Summer Schedule Tips
July 2007
Each family has their own unique way of spending their summer months. With the normal school year ending we look forward to a change of pace and to the wonderful summer activities we all enjoy.
Some families will take a complete break from any kind of structured learning and schedule. Others will have some light “school” to do over the summer for their children, as well as maintaining a normal chore and work schedule. Some continue to school through the summer with a full and regular schedule in both school and home. We have been home educating our children for the past 18 years and we have found that it has greatly helped our children if we maintain order and semblance for the day with having regular daily chores. Also, while we do take a break from regular schooling a few weeks during the summer, we still have plenty of learning going on. We found years ago, that taking the complete summer off from regular schooling was too much. It created large “gaps” in their learning and it gave too much room for their flesh to thrive and for them to become lazy and undisciplined. It ended up being too hard to regroup come fall and it always felt like we were starting from scratch.
While we were young parents we found that each year also brought a huge change to our family whether it was a new baby (there have been 23 years and 8 children worth of new babies!), or addition’s and remodeling to our home (3 huge ones), or sicknesses (too many to count!), or a cross country move (to Idaho, yeah!) My point being that we began to realize that we needed to factor into our yearly schedule that there was always going to be something that would come up that would hinder our productivity and or our school schedule enough that I would feel pressured if we took the whole summer off. So…Mark and I decided to just take a few weeks off during the summer. This helped me sooo much to never again feel “behind” or pressured if something big should arise during the school year. We had already factored in this “down” time and were usually way ahead of schedule by doing it this way. Also, we usually take a couple of weeks off during December. If we’re way ahead, we can take the whole month off. This gives us time to really enjoy this special season as we make gifts, visit, bake, and do special family things together, as well as celebrate 3 birthdays in our family in last part of December. We don’t feel pressured and if for some reason we feel like we can’t take the whole month off, we can still take the last two weeks off and this greatly helps us to be more relaxed and refreshed during this busy holiday season and truly feel we can enjoy and celebrate our Savior’s birth.
One of the key areas for a summer schedule is to help our children manage their free time properly. We cannot just leave our children to themselves day after day. They will quickly get into trouble without direction and planning and organization. Children will tend to get into things and to choose activities like TV and video games if left to their own devices. These things in small doses will not hurt them, but it has to be monitored. If mom does not have a schedule or a plan, she may be tempted to just let the children go…and then she will find that they are surly, irresponsible, lazy, undisciplined and she will regret having not paid enough attention to what they were doing.
It takes time and effort from mom to think through ahead of time and put together a summer schedule but then all she needs to do once it’s written down is to look at it and do it! I believe children like having a schedule as well! I have had many mothers whose children are home for the summer and who have made a summer schedule say, that their children were thrilled! They enjoyed knowing what was expected of them and when they were doing each thing during the day. When it is written out, and posted children can see that there are established work times and established play times. And at our house…our children often feel that work is play! They enjoy working alongside us and we enjoy working with them as well. When you have a schedule you will find that you are more productive and diligent. You will also be very surprised at how much “free” time you all have! You will also not feel guilty for what you do during your “free” time, because you will have accomplished sooooo much during your scheduled work times!
While we want the summer workload to be a bit less busy and a bit more relaxed….we do still want our family to maintain a certain level of productivity. Chores still need to be done and the house still needs cleaning. The schedule we have for this makes keeping our home always relatively clean and neat easy to do because we do small chunks daily and because everyone helps. Also during the summer we have two main chores that take time and effort from the whole family….veggie gardens and canning, so we have to make adequate time in our daily schedule for these two important things.
Basically our morning schedule of Bible reading and morning chores never changes. This creates consistency and it helps us to put first things first. Also, we have found that the more routine it becomes the easier and quicker the jobs can be done. The children KNOW what they are to do and they get very good at doing them without having to be told and they become quite adept at the jobs.
We always begin each day with God’s Word. Our children who can read well on their own, have their own individual quiet times in God’s Word, and then we still have family time in God’s Word each morning. *We also have a family devotion time in the evening. During our morning family devotion time right now, we are studying the book of Proverbs, and memorizing Ps. 119, and the Westminster Cathecism.
After our time in God’s Word and breakfast, chore time begins.
By continuing to do our morning chores everyday throughout the year, even in the summer it helps our home to be neat and clean and ready for the day.
Our home is not perfect. We are though striving to always have it relatively neat and clean and organized. Having a daily schedule helps to give us a steady pace and direction for our day. It is a wonderful tool that helps us to walk out the important things that we feel the Lord would have us accomplish. A schedule helps us to be good stewards of the time the Lord blesses us with each day A schedule and purposefulness to not grow weary and quit, had brought so much peace and joy to our home. Our home is a much more pleasant place to be for our family and hopefully for those who come to visit with us. We also feel that having a well thought out and planned schedule has helped us to have “margin” in our day that is built in and purposeful. This margin has helped us to keep our marriage flame burning brightly and to have wonderful relationships with our children.
I also wanted to mention that I am glad to share what the Lord has shown us and what has worked for our family. But I would whole heartedly encourage each of you to seek the Lord and your husband before establishing anything new in your home or before making a schedule for your family. God will faithfully help you and your husband know what is right and what will work for your individual family and for the commitments you may have. I would encourage you to be faithful to pray before establishing anything.
By 9:00 a.m. each morning we’ve:
1. Had time in God’s Word (individually and as a family)
2. Sorted/folded/put away 2 loads of laundry (each child folds their own, Katie folds mine and hers, Mitchell folds Marks and his, Emily does her clothes and bath towels, Zachary folds his clothes and hand towels, Jacob folds his clothes and washcloths)
3. Spruced all the bathrooms (clean hand towel, toilet paper refill, wipe sink, toilet and counter, dust bust floor, straighten and pick up, empty trash…do what needs done each day. This makes the day we scrub the bathroom sooo much easier to do!)
4. Kitchen is cleaned after breakfast (little ones put away silverware, throw away napkins, put away the milk and cereal or other things that go in the fridge or pantry.) older children: wash soap dishes, load dishwasher.
5. Beds are made and bedrooms straightened (under beds, in the closet, dresser tops etc. what you don’t inspect they neglect!) *Make sure that you de-clutter and organize so that you can hold your children accountable and so that they know exactly where everything goes and can easily do what you’re asking.
6. One child straightens the living room
7. One child straightens the family room
8. Garage is straightened daily by 3 of our boys
9. Check the gardens. This takes about 15 min. We pull weeds, trim basil, take care of the tomato plants, harvest any ripe veggies.
All of this is done by 9:00 to 9:30. We don’t make any doctor’s appt. before this time throughout the year. We don’t ever need to leave before this time to go anywhere, so by making a commitment to not leave before this