I was looking forward to this summer for a lot of reasons. I’ll share more in another post, but the big one was spending more intentional time with my kids, especially V, my older one. Playing more, doing things together, traveling. So I sat down and actually wrote down a list of things we could do, things V would genuinely enjoy, and thought – why not just build an app for it?
I’ve been having so much fun building things with Claude Code lately (I also built the DL 10k Challenge dashboard with it!), so this felt like a natural next step. Not just a note in my phone. An actual app – with a calendar, a progress bar, the whole thing. Something that would make me follow through.
Summer Activity Checklist
What It Actually Is
It’s a web app, hosted on our private free domain, so I can let V access it from my laptop without the need for a tablet or phone. (We don’t do tablets and keep screen time to only TV in our house, so this was a big win. That being said, you can build a fully custom app– with a checklist, worksheets, activity guides, whatever you need, and access it via tablet or website.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s inside the checklist I built-
📅 A Monthly Activity View
Activities are organized by month – June, July, and August. July is pretty light, we have a trip, and V has summer camps, but our June & August are packed with things we want to do as a family. Some are weekend activities, some are simple enough for a weekday afternoon.
Here are some ideas I added to our Summer checklist for June-
- Complete Day Out (planning to spend the entire day from morning to bedtime outdoors)
- Make popsicles at home (weekday evening activity)
- Beach Trip (weekend trip)
- Visit a theme park (weekend trip)
- Start a new Chapter Book (this will be during bedtime)
- Color the Pot & Plant (weekday evening activity)
- Coloring Day (he colors most mornings while I am working)
- Learn to do a headstand (a skill I wanted to add for him to work on all through the week)
- Learn a Shloka (also something we do at bedtime)
- Worksheets (reading /math work we do most evenings for 15 mins)
- Flashnight walk at night (we go for walks/bike rides in the evenings on days he doesn’t have evening classes)
🗓 Left-Side Calendar with Google Sync
On the left side of the app is a calendar. When I schedule an activity, I can schedule it in my Google Calendar by clicking the calendar button. That means it shows up alongside everything else – appointments, birthday parties, events, and our actual life. No separate system to maintain.
✏️ Easy Activity Management
The description panel lets me add a new activity, update the details, or delete one. It’s that simple, clean UI, I can edit on the fly on my phone if plans change.
📊 Chekcing off & Progress Bars (My Favorite Part)
I let my son check off the list once we complete something on my phone/laptop; he really enjoys it.
There’s a progress bar at the top of the whole checklist, plus one for each month. As we complete activities, the bars fill up.
I won’t lie – this is my favorite part. Seeing the smile on V’s face when that bar moves is all the motivation I need, actually, to follow through. It turns a vague intention into something real, something we can both see happening.
Want to Build Your Own?
If you want to create something similar, Claude Code is genuinely accessible even if you’ve never written a line of code. You can describe what you want, ask questions as you go, and build something that fits your family’s actual needs.
You’re not limited to just a checklist; you can build a whole learning app with worksheets, reading trackers, chore charts, and a recipe book with your kids. The possibilities are wide open.
I put together a step-by-step build guide if you want to make your own- download it at the end of this post.
How I Built It
- I used Claude Code inside VS Code- no prior coding experience needed
- Connected it to Vercel for free hosting
- Used Pexels for the activity cliparts to make it more fun for kids and adults as well ( I love it when the photo pops up as I add an activity)
- The whole thing syncs to Google Calendar
Want to build your own? I put together a full guide with the exact prompts I used -download it below, and you can have your own version up and running in an afternoon.
Checklist Board I’m Using for Daily Chores / Activities
For daily chores /activities I use this checklist board, V loves checking things off as he goes, that little sense of accomplishment keeps him motivated in a way I didn’t expect from something so simple.
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