The weather here has been so incredibly nice - a full 20 degrees below where it was this time last year. We have been enjoying every minute of it.
Dance party is at my house tomorrow night at 8:30 come if you can. I will be making mint Oreo truffles. Yum.
I am looking forward to a loosely structured summer with flexibility to sleep in or take a nap as needed. But we will still be reading and learning and moving. I will give you a peek at our rough draft of a daily schedule. I will have a schedule for each day of the week printed up and somethings will be moved to make room for piano lessons, swimming lessons, viola and violin lessons, art classes, weekly trips to the library and maybe a zumba class I might try to persuade Sabrina and Annie to take with me. ;)
But here is what I have so far:
Morning Chores: MUST BE DONE BY 10 A.M. if finished before you get free time.
Upstairs: Morning Prayers – Potty – Shower – Get Dressed – Brush Hair
Clean Room – Make Bed
Downstairs:
Eat Breakfast - Brush Teeth
Read Scriptures as a Family – Family Prayer
Clean up Breakfast mess
Unload Dishwasher
10:00 am Sabrina Practice Piano – Annie Typing – Lauren Practice Dance
10:30 am Sabrina Practice Typing – Annie Practice Piano – Lauren Computer
11:00 am Sabrina Practice Viola – Free time Annie and Lauren
11:30 am Annie Practice Violin – Free time Sabrina and Lauren
12:00 pm Lunch
12:30 pm Noble Nap – Family Chore
2:30 pm Reading Hour
3:30 pm Exercise (Wii – Swim - pilates - treadmill)
4:00 pm Cooking Class (make dinner)
5:00 pm Eat Dinner
5:30 pm Math Facts Quiz Annie and Sabrina / Sight word quiz Lauren
6:00 pm Free time
7:30 pm Clean up downstairs kitchen and family room
8:00 pm Ready for bed
8:30 pm Lights out
I also have started a list of fun things to do in our "free time." I will post it in one of my upcoming posts. What do you have planned for summer?
18 comments:
Nothing like complete control:0) My children would have a fit if I did this..summer at our house is pretty spontaneous, try not to have a rigid schedule.. as we have to do that during the school year. We discuss our day at breakfast and the children love having input about what we will do..the days that are best..the days we just hang out. They still have to do their daily chores..other than that..we are free as the breeze:-)
Sounds like a great schedule....I struggle with having my kids do their chores in the morning when the weather isn't so hot. I have been toying with moving their chores to the afternoon when it is 112 outside! Perhaps you need to add to your summer plans a trip to St. Goerge, The little Mermaid is playing and I know you girls would love it! I also know of a free place to stay *hint, hint*. Maybe make it a getaway with Marleen and the girls?
Please tell me you don't have every day this tightly scheduled. Take some time to just veg out and do nothing.
Actually by nature I am a HIGHLY unstructured person. If I didn't do up a schedule like this, my family would probably do nothing but sit around and watch tv, play wii, and fight all summer (oh and say "I'm bored.")
I know that many of these activities will take less time than they are allotted. I anticipate that the schedule will be adjusting to be more realistic on the timing once we get into it. And each day of the week is a little different based on different activities I have signed us up to do.
But being this rigidly scheduled on paper helps keep me on track to making our days more fun and productive at the same time. I used to do this when the kids were little and had no "schedule" because they had no school. It really helped make everyone happier and always kept us from being bored. I hope this will do the same.
My knee jerk reaction is that this schedule screams mother of the year role. From the outside looking in it is classic little kid world. To label dinner as a cooking class is the perfect example. To label and organize all of these activities is to convince yourself that you have everything together as a mom. It just appears a bit too much on the end of the perfect mom spectrum. I'm sure in the home it doesn't come off like that.
We have a tendency to be too laid back during Summer too. I've wanted to make sure the kids get in reading time and practicing time, in addition to the fun stuff that is important too. I like the idea of scheduling things in to make it more likely that it will actually happen. :) Thanks for sharing.
This is such a great plan! Kids really do better when they know what to expect next. It would cut the fighting between siblings down in my house by a lot! I will be copying you and making a schedule. Unfortunately, we still have school until the 24th!
Relax! Summer is about sleeping in, and in our home-no schedule. SOOO much more fun and makes for much more room to explore and learn. Not all learning is from books:) At a young age especially, play is learning.
Oh there will be some sleeping in. That is why the schedule doesn't start till 10. My kids don't sleep in (well except Sabrina). Right now they do all those morning chores and practice at least one of their two instruments before 8:30 in the morning. Now they will have till noon to do that and I am adding in a learning to type computer program. I think they will enjoy the typing thing. It is fun and totally geared to kids. If we like it I will post a link to it.
My schedule is not to have a schedule :)
Let's add visit aunt Carolyn anew cousins to make homemade slurpees in my icecream maker.
i was going to say (and you already did) that this reminds me of when saby and annie were little little! I still remember those color coded schedules posted by the washer dryer.
You are smart to set the expectation early and have a goal for your summer. then, when you want to throw it out the window for a day, it will be a real treat!
I love this! The more kids you have, the more structured you HAVE to be or nothing gets done and it all disintegrates to total chaos. We have a schedule too and it makes a huge difference! Without it, we'd be getting up at 9, not eating breakfast til nearly 11, and I would feel so out of control that I wouldn't be happy (and you know if mama ain't happy.....) Good for you!
Wow, a lot of commentary on your summer schedule. I think it's great you're trying to keep them stimulated in the summer. On another note, I have a burning question that I have always wondered...how do you pronounce Saby?
While this wouldn't make for a happy Momma or kids in my house I believe every parent knows what is best for their family. Kudos for being so organized and realizing what makes your family work the best!
At first glance this scheduled looked frighteningly draconian, but then I realized my mom packed our summer full of camps and sports in order to create a schedule for us. The nice thing about yours,however, is that you are all spending time together. -Liz
Do you do playdates? I try to schedule early morning-before 10 to get all the necessary stuff done because my kids get up at 6:30-7, but then all they want to do is play with a friend...so then the rest of the day is filled with whatever friends we can get to play.( and if we have another activity planned we do that...swim lessons, gymnastics or scouts)
Just wanted to say thanks for posting your summer schedule. I've been putting making mine off but took note that you had posted so I could come back if I needed ideas. I think it's great with plenty of time for play and relaxing. Having a schedule like this really helps me relax and feel free to do more "fun mom" things. I appreciate the feeling of comradery even though I don't know you.
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