“Mom, can we watch TV?” I hear this question a lot during the summer months and, I don’t know about you, but it starts to wear me down. Usually I give in and then sometimes the entire day goes by and all we’ve done is watched show after show after show. Don’t get me wrong, we all need a lazy do-nothing-day here and there, but not an entire summer of those kind of days.

So when I saw someone post on Facebook a list of things their kids had to do before screen time, I thought, “brilliant!”  However, my graphic designer side had to make it pretty and I thought the list seemed a little long, I mean, it is summer, right?  I came up with an a la carte menu, so the kids have some autonomy over what they do.

It’s simple: they pick two things from Column A, two from Column B and one from Column C and then they can watch TV or play on the computer/ipad. It eliminates the need for whining (or at least lessens it).

So, I’m sharing it with you, my friends, so that hopefully our summers might be a little less whiny and a little more productive!

Summer Vacation Rules (PDF version)