Okay, going to pause and interrupt the millions of blog posts I am behind on (okay, not millions. But 26. Grrrr. Will. Get. Caught. Up.) to write a quick overview of my thinking regarding summer planning this year. I take summer planning seriously. I kind of see it as my "homeschooling" portion of the year, the part where I am solely responsible for filling my kids day with fun, learning, and stimulation but also providing a restful break from the school year. The problem is that without some planning we could easily end up watching TV all summer OR running ourselves ragged doing far too many exhausting things.
So, factors influencing the plan this year:
- Jensen will be 4 months old the day school gets out, and is working towards a nice three naps a day schedule, just as he should at his age. If I am to honor those naps most days, we will have to be home far more than some summers and choose very close by adventures instead of far flung ones. There will be some exceptional days that he will end up napping on the go, but he's getting to the point that I want to let him nap in his bed and get on a real schedule.
- We have a one week vacation in the middle of July to UT/ID. It will be SUPER fun and likely SUPER exhausting, so usually the week after we get home is kind of a wash while we recover. We have two family reunions (both sides of my family), the 24th of July including a rodeo, and Jensen's baby blessing that week. It's going to be good, crazy fun.
- Lucky circumstances have combined and I will be in Utah the first week of summer break hanging out with my siblings and meeting our little brother as he returns home from a mission to Chile. CANNOT WAIT for that! It's really the first time I've gone away by myself in, well, ever. Since Daddy will be pulling double duty with all the big kids and trying to work from home, that week will likely be it's own brand of crazy. And I have some awesome friends taking the kids for whole chunks of their days which I appreciate more than words can say. So all of this really starts week 2, which is almost better. They'll have a week to just "be" and then Mom will come home and make them toe the line!
So, the first step for me is to get a rough schedule worked out. We don't stick to the schedule perfectly every day, or even nearly every day, but I like to have an ideal day mapped out. This year I really need to stick closer to the schedule in order to get this baby his sleep.
So here's our drill.
7:00 AM My kids are early risers. We've been working on the kids staying in bed or at least in their rooms until 7 AM during the school year. At 7 they come to our room for scriptures. We have a no TV in the morning policy on weekdays and we'll be keeping that over the summer. So, scriptures and family prayer on our bed at 7. I usually nurse the baby before or during scriptures.
7:30 AM Then Daddy gets ready for work and we're all going to throw on workout clothes (kids will likely look homeless most days) and go across the street to the track to excercise. I have been walking/running with the stroller and the big kids run and Maren plays in the dirt.
8:30 Home for morning routine: breakfast, wash up, clothes, teeth, hair.
9:00 Jensen nurse and nap. I will get a shower and some work time during this time. Kids will do their "must do" list. Must do's are : chores, a little reading, a little writing, a little math, a little piano. About 15 minutes of each. They will check them off on a chart; completed must do's are the ticket for screen time in the afternoon. More on this later.
10:30 Jensen awake; outings. Grocery, park, library, playgroups, whatever. We have about 2 hours.
12:30 Home, lunchtime, Jensen nurse and nap
1:00 Quiet time/Screen Time/Must Do's that didn't get did. :) If they're all up to speed they will likely fill this time with a combo of TV/Wii/iPad/Computer. Yes, this could be a full hour and a half of screens. Could be better, could be worse. Hopefully at least some of the time will be educational! This time will hopefully be productive time for me...hoping to pop in my earbuds and listen to podcasts while I do the house stuff that the kids don't help with. We'll see. NOTE: In past years I have often used quiet time for reading and books on tape and I still love that. But this year since they'll be doing reading time in the morning AND at bedtime, I'm not going to push for more. I think the older two will still self select some more reading in this time because they are both dedicated to getting a 100 Hour Reader shirt from the library. Aaaaanyway.
2:30 Choice time. Screens off. Go play. Work on goals. Get outside some more. Play in the sprinklers. Stuff. Summer. Baby will wake up and need to be fed again somewhere in here.
5:00 Dinner prep for me, 3rd short nap for the baby, kids do whatever
6:00 Dinner
6:30 Evening Routine. Evening jobs, baths as needed, pajamas, pick out books and music for bedtime, teeth, potty, family prayers, nurse the baby.
7:00-8:00 Bedtimes. Right now Maren gets stories and goes down around 7:00 and Patrick and Kennedy use the time to read alone or together or to play a quiet game. They both get read to together and get tucked in around 8. Jensen varies but goes to bed sometime during this hour as well.
So, there's the bones of the day. Of course things will go crazy all the time and ruin it, but there it is. :) Okay, about the must do's in the morning.
15 minutes of morning chores: they each have a kitchen job, a bathroom job, and their own bedroom and bed to make, and any clean laundry of their own to put away. All are hopefully age appropriate tasks and change as needed.
15 minutes of piano: practice time. I am resuming teaching the older two lessons after a LONG postpartum break. Lessons will likely be on Saturday morning and practice throughout the week.
15 minutes of reading: self reading time for the older two, books on tape or being read to by a sibling for Maren. They will keep running lists of books they want to read in their reader's notebooks and regularly put books on hold at the library, usually on Sunday afternoons. They can do this themselves with Patrick's help and then we just pick up a stack of books when we hit the library. It's awesome. The second section of the notebook is a log of books actually read, with a date of completion and a 1-5 star rating.
15 minutes of writing: two options here. The third section of the notebook is for book reports. If they love a books they can read or write a page summarizing the story as if they were sharing with a friend. The fourth section of the notebook is more of a traditional journal to write in.
15 minutes of math: brainstorming some options here, but they could do xtramath online, math workbooks, sumdog online. Something.
Anyway, my hope is that with scriptures, excercise, and the must do's all out of the way before 10:30 AM, even if the rest of the day goes completely off script we will have done some important things!
So, that's where I'm at. I have a scheduler up on the fridge. I have reader's notebooks prepped. I need to make a tracker sheet for a weeks' worth of must do's that they can tick off.
Oh, wait, the goals. We have loved taking the time to set summer goals with the kids and ourselves. It usually takes a slow Saturday morning or a couple of FHE's to do this right. Basically we talk about setting specific measurable goals and then help each kid set goals in the quadrants: spiritual, mental, physical and emotional or relationship. For example, last year one of Kennedy's spiritual goals was to memorize the first 4 articles of faith, one of Patirck's was to say personal prayers every morning and night. They could have a mental goal to master multiplication facts, or a physical goal to run two miles without stopping. I try really hard to guide them to attainable goals that are just right stretch so that they can taste some success. Each kid makes a poster of their goals with some system of marking them off as they are accomplished. I will admit to heavily influencing some of these goals sometimes. For example, I fully intend to try and get Patrick to set some language learning as a goal this summer, but I have to make sure he THINKS it's his idea! Haha! We try to do a midsummer review of goals and recommit ourselves and then have a big goal celebration at the end of summer (usually something we would have done anyway, like last year it was camping, but we told them it was a celebration of goals and that makes all the difference!).
All right, those are my ideas, mostly recycled from other people, if we're being honest. Tell me what you do. What are your summer plans? I love hearing how other families do things and sharing ideas. :)
