evening routines.
While your child was attending school, there was a time he/she needed to be up and ready to head out the door. Keep a consistent wake up/get up time as a healthy summer habit. Sure, it’s summer break (or about to be), so maybe rather than needing to be up by 7 am, your child could be up by 8 am. Whether you give a little more leeway for the wake up/get up time or not, what’s important is the consistent routine.
Apply the same consistency with your child’s evening routines. Although there can be a little more flexibility in the evening. Activities should be on the quieter side, so that there is sufficient winding down time before bed. Healthy bedtime habits in the summer months for your kids will go a long way to make a smooth transition come fall and the start of a new academic year.
Make a habit of cleanliness.
With more free time on their hands, children can do more to pitch in around the house and help to keep it clean and tidy. Create weekly household chores with eco-friendly cleaning products. This healthy summer habit for kids is an important adult skill. There are many chore charts available online if that would be a helpful tool. When doling out the chores, mix it up so that each child can experience doing a different household cleaning task. This will give each child skills in doing various cleaning tasks. Be proactive- give small rewards for chores completed. Some families give monetary rewards, others give rewards in more screen time, or time extra time doing something special that child likes. We all like to be rewarded for a “job well done,” your child is not different. If the job was not “well done,” then a consequence may be in order, remembering that this is a child and therefore, he/she is learning the healthy habits of household cleanliness.
An important habit of cleanliness is also the habit of choosing the right cleaners for the safety and protection of your household. Child-safe, non-toxic cleaners build confidence in cleaning for child and parent. Why? Parents can allow their children to use cleaning products to do household chores simply because the products themselves are safe! Brightly Green all-natural cleaners developed by a grandmother, you know has got to be safe!
A child’s healthy summer habit of cleanliness applies to deep cleaning the home. Get your children in on the task and have them help deep clean their bedrooms. If your child prefers lists which he/she can check off after completing; then create reasonable lists. Allow the child to help create the list. If a list overwhelms your child, simply give him/her one task to do and upon completing that task, give a small reward, then lay out the next task, whether it is for that same day or save the next task for the following day.
Deep cleaning (aka spring cleaning) tips for bedrooms:
- Declutter: details found under “Make a Habit of Being Generous.
- Clean:
Walls– use Brightly Green Multi-Purpose Cleaner. No rinsing necessary. Washing walls removes germs, grime, dirt and leaves the room smelling fresh and calming as Brightly Green’s Multi-Purpose Cleaner is infused with lavender essential oil; known for its calming and uplifting attributes.
Furniture– use Brightly Green Wood Floor Cleaner (stained wood furniture), or Brightly Green Multi-Purpose Cleaner for painted furniture. Wipe outside and inside of dressers. Wipe down headboards/footboards, and baseboards around floors
Floors- Wood flooring use Brightly Green Wood Floor Cleaner. Carpets, shampoo with Brightly Green Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner.
- Reset: Organize the clean room in a way that is functional and atheistically pleasing.
Make a Habit of Being Outdoors.
Fresh air is great for mental health as well as physical health, so being outdoors often is an awesome, healthy summer habit for kids! While some children can’t wait to get outside, other children would prefer to be inside. Those inside dwellers might need some nudging to get outdoors. Getting kids outside is a great way to get them off their screens. The research is out- excessive screen time is damaging to children mentally and physically. As a parent, you may need to set a timer for how long your inside dwellers need to be outside playing, reading a book, or playing in the sandbox.
I remember in my childhood days my mother would set a timer and tell my siblings and I that we had to be outside for an hour before we could come in the house. At first we thought we were going to be so bored, but amazingly, our brains are pretty good at coming up with creative activities, and before we knew it, the timer was off, and we ended up staying outside even longer!
Make being outdoors a healthy summer habit for your whole family, not just for the kids! Quality connection time with parents is vital for the well-being of children. Couple that with being outside together and you have an extra dose of health! Make regular habits to visit local parks, or even state/national parks this summer!
Make a Habit of Being Generous.
All of these healthy summer habits for kids do not have to start and end with the summer months and this final habit is no exception! Making the healthy summer habit of being generous is good for your child’s sense of well-being and good for others. There are so many, many ways to be generous. Generosity begins at home. As a parent, no doubt, you’ve demonstrated the habit of generosity from the day your child was born! You’ve modeled generosity, make this summer a summer where that habit is purposefully cultivated in your child.
Here are some tips on cultivating the healthy habit of being generous:
- Invite and teach your child (children) to help you prepare and serve the family dinner.
- Look for an elderly couple or individual on your street that could use some help with yard work. As a family, clean up their yard.
- Declutter: donate unused toys and outgrown clothing to a local charity. Involve your child in all aspects of the donation process, the gathering of the items to the delivery of the boxes.
- Brainstorm with your children how you, as a family, can be generous, then make your action plans to accomplish these generosity ideas.
This summer can be the beginning of new family traditions as you mindfully create healthy summer habits for your kids!
Enjoy the summer and make it a Brightly Green clean summer -inside and out!
