Kate writes:
Summer is quickly approaching and kids are getting out of school in a few weeks. I, once again, have all these high hopes of organized days with lots of reading, family prayer time, field trips, pool time etc. each and every day. That led me to routines….that led me to “I wonder how Danielle does it …” So, how do you do it? Do you have a set routine in the summer?
Well we certainly do relax things around here in the summertime, but we do wind up falling into a routine of sorts too. I am one of those spoiled wives whose husband has summers off. As a family, we tend to stay up later at night and get up later in the morning. School is limited to reading practice for those who need it, handwriting practice only when I am feeling really mean, and read alouds for their sheer entertainment value.
Prayer times will remain the same, but the chore schedule I posted a few weeks back is going to go out the window. In its place, I’ll come up with one that better suits our family’s needs when we are spending more time outdoors and less time on schoolwork, but I will hold the kids accountable for regular household contributions with laundry, meals, and housekeeping.
Some summers we’ve been terrifically organized with planned schedules for morning sports activities and afternoon trips to the lake. But more recently I have found that we don’t need to plan everything out in great detail in order for us to fall into a regular routine around here.
This year, my oldest girls will be taking part in a summer day camp nearby. Kateri will work at the barn and we may or may not participate in town swim lessons at the lake. Dan will take various kids fishing, to the tennis courts, and to the basketball courts several times a week. And we live near enough to beautiful lakes so that I tend to make regular trips there in the evening after dinner so that the kids can swim a bit and cool off before bed. I also have great ambitions of hosting a “drama camp” here at the house and putting on a play with some other homeschooling families we know, but the details have not yet been worked out. We’ll definitely plan some day trips to the ocean and maybe a few other places as well, but we have no wild plans to drive dozens of hours for an extended time away this year.
If you are worried about activities and routines, it might be a good idea to sit down as a family and plan your summer schedule together, so that everyone’s preferences and expectations are taken into consideration. Just be careful not to fill every day of the week with activities and obligations. A little organization is nice, but too much of it takes away from the lazy loveliness of summer, I think. Leave yourself room for impromptu picnics and give your family space to enjoy some down time. Maybe it’s because I have the perspective of a New Hampshire resident, but I think summer’s way too short to fill with obligations. It really is okay sometimes to let your kids just hang out, dig holes in the yard, and listen to the insects buzz. Enjoy the change of pace. It’ll be back to school before you know it!
Anyone else? What kind of summer routines do you follow? What are your family’s plans?
I’m with you, Danielle, regarding the lazy days of summer. They are too few already and go very quickly. Therefore, we have 1 vacation planned to the beach and nothing else. I am looking forward to long days at the pool, playing with neighborhood friends, and sleeping in! I’m sure I’ll have good intentions of mixing in some reading and workbooks but I’m not always very consistent with that!
I say they are only kids once, let them enjoy these carefree days!
Ahhh, summer. Not so lazy around here. Dh is a golf course superintendent and that means long hours and STRESS. We never vacation in the summer or really even go anywhere for along weekend. Baseball rules our evenings thru mid July.
We homeschool but I’ve never been good with following thru on any plans for subjects thru the summer. We’ll end the last day of May (all except the highschooler who will need to finish up. We’ll join the librairies summer reading program (love those coupons) and try to have our 30 mins of QRT – quiet reading time each afternoon. I plan to get up early and try to start on daily Masswhile kids snooze (joy of having teens at home). I’d like to have a short daily gardening time in the mornings followed by indoor chores and then FREEDOM. This will be the first summer that I’ll have a job – 🙁 But just two mornings a week. ( don’t ya just hate how prices go up but your income doesn’t)
I’d like the kids to make a wish list of things they’d like to do this summer and see if we can do some of those things. i.e. go to the zoo, hike at the wilderness center, see a movie at the theater, etc. And I know my 10yo dd and 13yo ds would like to plan a 24 hour camp out in our back yard with friends – the kind where you only come to the house for emergencies (potty breaks and wound care). They’ll make a menu, shop and enjoy a bonfire and tent living. I’m also of thinking of an overnighter on the trampoline.
Mostly I dream of actually getting something done around here. those jobs I never get to during the school year. But, the past has shown that this rarely happens…
Summer in Wisconsin tends to feel pretty short, too. We live a country life and there’s always something to be done outside. So school work is put on hold until fall so we can make room for raising chickens, vegetable gardening, watering flowers, dirt biking, hiking in the woods, swimming in our sand pit. I truly believe children need time to just be. Time to make up their own games. Time to play pretend in secret places. Time to watch the chickens eat watermelon rinds. There will be requirements as well. We usually take 30 minutes every afternoon for quiet time – napping or reading. And of course household chores need to be done, usually right after quiet time during the heat of the day. The older two will attend resident church camp for a week in June and music lessons will continue until the end of July when we’ll take a break for all of August (canning season).
That’s funny — living down South, my wife and I consider summer the *worst* time of year, on account of the weather. Kids may not be as bothered by it, but the adults in the household prefer to stay indoors and avoid heat stroke.
Our children aren’t yet school-age, but it seems to us that one advantage of homeschooling would be the ability to take vacations during the other seasons of the year.
This will be a rare summer. So far no big construction project. That said budget will play a big part in our plans. While his pay has increased we found out we were scammed into a less than stellar car loan. We will pay it off sooner so they make less in interest off us just out of principal.
One son will be a counselor at a summer college program. I daughter is babysitting for college money. My 13 year old may start sitting and mowing for money so maybe he’ll still go to scout camp.
I hope to read all the rest of Little house to the little girls, teach the 12 year old guitar, and do little fun projects.
I hope DH gets to spend lots of time fishing. Inlaws have a place on the Cape so we’ll spend a week there being lazy too.
I am jealous! My husband does not get paid vacations (nor sick leave) so he works all the time – if he doesn’t work, no money. And we have a large vegetable garden than needs to be tended to in the summer. I feel like we don’t ususally do enough relaxing, fun stuff during summer (except no school) and we have to avoid anything that costs money! But this year, due to the generosity of my mother, the kids and I are going on a long trip with her to visit family. We are so looking forward to it .
Summer in WI seems to get filled with many obligations faster than I can blink! It seems there is a wedding, party, festival, etc. every single weekend because we do only get a short time of warm weather! In any case, I try to pick and choose what we’ll be able to attend and make time for lots of days of just being lazy at the beach. I love Lake Michigan and especially in August, I love to spend every day I can in the water once it’s warm enough. That month is reserved for lazy beach time. The thing that will be hard for us this summer is that unfortunately my husband has to be away a lot for work (poor guy has to go to FL and TX in the middle of summer).
All in all, I think in our family plans for summer we try to have fun and do activities and also set aside equal time for lazy beach days. 🙂
Summer plans in our young homeschooling family includes not so planned out days but we keep regular with snacks/meal times. We surely stay out longer at night and plan some evening walks as a family around the block or to a local park. We also join a town pool where sometimes (about 1-2/week)Daddy meets us there after work and we have a picnic lunch. My husband and I take out our calenders and plan ahead the big summer days- trips to the beach, zoo, museums, visits to shrines etc…
My son who will be entering 2nd grade seems to get a bit ansy and jumpy about 3 weeks into summer and for him, we have some school work- but he actually likes it, some fun stuff- not anything too structured, just workbooks found at the local pharmacies/stores etc…
YAY for the warm weather arriving! 🙂
My children range in age from 6 to 16 and we do not home school. I always go into summer with a big plan for organized fun, and it falls apart about 2 days into it. The kids keep busy with trips to the library, swimming at the local pool, and lots of just playing with friends. Everyone has some housekeeping chores to help with, but I find that it’s easier to move everyone along with chores in summer than it is during the school year. My older children plan to run in a 5K race on July 4, so there will be “training” for that, as well as Boy Scouts which is year-round, and my older son won some flying lessons so he’ll take advantage of summer’s freedom to do that.
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season/printable/new-year-wish-list/new-year-wish-list.html
Talking about summer & things to do … the above link has a cute “wish list” that I am going to have my 2 youngest boys fill out & then we can use it to jumpstart some summer activities.
We stop the daily schooling but have set up an “incentive” type program to keep them reading & doing a little math for the summer. They will be going to our town’s Summer Rec program for 3 – 4 weeks (out of the 7 that are offered) b/c they tried it last year & LOVED it (change of scenery from being home “all the time” during the school year) so that will give me time alone w/the baby since our oldest drives & will be golfing alot (as will one of the younger boys…he’s VERY good & will be playing in about a 1/2 dozen tourneys this summer).
Our “summer” starts next Thursday as we finish off the last day of Week 36 just before leaving to p/u the 16-1/2 yr old from school (his first year at the local high school & doing VERY well!). Yippee!!!! Can’t come fast enough!
God bless YOUR summer!!!! ; )
Thank goodness its getting warmer! I am still a southerner at heart and I live for summer! Keep smiling and God bless! Padre Steve, SDB
Any big city homeschoolers out there? We don’t have lots of wide open space, we don’t have a vegetable garden–nor a plot to put it in! It presents unique challenges during the school year, and in the summertime. Once school finishes on 5/23/08, we’ll do things like: ride the train and meet daddy in the big city, visit the museums and of course the zoo, probably take a trip to visit Grandma in the country. But we can’t blow tons of cash on big city fun! The free and low-cost but educational fun is a little harder to come by around here. I’d love to send them all outside to find frogs, or whatever it is that you country mice do, but it’s too dangerous. There’s traffic, and there’s just plain bad people lurking about. We do throw in some volunteer work: to Mother Teresa’s sisters’ soup kitchen (big kids only), to visit our favorite senior at the nursing home, and at Birthright, the crisis pregnancy center. We also join the local pool and go there almost every day. This year ought to be a riot: with two big girls who want to spend all day on the diving board, one crazy boy who must “practice his jumping,” a three year old who can’t stand in the big pool, but refuses to play in the kiddie pool, and a 23 pound 8 month old! Help!
I’m one of those moms who needs a good three weeks to get into the summer groove. My children attend school during the year and I both dread and look forward to the long days of summer. I try to sign each of the children up for a couple of weeks of camp during the month of July. In August we go on a vacation and then all of a sudden, football camp starts and we are back in town, getting ready for school in September. All in all, the 10 weeks off pass by pretty quickly!
We entertain a lot during the summer. We have a pool and we try to invite a few families over each weekend for a barbeque and pool party.
I’m with Ryan up there. We also live in the south, and summer coming is *not* a reason to spend long days outside…lol, not when it’s 100+ degrees out and high humidity for days on end, unless you are at the pool or lake maybe. Summer is the most miserable time of the year around here, and I hate to be outside unless water is involved. We homeschool year round and take only the month of July off during the summer…this allows us to take long breaks during the rest of the year when the weather is better.
We will spend lots of time at the pool and lake, even before July, doing some school in the morning and then going out after naps to swim. During our month off, we’ve decided to do a bunch of those things around town that the kids are always wanting to do that Mom doesn’t make time for often enough…skating, bowling, mini-golf, laser tag, fun stuff the library is offering, art days at the museum, $1 summer movies at the local theatre, and of course longer days at the lake.
Summer times routines. I am so looking forward to this. The past 2 summers I spent in graduate school, so I am looking forward to a “real” summer vacation. I can finally go about my routine of getting up, doing a bit of gardening, eating breakfast on the deck, going for a walk on the beach, just enjoying the lazy hazy days. My youngest is 15 and hopes to be employed. The others are all working. When they were little we, like Danielle, sort of “fell” into a routine after a week or so. I am looking forward to July 4th week at the Jersey Shore, and then another week at the end of August. That is bliss for me.
Hello Danielle!
You are wise to caution about over scheduling. We need something of structure for the Summer. We tend to totally slack off, but this year I am hoping to help change that. We do follow a routine right before going to the beach (pick up toys in yard, empty dishwasher, etc.) So that isn’t bad. Thank you for sharing time out of your busy life to share with us. God Bless!
Danielle A.
P.S. I didn’t mean to send you three e-mails about the blog:-)!
This is the first summer in 21 years that I will not be working. I have 9 yo and 4 yo daughters and a boy due in mid June. I am taking the summer off on maternity leave. It will be our first summer home together and I can’t wait! Even though and infant is a lot of work, I plan on a lazy summer. My oldest will go to the grandparents for “summer camp” one week and maybe another day camp one week. We live near the beach, so later on I think we will go there and maybe ask Daddy to meet us after work. I am just so excited to get to spend so much time with my girls even though I am expecting them to drive me totally crazy before it is over at the end of August. Maybe one day I will be a homeschooling mom, but for right now, I can’t wait for the lazy days of summer even if it is 90 with 99% humidity outside.
Our routines get chucked as the days get longer, too, though our family too tends to fall into a routine (the non-routine routine?). We use the grill more, have dinner later, and stay up later. We all have to get up for work in the AM still (kids go with me to work at the parish), but things are slower somehow. (And since that’s the case, I can’t help but wondering why it flies by!)
We go to bed more often with grimy feet but exhausted smiles from all the outdoor play. Somehow, that captures what summer is all about for me, from the time I was a child: the not-as-clean-as-you-could-be tingle coupling with the smell of hung-out-to-dry sheets.
We’ll probably take some long weekend trips here and there, definitely make time to go up to the nearby horse farm for rides ($5 for 30 minutes on a pony – you can’t beat that!), and I think there’s a trip down to the New Media Celebration in the works too.
But before I get to thinking about summer, I have to enjoy the fleetingness of spring!
My 4-year-old son tends to be painfully shy by nature. But since warm weather has hit and he has been spending long hours outside “working” in the garden with his daddy, picking out grubs and such – or just playing nearby – he has been gaining so much confidence. It has been so good for his little soul. I know a lot of it is that he’s with his daddy, but there is also something therapeutic about lots of time outdoors.
We are trying to get back to the US for 4-6 weeks so i can visit our old life–weekly visits to the library and the connected art and natural history museums, watching baseball games (either the Pirates perpetually losing or my nephew’s little league), heading to the Outer Banks for a week—just enjoying the summer with family.
If not, it will be finding as much air-conditioned entertainment as we can as in the summer here in Shenzhen the temperature is routinely over 90 degrees with 95% humidity.
Forgot the Bored Box!
Its a ‘game’ to eliminate those dreaded words. The full directions are on wmch.stblogs.com but basically you write up a huge number of things to do on little pieces of paper. If child is caught saying “I’m bored ” They must chose an item and do whatever it says for 30 mins No Matter What! Its summer–unless your on your way to Mass Mom has to say yes (So chose your list carefully!)
We include chores, Catholic activities, fun things, reading etc. Boy things and girl things. My 12 year old son once had to play dolls for 30 mins which mean he spent time with his sister. Result: she was less needy and whiney and he was less bored with his own toys.
An important part of the directions is the lesson to the child: if you say I’m bored that means you are being boring to your siblings and friends. We will ‘save’ them from you for 1/2 an hour. For moms it forces me to ignore mess and noise and focus on the joy of summer and childhood.
I can’t take credit, it was an unschooling mom I met 12 years ago.
Summer in Canada looks like this….ahhhhhhhhh! We live near Niagara Falls and take full advantage of that. Then we travel North to the Muskoka’s. On the map Southern Ontario is very low into the states, almost Northern California, and very hot. We get heavy humid weather most of the summer. Up North, the air is cleaner, cooler and filled with adventures. We tend to stick close to home most of the summer and just take a dip in the pool here and there and do whatever sounds like fun each day. Less is more for our summer fun.
I have a confession — we are homeschoolers who haven’t homeschooled in weeks! The weather here has been beautiful, in the 60’s and 70’s. My 8 kids play rec league soccer and do drama and ballet, so those have been our only scheduled activities. By the time the soccer season is over and the play and ballet recital have passed, it will be 90’s outside and muggy and miserable. THEN we will come indoors to the AC and get back to school. When the weather starts to get cool again, that’s when we head to the beach (OBX) for a gorgeous week of 80’s days by the pool and in the sand, and off-season rates! Works for us!
I AM NEWLY RETIRED, AND SORT OF CHOMPING AT THE BIT! hOW CAN THE WORLD GET ALONG WITHOUT ME? i HAVE BEEN A FAMILY THERAPIST ALL MY LIFE, AND A PROBLEM SOLVER FOR OTHERS . . I SAW A BUMPER STICKER ON A CAR OUTSIDE THE SUPER MARKET THE OTHER DAY THAT SAID: RETIRED . . TIRED YESTERDAY AND TIRED AGAIN TODAY! THAT’S OKAY, TOO. NOT TO HAVE TO BE AT THE OFFICE EARLY, APPOINMENTS ALL DAY . . JUST SLEEP IN A BIT . . NOT TOO BAD . . GET INVOLVED IN A HEALTH CLUB . . SWIM . . AEROBICS . . WALK . . GARDEN . . PET MY DOG A LITTLE MORE! DOES THAT SOUND GOOD OR WHAT!