Scheduling Summer Days with Kids Home

Our Summer vacation is quickly approaching, and I've been thinking more about a plan of attack for keeping kids happy and making sure our home is still a pleasant place to be. One thing we do to keep things running smoothly is to keep a schedule.

I don't have every minute of every hour planned out, but during the summer it helps to plan a general idea of how the day is going to go.

I plan our days in chunks. Here's how it works for us in the summer:

Morning chunk - My kids have a checklist of things they are to complete for their "morning jobs". I give them a certain time this needs to be done by. Their tasks include: get dressed, fix hair, make bed, read scriptures 10 minutes, say prayers, eat breakfast (and clean up after yourself), brush teeth, and check bathroom to make sure it's clean.

School chunk - We continue school through the summer. We don't do a lot, but the kids need to do some math, some writing, and practicing every day. Then we alternate days doing things like typing, music theory, and nonfiction reading. There will be some days during the summer when this school chunk will consist of swim lessons and music lessons. The kids also do chores (such as laundry) if assigned.

Lunch chunk - We make lunch and clean it up together. This summer I'm looking forward to giving Maren (11) and Joshua (9) more responsibility in making lunch for the family. And they enjoy preparing meals too.

Afternoon chunk - Free time. This is where the kids get to do the "summer" stuff if they've done all their morning work and school. (If they finish their school early, they have time before lunch too.) The kids will have time to play together, create things, invent things, play with friends, and we'll probably go to the swimming pool a fair amount of time as well. I also will send my kids to their rooms for some "quiet time", usually in the later afternoon when everybody's tired and needs some time alone. This is when we will check off things from our "summer fun list" as well.

Clean-up Chunk - This is the time when the kids supposedly do chores around the house. We'll see if I can get it working this summer. I understand my kids' need to have messes, which sounds strange, but it's how I function as well. I can't create and complete a project and clean it up all in one day, and my kids' projects and plays and dress-up stories are usually not finished in one day either. I have a hard time making them clean up things that they want to continue with the next day, so I don't. We always do a big clean up on Saturday, but the rest of the week we just do little clean ups. But if there is something they are definitely done with, it gets cleaned up.

Dinner Chunk (around 6)- same as lunch

Nighttime Chunk - Daddy is home (hopefully) and we have time to play together more during the summer. The kids have later bedtimes than during the school year and I'm looking forward to having more time being together as a family.

Having chunks rather than set times makes it easy to adjust things when conflicts come up. If we have something else going on in the morning, we just move the school chunk to later in the day, or get rid of it. We can be flexible like that.

How do you schedule your summer days?

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