Today school is out and it is officially summer vacation! It is bitter sweet. I love it, because we don't have to get up and get out the door, or do homework. We don't have to have a schedule and we can do whatever we want. I don't love it because... well, things can get chaotic and crazy with no schedule and all that free time- to make messes and drive mom crazy with fighting. :) There is more to clean up. More to organize. More in general!
So this summer I think I'll have a little more structure.
Things I expect:
- Be dressed before breakfast.
- Room clean before playing outside/going to friend's/playing computer.
- No leaving the house before 9am (or inviting people in).
- Do 1 daily job and 1 other job to help.
- Clean up before moving on to another project
- Be back home by a certain time every night.
- Bedtime/'quiet time'- reading time before bed if not tired
Things to do:
- Practice our Spanish (watch disney in Spanish)
- Try to read 1000 collective pages this summer
- Learn about 1 country a week- look at maps, eat a dinner from that country, learn a little about the people and culture.
- Build a structure out of every lego we own (that's a lot!)
- Camp, play outside, swim, and ride bikes.
- Play lots of card and board games.
- Keep a summer journal (work on improving handwriting in the process)
- Eat lots of popsicles
- 'Park Hop'- visit a new park each week
- Hold a lemonade stand
- Join our ward 'Wednesday Outing' day.
- Eat hot breakfasts (it's my favorite meal of the day)
- Write stories (make a book with illustrations)
- Hunt for bugs
- Watercolor (lessons from Cal)
- Guitar lessons (from Cal)
- Teach Spence how to make something in the kitchen (cookies?)
- Bike and car wash
- BBQ. Lots!
Things I hope don't happen:
- Let kids play video games all summer
- Get fried in the sun
- Eat junk food/snack all day
- Tear the house apart
- Get too little sleep
- Read nothing
It is a fine balance between having a carefree, fantastic summer and unhealthy chaos. I'm sure I'll walk the line of both. When I do figure out what 'rules' we'll have for the summer, I'm going to post them so we all remember (myself included). Then I'm going to have the kids make a list of 100 things they'd like to do and post that. Hopefully we'll be able to fight the boredom for as long as we can.
I know these are lofty goals. But my weakness is organization so I figure I'd better set my goals high to start with, then if/when I don't meet all the goals it is still withing the range of acceptable to me.
HAPPY SUMMER!
4 comments:
YOu go, girl. Reading your itinerary made me so tire I'm going to bed for a while.
Ha. I know. I re-read my post this morning and thought the same thing. :)
Bethany, you're such a good mom :) I hope I can be too!
Bethany, I echo Sierra that you are such a great mom! And Sierra, if you read this again, you will be too! And Dad, you are a cool dad too! :))) Ookay enough of that! I want to say that I loved your summer post Bethany! I am looking at my kids getting out of school in about two weeks and I want to organize our summer plans so we can strike that healthy balance between chaos (carefree-edness) and structure (keeping my sanity!) I wonder what is going on with you guys with moving? Any word officially!? Love you so much and miss all of you! My kids say that frequently - how much they miss their Cory cousins!
Love,
Becca
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