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Preteen siblings Anders and Kari Brekke of Appleton use iPod Touches to keep track of their busy schedules, which include summer school, sports camps, practices and music lessons.

During the summer, Anders, a fourth-grader at Ferber Elementary School, and Kari, 11, a seventh-grader at Einstein Middle School, often are engaged in activities away from home from morning to night.

Anders, 10, has guitar lessons and basketball camp at the YMCA. Kari also plays basketball, along with piano and drums. Both children have soccer practices and games two to three times a week.

On most nights, however, regardless of how full their day has been — or what’s on their plate after dinner — their parents, Sandia and Jan Brekke, bring the family together to eat. Sharing mealtime is of utmost importance in the Brekke home.

“Throughout the year, our priority is trying to have dinner together,” said Sandia Brekke, an obstetrician-gynecologist at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton. “We love to grill and sit outside. We do attend enough events, mostly sporting events, as a family, but it’s still different than being at home and catching up with each other. We have a basket that we put electronics in for dinner. IPods, iPhones, Mom’s and Dad’s go in there, too, everybody, so no one is answering anything.”

The Brekkes are among Fox Valley families who are setting aside time in their full-to-bursting summer calendars to reconnect.

During the lazy-turned-crazy days of summer — when parents and children often are racing to work, ballgames and other seasonal activities, plus answering cellphones, text messages and emails 24/7 — putting a priority on family time can be a challenge, but it can be done.

“It’s finding things that are less stressful and making them part of the routine,” said Karen Dickrell, family living educator at Outagamie County University of Wisconsin-Extension. “Try and think of what you can do at home, like the stay-cations, of just appreciating what you have in your own backyard. It’s the idea of balancing out what is feasible for you.”