Summer boredom.
So, this is my first year with a child in school who has a summer break. I wanted to beat her to the "I am so bored I'm going to make you suffer" punch, so I started a summer routine. On a tangent--- I prefer the term routine to schedule because while I KNOW kids need a regular and consistent routine to keep their days comforting and sane, children should not be scheduled, particularly babies. There needs to be some flexibility! But enough of that, I can really go off, so moving back on topic--- routine. Here is a sample of it:
| Clean bedroom | |||||
| Make bed | |||||
| Brush teeth | |||||
| Get dressed | |||||
| Eat breakfast | |||||
| Clean up kitchen area | |||||
| Deep clean kitchen | Deep clean living room | ||||
| deep clean tiny bathroom | Deep clean dressing room | ||||
| Deep clean parents room | Deep clean porch | ||||
| Earn 1 tv show | |||||
| Read a book | |||||
| Exercise time | |||||
| Snack | |||||
| Music lesson or practice | |||||
| quick tidy living room | |||||
| Earn 1 tv show | |||||
| Lunch | |||||
| Naps | |||||
| Outside chore | |||||
| Mommy read to kids time | |||||
| Dinner | |||||
| Get ready and go to bed | |||||
Second, see the part where I put "deep clean" and you see 3 rooms and then another row with 3 rooms. Each day I clean 3 rooms in my house with the kids' help. I then ignore that room until next week. Every room gets a good cleaning each week, but I don't stress myself out with perfection, which I just can't do.
I'm sure you are wondering how I get the kids to comply. Well, sometimes I don't to be honest. But that is why I love the tv. My kids are "too tired" to work, I'm "too tired" to turn on the tv. Simple as that. I have built in play and tv rewards in my routine to keep them going from hour to hour.
But there is a bigger goal... FRIDAY FUNDAY!
We made a list together of all the cool things we want to do each week. When we've done our work and we've been kind, we are rewarded on Friday. We (mostly me) pick an item on the list and we get to do it!
Some of our items so far have included:
eat lunch at Daddy's work
Go to a candy store
Go to a cupcake store
Go to the rodeo
Go to the park
Make home made ice cream and popsicles and swim in the pool in the yard
Watch a movie in the basement with snacks
Go fishing at Jefferson Lake
So, see where I'm going? Most are cheap, but all have memory potential.
My kids love it, my house is clean and I'm not losing my mind. And the tv is OFF a lot!
So, there you go. What do YOU do in the summer time?
