Thursday, July 09, 2009

Summer Schedule

I had lots of ideas at the beginning of summer - activities, crafts, outings - but guess what? Laziness has taken over! We've done a lot of fun things but I've also wasted many hours farming on Farm Town (ahem) and other online silliness, while the children bicker and sit staring into the air, a leg thrown over the edge of the couch. Yesterday was the worst of all, and I decided it as time to get back to a little more structure in our days.

So - I made up a Summer Schedule. It follows the natural rhythm of our days, but gives me a time reference so that our day are a little more structured (most especially important for a time-waster like myself and a routine-needer like Graham) and so that I actually fit in all the fun ideas we have planned for our lazy summer days!

Keep in mind that each time block has PLENTY of time for the activities listed, plus some. There's plenty of downtime throughout the day for someone to stare if they want to, build with Legos, create things out of cardboard, draw with pens, swing outside, hose themselves down with water - whatever.

Wake - 8am (meaning, from when we wake up until 8am - my older boys have actually been waking around 8:30 . . . ) Mom shower, TV is on (PBS for the kids). This morning I had plenty of time since I got up at 6:30 so I went online for a bit.

8-10 Breakfast, Caris & Canaan bath, walk/outside time/exercise (today we did Wii Fit - the idea is to get some movement in early in the day, especially for mama), morning chores (this takes about 15 minutes - basically just getting pets taken care of, laundry going and dishwasher ready for the day)

10-12 Craft or activity (today the big boys are watching an old movie of David & Goliath that I unearthed when I tidied the laundry room), mini-school (a few things to keep us moving through our lessons - maybe 10-15 minutes per child)

12-1 Lunch, read-aloud - I just finished reading them Traitor in the Tower and now we'll go back to The Horse and His Boy

1-3 Mom's relax time, usually computer, and kids quiet time

3-4 Mom quiet work (paperwork, listing on eBay, whatever), kids computer/tv/reading/outside. Canaan's usually still sleeping at this time so the point is for us to be doing something interesting but quiet.

4-6 Afternoon chores - this takes a good chunk of this time, but I work with one child at a time so the rest are free to play. I'll also get dinner going during this time if we're not at baseball

6-8:30 Dinner, boys shower, Bible study, kids to bed
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7 comments:

  1. Great post. By this point in the summer, we are all tired of our crazy life. Odd jobs (Ryan is sleeping in the living because his room is being repainted), weeding, gardening, day trips, etc.

    I'm actually ready to get back to the routine of school. LOL. That's crazy.
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  2. Looks like a great schedule Emily! We are doing lessons over the summer, to get the kids caught up. We took last week and this week off, but will start back again next week. We use the Wii to get our physical activity in too, since it can get sooooo hot outside!
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  3. Yeah, my days have pretty much been total laziness, so maybe I need to get a mini-schedule of my own going. Sounds like you're all ready to go.
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  5. Sounds like some bzzzzzzy and fun days ahead! Missing fun in my life, I had decided this very morning that I simply had to try my hand at scheduling my days again.... However, for me, this time, the imbalance is not laziness, but overworking! Me! Can you believe it??? I work so much and so hard, that I lost the love of sitting for hours with God's word, having girlfriends over, putting on make up... etc. So, for the first time in my life, this Mary-turned-Martha wants to find a peaceful and pleasant middle ground. Is that possible???? Oh, sure it is because WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! We can do this, Em! :)
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  6. Can I come to your house? That sounds like a good day to me!
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  7. I wrote up a summer schedule, too, and stuck it on the fridge. Have we followed it? Um, hardly. But I'm okay with that for a little while, as long as the important stuff is getting done. (We're not starving!) I'm always ready to get back into a more normal routine by the end of summer, though.
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