What Do SLPs do Over the Summer?

One of the perks of being a school-based SLP is the opportunity not to work over the summer. While I have worked the summers in the past, since having my daughter, I have chosen not to work regularly (I have done part time private practice, but haven’t in a couple years). This way, I’m not paying for childcare and get the added benefit of a lot of one on one time with her.

So what do we do over the summer? I’m going to tell you what I do!

1. I don’t set an alarm: Now, I have a toddler who is up usually by 6:30-7AM, but that’s sleeping in compared to my usual 5AM wake up call during the school year.

2. Make new products: I’m always thinking about my caseload and what activities I can make to engage them. This often leads to ideas for new products. I spend a considerable amount of time making and prepping these products to share with you all! I usually have 1-2 products in progress at any given time, depending on my level of motivation and creativity.

3. Prep/plan for the coming year: I’m also always thinking about how I can streamline planning for the next year. Since I’ve started planning by the month, it’s cut down significantly on the amount of time I spend planning, but I like to change up some of the activities from year to year. I will also use the time to prep materials that I purchase from other SLP sellers.

4. Relax and spend time with family: No summer would be complete without a large dose of this. We often travel to see family and try to take at least one vacation. This year, my husband and I took our first vacation by ourselves since I was pregnant with my daughter and it was glorious.

5. CEUs: I’m currently a member of www.speechpathology.com, but have also tried www.speechtherapypd.com (see this blog post for an explanation of both). Often during my daughter’s nap, I will listen to a course.

6. Eat lunch leisurely instead of inhaling it at my desk while doing Medicaid billing: This is something that’s SO nice. I even usually wait to eat until my daughter goes down for her nap, which means I’m usually blissfully enjoying some reality TV too.

7. Find things for my daughter to do: She does swim lessons for a couple weeks, but otherwise I’m always trying to find things for us to do outside the house that are not expensive and still fun!

What do you do over the summer?