So I'm going to be honest, thus far our summer has been quite aimless and I am really struggling with the lack of structure. See, our summer started out with a week of celebration and the pleasure of hosting Seth's parents for Mother's Day, Channah's 1st birthday, and Leila's 4th birthday. It was a super fun week and we had a great time, but it was exhausting and so I decided to give us a laid back week before we got going on our summer routine. Well, one week turned into two and then it was time to get ready for a road trip to see some family and friends down south, where we stayed for nearly a week. We had a wonderful time attending a family wedding, swimming, and hanging out with people we love, but travelling with 4 small children is ... exhausting, right? and so I decided on another laid back week to give us a chance to recover. Of course one week turned into two and before I knew it it was VBS week. We had a blast at VBS, rocking out to "Colossal Coaster World", learning about "Facing Fear, Trusting God," and wondering whether the girls or boys would win the missions offering contest this year, but VBS week is (can you guess?) EXHAUSTING and so now here it is, July, and we are still floating around aimlessly, driving each other crazy!
It's embarrassing, really, to be making a summer plan when it's practically mid-July, but I had to do something and so in the quiet of Sunday afternoon nap time I dug out last summer's highly successful plan for a Purposeful Summer and began to tweak. I'm hoping these ideas will perk up the remainder of our summer and help us enjoy the beautiful days!
Goal Setting
Last summer I had each kid set one goal for him or herself. This summer I thought we could handle a bit more so I left it more open-ended. We actually talked about these goals mid-June so we have been working a little bit on them for the last few weeks and making some progress. The kids goals for themselves are:
- Benj
- Personal - learn how to make new friends (so sweet!), and learn how to draw Lego instructions (anyone have any ideas on how to help him with this one??)
- Academic - learn how Legos are made, write "The Adventures of Benja Wonder" (a super hero he made up!)
- Physical - learn to swim without floaties, learn to ride his bike without training wheels
- Spiritual - read his Bible every day
- Talia
- Personal - learn to sew, earn money to buy a bag she can color
- Academic - write "The Adventures of Super Tiger" (following in Benj's footsteps, this is HER made-up super hero), learn to write smaller
- Physical - learn to swim without floaties and use the paddle board, learn to ride her bike without training wheels
- Spiritual - read her Bible every day
- Leila
- Personal - pick flowers (love that girl!)
- Academic - learn how to read more (she started reading just before her birthday)
- Physical - learn to swim, learn to peddle my tricycle faster
- Spiritual - get my own Bible and read it every day (anyone know of a children's Bible that's good for beginning readers?)
- Read 20 minutes everyday (We are participating in the summer reading programs at our local library and Half Price Books. This is also a good time to mention: Fellow Homeschoolers, don't forget to sign up now for the school year reading program at Pizza Hut!)
- Play outside everyday
- Start doing some chores for pay
- Do 10-15 min. summer school everyday (to keep up math & handwriting skills)
- Work on thinking of others (partly by serving someone else as a family every week, also by memorizing parts of Philippians 2.)
- One outing per week
- Work on encouraging each other as a family (another blog post in the works)
- Spend one-on-one time daily with each child
- Prepare for next school year (adding subjects, changing up curriculum)
- Work on purging/consignment prep at least 30 minutes everyday
- Exercise 4 times per week, cut portions & "indulgences"
We will be resurrecting our Summer Fun Jar to make our remaining at-home days more fun and memorable.
Outings
I need a little motivation to get out of the house most days. I was excited to remember some of these fun ideas I gathered from last summer!
- Farms/Farmers Markets
- Free/Cheap Summer Movies
- Swimming
- Library
- Play Dates/Play Group
- Parks (playgrounds & splash pads)
- Feed ducks
- Yard Sales
- Picnics
- Hiking
- Free classes at Lowe’s (ages 5+) – every other Saturday, 10:00, 1 hr.
- Free classes at Home Depot (ages 5+) – 1st Saturday of the month, 9:00
- Inexpensive classes at Michael’s (ages depends on class)
Hope your summer is going as smoothly as I'm hoping mine will be, starting tomorrow!
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