Well, we made it through another year of school and my 2 school age boys are now home FULL TIME! It’s officially SUMMER in our house! YAY!! Oh, wait, that means I have to be around them all day. And break up fights and tantrums and here the endless whining…. *SIGH*
I will say this: I LOVE my kids. Very. Much. BUT, that being said, my two older ones are getting to the age where they LOVE to bother each other or their little brother. They LOVE to fight, or so it seems. They LOVE to whine and complain and make messes… so, when people have been asking me if I’m excited for summer I say “NO!!!”
Am I a horrible mom for feeling that way? I feel bad that I don’t enjoy summer as much as I could, but when you spend most of your days yelling at your kids to STOP yelling (LOL I wonder why they yell haha) and fighting and bothering each other, it’s just not that enjoyable. Last year we went on a LOOONNNGGG vacation to CA and Vegas. It was AWESOME and I think it helped the summer pass fast! This year we have a few plans; my sis is getting married June 1st in Reno and we’re going! Wooo!, I’ve signed the boys up for a couple of different sports and camps, but for the most part we will be stuck at home. I am wracking my brain thinking of ways not to go crazy with all 3 wild and crazy boys of mine in the same house 24 hours a day for 3 months straight!! Here is what I came up with:
I have mapped out a daily schedule. I’m not really a stickler when it comes to schedules. I usually plan out my days, BUT they never seem to go how I plan. With the new summer schedule I wanted to basically give myself an idea of what I want to have accomplished in a certain time frame. I will more than likely be flexible, but we WILL get all chores done before they can play or do anything exciting.
Our daily schedule during the summer will go something like this:
6-9am ~ wake up, eat breakfast, get ready for the day, TV time (WHY on earth would I list 6am as a possible wake up hour?!! Well, I only have ONE out of THREE children that actually sleeps in!! *SIGH* SO there is a big possibility that I will still have the same hours of sleep as I do during the school year. BIG possibility!)
(I say TV time because I often will get up at 6 with the 2 boys that are early birds and let them watch TV until Jonas wakes up. I also let them watch TV on the iPad we have in the kitchen during breakfast.)
9-10am ~ Choretime. I am working on chore charts for all 3 boys and hopefully will come back soon with a post just about that!
10am-12pm ~ Activity/Outside Playtime!! This will be the time that we do all those fun activities I have planned for us this summer (I guess I better start thinking!!). The cheap theater in town does a movie pass during the summer so I always buy one. They play the movies on Thursday – Saturday at 10am, 12:30pm and 2:30pm. I will mostly likely find a babysitter for Tinian when we do this activity. We will go play at the park and do picnics, ride bikes, play in the backyard. Oh, and swimming is high on the agenda! 🙂 Brynnan keeps asking me when they can start doing lessons!
If I don’t have anything planned they will have mandatory playtime outside. Maybe we’ll even do a mandatory picnic in the backyard every week 🙂 I am considering buying a trampoline again. I am also thinking of putting out a wading pool for them to easily have access to. Brynnan keeps asking if we have a pool. He remembers the one I bought for his birthday 2 years ago that we haven’t used since. It’s one of those blow up ones that I used to have to do by myself because we didn’t have anything to blow it up but a little air pump. Now we have a shop vac so it will hopefully be NICE and EASY to blow that sucker up!
12pm ~ Lunchtime! (12:30-ish) After lunch, before Tini goes down for his nap, I will read to the boys. Once I’ve put Tinian down for a nap the boys will read by themselves for 20 minutes. Then, they can have their Free time, see below.
1-3pm ~ Tinian ~ naptime, Jonas and Brynnan ~ Freetime. Free time could mean anything! They can play outside, go to a friends house, have a friend come over and play, art time at the table, or video game/computer game time (which they WILL have to earn each day by doing daily chores.)
3-5pm ~ MORE Outside Play!! 🙂 (During this time I will have them play in the backyard so I can get work done or have some alone time.)
5-6pm ~ TV time. (While Mark and I, wait, who am I kidding?, while Mark prepares dinner they can watch a little TV, if they want to. Tinian and Brynnan would probably play outside all day! 🙂 I haven’t decided if this is free or if they have to earn this TV time.)
6-7pm ~ Dinner and clean up. Jonas and Brynnan will take turns helping me clean up after dinner. I haven’t fully decided on how this will work yet. I’m thinking that they will switch off days, like, Jonas helps me wash the dishes M,W,F and Brynnan clears the table and washes it off on those days. Jonas will clear of the table and wash it on T, T, Sat and Brynnan do the dishes.
If there is time left before 7 we can do something as a family, play a board game or video game or whatever. Maybe just sit and watch TV together. I just want us to be together as a family.
7-8pm ~ Bedtime Prep. Our boys ALWAYS go to bed at 8! Even during the summer! Why? We have found that with a consistent sleeping schedule they are happier. Sometimes we stretch it past 8:00 and it’s not too bad, but if the boys go to bed any later than 9:00 they are usually REALLY crabby the next day! ALSO, this allows for Mark and I to have 2 hours of time alone before we go to bed.
I think that I want to start reading the scriptures with them before they go to bed, which is another reason why we would start getting them ready at 7:00. It allows us time to get everything done and not feel rushed.
So there you have it. Our tentative Summer Schedule. Today is the first day I will be implementing it so I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m kind of excited! I can’t wait to share with you what I came up with to make chores FUN!! 🙂
Come back on Wednesday to see what my amazing guest blogger, One Artsy Mama, has to show you!