School is out! Summer is here! This means kids are at home with not a lot to do. You probably have those few family vacation planned. Its the times between those vacations that our kids need activities. I always do a great job at planning the perfect schedule. The execution never seems to go as planned. But I keep trying. This year I have high hopes this will be the most successful summer mostly because my kids are older.
I start my schedule planning by making a list of everything I want/need in each day. Some of the items on my list are chores, reading/school work, working, exercise, meals, etc. I also signed my kids up for summer camps/activities. Then I started adding times to the most important items like the kids’ activities. However, the more items I add to the day the harder it is to fit everything into the day. Once I have a general schedule, the hard part begins, putting that schedule into action. I’ll admit, I’m great at creating schedules but I struggle with putting them into action. Knowing this about myself I need to find a way to hold myself accountable.
Some ways I hold my accountable are scheduling events in my phone with alarms. Writing a daily to-do list that I check off items as I go and rewrite of the days events. Setting goals for myself and everyday I remind myself of these goals. Another way that I can hold myself accountable is giving some of that accountability to my kids. They are old enough to have some accountability. They each have their own daily to-do/ chores lists. At the breakfast table, we discuss what events are scheduled and what needs to get done. They cannot play video games or watch t.v. until their chores are done and they have done some reading (keep a look out for my future post on my kids reading challenge).
Summer is here and vacations are planned. Now the times between vacations are planned. Kids shouldn’t get bored. They have a schedule and know what to expect. We know what to expect. We should have a great summer. Will you?