Well the first two weeks of summer where off track because we had family either in town or staying with us, which was great, so last was the first week that I could actually start a routine.
I used the schedule sheets I had from last summer. It's funny how last summer I really just made Jasmine a chart so she wouldn't feel left out and this year she is all grown up and totally gets it.
It just helps for them to know exactly what they need to do when they get up instead of going strait to the tv or trampoline. They have been helping each other clean their bedrooms which has been good to see. This year we have been doing our "learning time" in the afternoon which I thought wouldn't work at all but it has been met with no complaints. I have tons of workbooks that I have accumulated over the years and I just pick a few sheets out of there for them to do.
*If anyone has any ideas for teaching the letters that have really worked, please pass them along. I did tons of stuff with Shayden and now I can't remember any of it. That's what I get for having my kids so far apart. Nowadays I would have totally made a file with ideas and filed it away but at the time apparently I didn't think of that. I do have the Letter Factory movie and that is a little miracle worker in and of itself.
I realized that after this week there are only 7 weeks left of summer! That makes me sad.
So I made a calendar and decided on a theme that we will learn about each week, and we will have an arts/craft day, a science day, a cooking day (just a little snack or something that they will help with) and Monday's will be field trip day.
I made a long list of all of the places I wanted to take my kids to this summer. Then my friend and I just brainstormed and made a calendar of activities to do on each Monday. That way it is scheduled and done! Everyone is invited, the more the merrier, so email me if you want to know what we are doing.
On Tuesdays my friend and I are going to trade babysitting time and it is going to be my project day. I would highly recommend doing this, the kids get to play and I get a few hours each week. I have so many projects before the baby comes. Nesting is underway!
I also have been using Handipoints, which was working great until my computer upstairs died. It was too much work to take my kids down into the dungeon (my office) each night to fill out their charts. But now we are going to start again, for rewarding good behavior, and such. If you haven't, you should check it out.
So that is our summer routine. Anyone else want to share theirs?
4 had something to say!:
You are so organized it is amazing. I want in on the Monday field trips if it is not too full. I do have a big car I could take extra people with.
That is awesome. I can't come close to what you're doing, but one thing we do is go on a daily walk, and once a week we pretend it's an airplane flight. Akaila chooses where we "fly" and when we get home from the walk we do things that have to do with wherever we went. When we went to China we had egg rolls, etc.
You are so organized. I feel so lame! Way to go supermom! One thing that I did that helped Connor learn his letters in just a few days was get one of those wooden puzzles that has all the letters and it says "A is for Apple" etc. with each letter piece. Every kid is different, but seriously that's what did it for him. There is also a great system I bought at a mall kiosk call See What They Say or something to that affect. It's mostly to help kids learn to sound out letters and learn to read by visualizing what the letters look like, but Connor likes watching the dvd that came with it. It helped him learn the lowercase letters in a short period of time.
You are way more organized than I have been this summer. I keep attempting to stick to a nicely laid out schedule and we end up all over the place. So no tips here. Although my first attempt at planning ahead was getting a few things from organizeitmom.com (which my very organized friend started). Too bad they are still in their packages. lol
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