Within one day of summer vacation, I was tearing my hair out.
(I’m not alone here, right?)
I swear, my kids had completely forgotten how to entertain themselves at all. A whole school of constant structure/activities/learning/friends was awesome – but after less than 24 hours, my kids were at loose ends with no idea what to do all day.
I was sitting at my desk, trying to finish up some work and I was interrupted 12 times in one hour. It was too hot, they were bored, Colin had a booger, could they play in the attic, could they play with playdoh, can they watch tv now, where was the cat food, someone was in someone else’s room…
(BANGS HEAD ON DESK)
I spent that whole evening making a list. Each child got a folder with their name on it. Meet my sanity saver.
Page one: SCHEDULE
Each child has a morning, afternoon and evening list of activities and chores to check off. Activities like reading and practicing instruments, chores like cleaning the litter box and picking up toys. We have no TV mornings, and they are only allowed to watch a show after all their checklist is complete. Now, by 4:00 in the afternoon, my kids have practiced instruments, read for an hour, cleaned up the house and done all their chores. (Colin’s list is obviously pretty simple, but of course he had to have one too 🙂
These are in a plastic sleeve, so they can check off boxes with dry erase markers every week.
Page two: READING LOG
Each of the girls has a reading log where they track how long they read, what book and how many pages.
Page three: EXTRAS
This page has extra chores the kids can do to earn some extra spending money, like weeding the flower beds (50¢), folding the laundry (75¢), really cleaning the bathroom ($1). Kids have to check with me before doing these, lest we have arguments over who did what!
Page four: SERVICE
This page has ideas of things they can do to serve others, like a list of people to write letters/draw pictures for and ways they can help us (reading to Colin, playing a game or activity he wants).
Page five: BIBLE MEMORY
Each child also has a list of Bible Memory verses for the summer that they are working on and some Bible passages they are reading. This is the Bible Memory Work Checklist we are using – I HIGHLY recommend it!
How to you help plan your summer?
I passed.
Oh the sweetness breaks my heart still. I’m going to have this picture by my bed when they’re both teenagers so I can remember the sweetness. And remember the magic time when my babies were babies and just discovering each other.
