Summer Schedule

Here's what we are doing for Summer this year:

This is the first summer since we got our Nintendo, and I wanted to make sure that the boys weren't playing it all day long. So I made up a schedule and presented it at FHE last night. It was well received, so hopefully the boys will hold me to it, because they are fanatics about schedules and charts (I am not...in any way shape or form).

I'm not sure if you can see it, but I try to do a simple (we're talking 15 minute) activity with my kids each day. I'm also going to teach the older two piano lessons, and typing (home row).

Monday is Art Day, Tuesday is Library Day (story time) and writing day, Wednesday is Goal Day, Thursday is Science Day, and Friday is field trip day.

For writing, I made a journal jar with writing prompts. They can pick out two and choose which one they want to write about. They brought home their "writer's workshop" notebooks from school, so I'm just having them write in those.

I made a checklist of goals for each boy that they can do on Wednesdays. Brayden's list comes mostly from his Scout Book and his Faith in God book. Caleb's list came from the Tiger cub requirements that I found online, and Dillon's came from my own preschool knowledge.

Science Day is easy, because Todd bought a set of books that he thought were workbooks for kids, but they're really lesson plans with lots of little science projects. The kids can't wait for these.

Friday is the hardest, because we don't have too many places to go. I imagine we'll visit every park in our county, take a few hikes in Capitol Reef, go fishing, geocaching, and maybe we'll go bowling or mini-golfing a few times.

Our daily schedule is quite flexible, but follows this pattern: eat, work, play. At lunchtime we "start over" and they do afternoon jobs. I've left an hour and a half for jobs, but it doesn't take anywhere near that long. As soon as they're done, they can play.

Our neighbors are doing similar things, so that helps because the other kids know our boys can't play until their jobs are done. Some have the same video game rules, too. No video games until 4:00.

The Book Bingo chart is to keep them reading. Each square has a different type of book. As they read one, they can mark it off. On the day they get Bingo, they can play video games before 4:00. When they get black-out, they get an ice-cream cone from Maria's (local restaurant).

I'd love to hear what you're doing with your kids. I'm always looking for idea's.