Make your summer spreadsheet

An easy way to keep the season organized

I know I have readers in all different phases of life, and with all sorts of different family configurations. I try to make my tips broadly applicable, but today’s is aimed squarely at parents of multiple school-aged children. Create a “summer spreadsheet” — yes, now, in January — to document who is going where and when, and your summer will feel a lot more organized.

In many cases, kids are out of school for the summer. If school has been your default childcare, you’ll need to do something else with the kids during this time. But even if you have a full-time nanny who will be working over the summer, most likely at least some older children will want to attend various camps. You may have vacations or trips to coordinate. Few calendars are set up to present this information clearly.

Spreadsheets are amazing

When I found myself facing down this scenario for the first time about a decade ago, I decided to create what I started calling the Camp Spreadsheet.

This basic Excel file simply had the names of my kids across the top, and the weeks of summer down the left hand side. As I booked camps, or as I learned the dates for various events, I would fill these in.

This spreadsheet had several upsides. For instance, I could quickly see if one child’s summer had very little while another’s had a lot. I could also remind myself to be careful about how many different camps I signed kids up for on any given week. Two drop-offs is doable. Three is pretty hard to pull off, even with two drivers. If people insisted on those camps for those weeks, I’d probably need to sign someone up for before or after care. I could maintain a few open weeks if I thought something else would be happening then. Spreadsheets organize a lot of information quickly, and the camp spreadsheet is no different.

Now there are broader questions to be raised about why school is out over summer, or why one parent often seems to be organizing summer care even if both parents benefit. There are different conversations to be had about why one needs to construct this spreadsheet in January— but my experience is that a lot of popular camps book up and if you want to put in for time off at your job, doing this earlier tends to be better than doing it later. You will likely be thanking yourself, in June, that all this is set.

Start setting it up

But in any case, if you are in this scenario of planning care for school-aged kids, do yourself a favor and construct your summer spreadsheet this week. If you know your vacation days already, put those in. If you know regular occurrences (one of my kids often does a competition one week of the summer), put those in. Make sure you know what day school ends and what day it starts. Talk to your kids about their plans and look at any camps they’ve done in the past and want to do again. Show this spreadsheet to older children to remind them to look into opportunities.

This will have to be a living document. I’ve filled in my little kids’ summers already because some of their day camps fill up fast, and we got a big discount for signing up for a sleep-away camp early (this is my kid’s third year doing it, so that was a sure thing). My older children have not filled in all their weeks, but this is up to them. I simply want to show them the contours of the summer and then they can let me know their plans.

I find it very calming to know what summer will look like. To be sure, things can change (we’ve had camps cancel for low enrollment sometimes) but the upside of planning ahead is that you can pivot easily when things do change. If something cancels I’ll be able to easily see where the other kids are, and maybe try to slot that kid in for that camp. We shall see.

If you make a Camp Spreadsheet (or Summer Spreadsheet, or whatever you call it) please let me know! I’d love to hear about it.