Yesterday was the last day of school in these-here parts. An exciting time, right? And somehow it turned into another one of those mom’s-expectations-hit-the-fan experiences.
My plan:
- Happy welcome home from school hugs
- Last day after-school snack: Happy hour at Sonic
- Look through all their fun end-of-the-year papers and awards
- Let kids stay up until 10 pm! for the first day of summer and watch basketball or a movie together
- Get ready for camping (I already ran out and bought $90/worth of fun vacation food)
- Go on a 3-day camping trip as our summer kickoff activity. Ride bikes, hike, cook camp food
- Sit in a lawn chair and read books and work on my talks for EFY next week
- Start preparing the summer “master schedule” that will begin next week.
Reality:
- Boys dropped backpacks and bags on the garage floor and ran outside to play baseball.
- “Maybe later, mom” at the suggestion of Sonic. Then proceeded to throw baseball bat (at play) and hit my van with it. Time out. Ensuing arguing, crying and continued bad behavior. Missed happy hour.
- They dumped out all their papers in my entryway and wouldn’t pick them up. “That’s not mine.”
- Bedtime at 7:30. I’m done with everyone.
- Watched news and saw weather report: 3 full days of pouring rain.
- Canceled camping trip. Can’t think of a single back-up plan to do in the rain on no budget.
- I guess I’ll have to prepare my talks with three cabin-fevered children.
- Dang it. I need the summer schedule now, but I still haven’t thought through it all the way because I thought I still had time.
Help?
Diapers and Divinity 
The best laid plans…
If it makes you feel any better, my kids were rather surly when they got home from their last day yesterday, too. And they littered the entryway with 5 million papers and it took quite a lot to get them to clean them up already.
They ended up watching movies until 10:30 or so…I said today would be a do whatever they want day so I guess that’s what it is. But the rain doesn’t help.
Good luck getting your talks written and your children happy!
Yikes. I got nuthin’. Good luck.
I wish you luck. 🙂
Oh. No. Seriously?! Good luck to you. We’re 2 weeks in and I’m feeling done-ish. Plus, the ward father and sons was scheduled for tonight. I hear some crazy die hards are still going, but not my fam. Yuck. Hang in there!
My mountain of papers is still awaiting attention…4 kids…I swear we could save a forest by homeschooling and keeping the school from sending home each paper times 4!
I feel your pain, I have to come upnwith our summer schedule also. Just for the record, I would never have turned down sonic. Ever.
Oh, my. I understand this all too well. And I’m trying to keep my kids occupied while nursing a newborn around the clock.
The only thing I’ve set in stone is that they have to read for 20 minutes every day. That is a guaranteed 20 minutes of quiet for me 🙂 But I’m hoping to do something fun with the kids during the summer too. Let us know what you figure out, so I can copy you!
Summer scares me a little. I’m not good at routines. I fly by the seat of my pants pretty much most of the time. Not having to take Emma to and from school is seriously going to throw what little routine I have set up right out the window.
I think I’ll move into the basement and let them play on the wii all day long. Can’t kick them outside because there’s two cougars prowling around our neighbourhood – argh. Good luck Stephanie! Hope you find some sanity and manage to CLING to it. And some fun and joy too, as soon as that elusive sunshine shows up.
Five little words. Blame It On The Volcano.
I say do the camp out in the living room and make smores in the oven, it beats nothing at all.
Oh so sorry, Stephanie. That stinks. I hope it all turns out ok.
Summer School.
😀
I’m with Kimberly; I have to have structure ‘thrust upon’ me. My only advice is not to set yourself up for too much aggravation. Every day can include maybe 1 or 2 regularly scheduled items, like picking up rooms and emptying the dishwasher. I like the 20 minutes of reading, although I had to bribe 2 of my 4 with cold, hard cash to get them to do that. A day a week at the park, a day a week at the library, one big activity a month (like the zoo or something) – that’s as much structure as kids need during the summer.
If you have something you’d like to work on with your kids (like handwriting or spelling or something) don’t make it a formalized thing. Just bring it out – along with the predetermined reward – and say, “Hey, let’s work on this for a few minutes.” I promise, you’ll get a lot further down that road doing it on the fly than you will if you try to turn your home into an imitation of school. Unless you’re prepping to actually home-school, your kids will see right through this and resist you at every turn.
I’m actually interested in the work you do for EFY. Would you e-mail me and tell me how you got that gig?
Don’t havemuch to offer here since my kids are very young and not in school yet plus my routine involves nursing around the clock, so is different. But I remember my mom’s tactic for the summer after the school year of homeschooling, we would have an fhe as the summer began, they (my parents would read with us the scripture in d&c that says we need to be anxiously engaged in doing good things… or something like that. And gave us three days to put together our schedule for the summer as in the things we wanted to get done as we grew older. We had the frame of the day established by my mom and dad (like all the basics, the big 5 before breakfast (dress, make bed, prayer, teeth, pick up room) and the rest of the day) but we were in charge to fill the chuncks of time when things were done with our own ideas, needs, wants. It always amazed me, that we would want to finish the ‘house chores’ to get to our other more ‘fun’ activities. We could also put play time with friends in the schedule, but there would be a sign in the door in red, when we couldn’t get out and play yet, and a green one when we were done. That way my mom didn’t have to be mean mom, having to say no to friends. Anyway, this is too long. It did not always work well, not even barely sometimes, but the expectation was there and we ended up having fun summers.
Brace myself for the time (coming soon) when I get to be the mom of children in school and figure things out for the contrast that summer is. Good luck! Let us know how it goes and what worked for you all. Btw, thanks for conference book club, it has been great to listen to the talks as I nurse my baby and I take the time to think about them. I don’t comment much since my hands are usually filled with cute baby matter, But I guess I just made up for that right here 🙂
I’m hoping this helps me. Simple but who knows. My girls had fun helping me with it.
http://justme-leah.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-intentional-summer.html
Oh yes. This I recognize! Aren’t you amazed when they won’t do something wonderful like Sonic?
Good luck.
I have a feeling I will be writing this post in a few years from now. : )
Our summer vacation hasn’t even started, but I picture it being a lot like your reality. I’m scared to even share my master plan for fear the the difference might kill me.