My summer self-sufficiency station

When they go several weeks, or even months, without having to do something, our children quickly lose their habits, and that's normal! Every time a new season arrives, we have to help them re-establish these good habits. Conclusion: Quebec parents are condemned to repeat themselves all their lives! Good news, visual cues can help you save your breath and your patience!

In this blog post, I suggest you set up a summer autonomy station to facilitate the integration of these small habits we want to see in our children during the warm season. The big advantage of the "good season" is that we can live outside, which allows us to have a clean and tidy house. Here, we even built an outdoor shower so that the children come in at the end of the day, all clean, with no more sand between their toes.

Before setting up this station, I made a list of what takes me the most time to do for the children, but I also noted the small irritants, those little things I repeat most often throughout the warm season.

Here's what it looked like:

• Applying sunscreen to them every morning
• Applying mosquito repellent to them as needed
• Ensuring they wear a hat, especially between 11 AM and 3 PM
• Ensuring they drink enough water
• Managing the 1001 trips in and out of the house without taking off their shoes and also without closing the door, bringing in an impressive amount of sand and mosquitoes each time.
• Answering "Mom, I'm hungry, when's snack time?" or "Mom, I'm thirsty, can I have some water?"

During the school year, I always have this small homework material bin, which is actually an IKEA cart. This small cart becomes useless in the summer. So I decided to transform it into a summer autonomy station. Since this small cart is on wheels, it easily moves from the vestibule to the patio. Here's what I put in it so that the children are as independent as possible, so I don't have to constantly supervise them or repeat 1000 times "close the door," "take off your shoes," "no, it's not snack time yet," "did you drink water," etc.

In my autonomy station, there is:

1- The largest size of sunscreen in the world, equipped with a pump (very important!), the "My Sunscreen Routine" poster and a Time Timer.

First step before going out: apply sunscreen. I laminated the "My Sunscreen Routine" poster and hung it on the cart. The older ones can do it themselves and sometimes help the younger ones when I'm busy. I added a Time Timer so they respect the 15 minutes of penetration before swimming.

2- A bottle of mosquito repellent

I put citronella mosquito repellent so that the younger ones can use it independently. For long walks in the forest, I'm the one who applies the mosquito repellent, the one with DEET to protect against ticks.

3- Everyone's caps, hats, and sunglasses

The caps are always in the same place and, most importantly, accessible without having to enter the house. When 11 AM strikes, everyone must have a hat on their head. I often put the older child in charge of watching the time and alerting the group.

4- Everyone's water bottles

In one of the baskets of my cart, there are everyone's water bottles. Often, I fill them halfway and place them in the freezer the night before. I fill the other half the same morning. This way, they always have cold water readily available. The idea is that they don't have to go inside every time they're thirsty. Every time they pass the cart, they should drink a little water. If in the evening I collect the water bottles and they are still full, I know they haven't drunk enough.

5- An AM snack and a PM snack

I buy snacks like soy sticks or corn and flaxseed crackers that I portion into small containers at the beginning of the week. In the morning, I place two per child in the bin of my autonomy station with the water bottles: one for the morning snack (10 AM) and another for the afternoon snack (3 PM). Again, this avoids the small back-and-forth trips into the house.

6- A watch (or a clock):

This allows them to see the time to know if dinner is approaching, if snack time has passed, etc.

The only reason left for them to go inside the house is to use the toilet. All I'd need is a chemical toilet outside! (No, I won't go that far!)

I love watching them organize themselves! It's not that I don't want to take care of it, but seeing the pride they feel in not needing me every second fills me with joy. Not only does it make daily life easier, but it literally changes their self-perception, seeing themselves as independent beings capable of organizing themselves.

To easily inventory what needs to be placed in your summer autonomy station and ensure nothing is missing, here is a small checklist to keep in your family organization binder! Would you rather have it always at hand, directly accessible on your cell phone? Get it for free on our Octave app!

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