Back to the basics. In the interest of meeting my first goal for the kids (re-train them to do their independent responsibilities every day), I revamped their daily responsibility charts and posted them on the fridge. This is helping us to clarify expectations ("I forgot" is no longer an excuse since I send them back to consult the chart at key times throughout the day) and keep me from having to be central to every basic task (I explained to the big kids that I am no longer the answerer of the question, "what should I do next?" They have to go to their charts to figure that out.) Yay for sanity!
Reading. We joined several summer reading programs and started logging our reading progress. Benjamin, my little laid-back man, was a difficult to motivate. He loves to read (and is very good at it), but the moment I made it an official "thing," he balked. At first he was very resistent when I tried to get him to keep track of his time (or even just tell me if he read at all during a certain period.) But over the course of the week he warmed up to the idea and is now having a blast racking up the minutes. Talia, on the other hand, is highly movitated by prizes & incentives. She took her love for reading to a new level and was off and running the first day, logging a total of 950 minutes for the first two weeks! (One of the reading programs we signed up for is requiring 300 minutes for the entire month to receive the prize. Um, can we say overachiever? :) ) She even picked up Charlotte's Web this week and has been steadily working her way through it. I know she can't be reading every word because it's definitely beyond her reading level, but she is picking up enough of the story to answer the comprehension questions I've thrown at her. I'm amazed! Leila has been enjoying some extra Mommy time as we try to get in 15-30 minutes each day of reading outloud. Benj and Talia have also chipped in to read to Leila, which she loves.
Enjoying the Great Outdoors! I'm ashamed to admit that getting the kids outside everyday, although always a goal of mine, has always been difficult for me. But I'm happy to say that the kids have played outside every single day for the last two weeks! They are loving our new playset which Seth & his dad constructed a few weeks ago. Benjamin & Talia both learned to pump their legs on the swings last week and are enjoying the newfound freedom of flight. It's so much fun to see the pure joy they get from wearing themselves out playing!
Pay chores. Seth and I decided that it was time to introduce the kids to a little more of the "real world" in allowing them to do some chores for pay. We decided a long time ago that there are some things our kids will do just because they are part of our family. In the spirit of, shall we call it reality, we do not want to foster in them the expectation that they will be compensated for every finger they lift. (I, for one, certainly am not!) But we also want to teach them to have a strong work ethic, and at some point that begins to include the concept that hard work, well done, results in benefits and rewards for the worker. So we designated some chores as "pay chores" which they may choose to complete only after their regular responsibilities are completed. Once again, my reluctant starter was less than enthusiastic about choosing to do more work, but after his highly motivated sister chalked up a bit towards "payday," he got with the program. They were both super excited to receive their first earned dollars last Saturday. We are encouraging them to save up for something they really want to further encourage the concept that work leads to blessings!
Summer School.
Service Projects. Each child is responsible for doing at least one thing every day that demonstrates that they are thinking more about someone else than themselves. They have made cards, drawn pictures, and written letters for friends & family, read to Leila, held or played with Channah, and done chores to raise money for the missions offering at VBS.
Outings. This is another area of weakness for me. I am such a homebody! I just never love the idea of going. It seems hard and stressful. But it's good for us to get out, so I am determined to make myself do it more. Last week we went to the library and the week before we took a research trip to WalMart so the kids could get some ideas of what they wanted to save their earned money towards. This week we've been on outing overload as we've had VBS every evening since Sunday. Unfortunately, Miss Channah is not the most flexible wee one so some of our outings have caused severe schedule malfunction, but ironically as this marathon VBS week has progressed she seems to be getting a little less stressed out by less than perfect sleeping conditions. Maybe we are on our way to more schedule freedom?
Fun! I made a "summer fun jar" with some of the ideas from my last blog post. I copied the ideas I wanted to include to a new document, enlarged the font, printed, and cut into strips. Last week I let each kid pick one strip of paper from the jar on Monday morning (so I would know what was coming and could plan, if needed). We put them on the refrigerator and I made sure we did each activity at some point during the week. One afternoon we got out our sidewalk paint and decorated the driveway. Another day we played board games after lunch. Saturday we got out a tarp and the hose and introduced the kids to the slip n' slide.
It has been nice to have some structure in place to help me give the kids opportunities to make some great summer memories this year. So far we are thoroughly enjoying our Purposeful Summer. How about you?
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