this summer is the first summer i have school-aged children out of school for a normal, long summer break. the summer between their kinder year and first grade they were on a year-round school schedule with only one two-week break during the hottest months of the summer. this year we have from June to August to really enjoy our time off together.
time off however does not mean that we don't maintain a loose daily schedule. i know that my boys and i function best when we have goals and i wanted them to be able to retain much of the academic skills they picked-up this last year. so we have created what i call a summer schedule. it is loose and adaptable and i don't have it in place to stress any of us but rather to give us something constructive to do each day. and if we go for a few days without doing it because something more important or completely inviting comes up--then we let it go and know we will get back to it later during the week at some point. i've really enjoyed it so far and found that it serves as a helpful cure to boredom.
some of that "schedule" is just a list of to-do's i've come up with for all of us daily.
the boys to-do's goes something like this:
do one cleaning job each day.
usually this is emptying the dishwasher or setting the table. added to that could be bringing down all the dirty clothing or taking up and distributing all of the clean and folded clothing.
read scriptures.
i try to get this done with them each breakfast. they read anywhere from one to five verses depending on what it is we are reading. some mornings i find they just desire to read more than other mornings. at least we try to read one to two verses per day. i find it really helps set their moods for the rest of the days doings. there has been a peace in our home since we started doing this that is noticeable. they still have days and hours where they don't get along but the quantity of those hours and days has lessened considerably. i firmly believe that reading the scriptures as a family in the mornings just arms my children with a desire to choose better choices during the day.
write in journal--one paragraph about the previous day.
this is part of their binders that we put together for the summer. each boy was at target with me and was able to choose his own three-ring binder and spiral notebook to act as a summer journal. as much as i can, i try to remember to set aside time for them to write at least 5 sentences in their "journals" about their doings or feelings on the previous day. some of the entries are hilarious and some have been insightful. i love to hear them share their sentences with me. i get to know more about what they remember and deemed important enough to document. i don't often check spelling on these entires. maybe one entry of every five i sit with them and go over for spelling and grammar corrections. it is more important to me that they write and enjoy it than feel as though it will be torn apart by mom for mistakes.
do one task in an academic subject.
this is another part of their summer binders. their binders have dividers for different subjects. each boy created his own labels for those dividers with my label maker and had such fun doing it! they have a divider for math, reading, language, science, art and chart. i went online and found old standardized tests for math and reading and language that i could print out. each boy has a copy of these past tests of which i assign them parts to do. i also printed out science worksheets and worksheets on things like telling time and capitalization or grammar. we also created math facts flash cards so they might choose to do those with me for a time that day. i try not to make it overly burdensome and long to do. if it is one page or a few easy pages i find they respond so much better to doing it. they actually like it many of the times. it is a nice change from always playing with toys and since they put the binders together themselves they have a vested interest in doing the things that are in there.
earn reward stickers on their charts.
each boy has a set of small reward charts. there are 25 places for stickers. for every little job i ask of them or each page of schoolwork they complete they are eligible to get a sticker for their chart. if we have a problem during the day they either forfeit the earning of a reward sticker or they have to remove a sticker from their chart. this has come to be something they love doing. it is a helpful tool for me to use in most any circumstance. once they have filled 5 charts they get to choose a lego pack in the amount of $4.99. filling five charts of 25 stickers takes them plenty of time and so far this summer they have only finished one set of five each. but that was my plan. i didn't want it too easy that they would not value the reward. they work consistently and diligently at making good choices and feel so accomplished when they turn in five of those reward charts full of stickers.
reading one library book.
we raid the library of any good books during the summer. we take them with us on vacation and read them in the car or during down time. we read together sometimes and each boy reads on his own. i love books! i love having a huge stack of library books for them to go to and choose from when they tell me they are bored or ask what they can do. i see that their love for books has increased in correlation with the more books i have around the house. i view summer reading as an essential part of our summertime. on my own i like to get through a few really good reads each summer. when we have a healthy stack of library books i feel as though there is always some quality time we can create together.
do jobs for pennies or money.
my boys are actually employed. our neighbor has them clean up her yard twice a week because she has two of the cutest little wiener dogs. so twice a week we go down to her home and clean up their grass for them. they earn really good money which they can save and use to pay tithing and legos. this job has been really helpful in teaching them the value of a dollar. they understand more now about taking 10% out for tithing to pay to the church for things like electricity in our church building and fixing things in the buildings that break or building new temples. they understand that it takes a good amount of work and time to save up enough money to buy a popular (and expensive) lego set of their liking. and they understand that when i take them to the cabin for two weeks and daddy is kind enough to go and do their job on their behalf that they have to pay him for doing that. they forfeit the money to him for doing their job. it teaches them responsibility and so much more. i love that they have that little job to do! i hope they can keep it through the school year too.
i have what i call penny jobs. rod has a container of loose pennies and i create little jobs around the house that are not their normal jobs which they can do to earn pennies. some of those little jobs are helping me with my bigger summer goals. for example, i have been wanting to clean out two of my closets and the smaller garage. so that process left a ton of things that needed shredding. shredding papers or old film negatives are what i deem as penny jobs. i also have them organize the tupperware kitchen cabinet or help me cook the dinner. these little jobs are fun for them because i always change up the number of pennies they can earn. they still get excited about earning one penny or five. i love that about the age they are right now! simple pleasures!
unofficially on our summer schedule---the creation of a million lego toys! we have what might be the largest collection of random and star wars themed legos on the planet! our obsession started about two years ago when i found a huge box of donated legos at the thrift store. i waited for the store to process them and put them out for sale. i bought the entire box and came home with them. we immediately made the shift from thomas trains to lego mania! from then rod found a bunch of the star wars lego sets on ebay for a steal of a price and they boys have gotten them for birthdays and christmas. they have recently started buying them with their own money (this is the kind i like the best!)
so much of the boy's free time is spent playing in their playroom creating all sorts of lego space ships and cars. i love to see what they come up with. i especially love that they often ditch any instructions and create ships from their own imagination. they can both follow the lego instructions to make a certain set but they then they eventually mix and match bricks and such to create their own toys. morgan made his own Guido character from the "cars" movie since the second movie came out this summer. yep, i would say that of all of the toys on the market for boys, thomas the train and legos happen to be my very favorites. i love how they stimulate the imagination and allow them to reconfigure patterns and shapes.
so far this summer has been wonderful! my goal for this time was to savor as much time alone as i can with just my boys before this third sibling arrives in november. we have trips to the cabin with friends, cousin's camp and a family reunion on our schedule as well. i am making a concentrated effort to remember these summer days--like i try to freeze them as they happen in my mind because come the end of august my seven-year olds will be in second grade all day long and i'll be less mobile being seven months into this pregnancy. and from there our entire world as we have known it for seven years as a family of four will change forever. it will be a change we want and are excited about. still, just before i know things will change in my life i tend to want to suck everything i can out of the time and place i'm in (and have been in this case) for seven great years. rod and i feel so blessed to have had all this time with our two first boys. adding a third boy, we realize will increase the love our family enjoys.
our stack of library books:
jack's binder and journal:
shredding negatives and old teaching papers from the closet cleaning:
morgan's homemade Quido from Cars and his tire stack creation:
