First Week of Summer

I really love summer.  I love having my kids home and having the chance to spend extra time with them doing fun things and helping them with things that they are needing help with.  I love the warm weather (it doesn't get hot here, which for me is a downside to living here.  I think our high last year was 85 which is about fifteen degrees too cool, in my opinion, but it works.) and I love to work in my yard.

This year I found out that our little community pool would not be opening due to some financial difficulties.  Suddenly I was way less excited for summer and more nervous wondering what I would do with the kids in all of our spare time.  But, summer is here and the first week came and went and we all survived.  

I was looking forward to a slower pace, but this week was pretty full.  We had something (some type of commitment or appointment, not just something to do) every. single. day.  Hopefully it doesn't keep up like that!

Memorial Day we went fishing.  It was fun even though we didn't catch any fish.  Better luck next time.  Probably would help if we had weights and sinkers so that the bait didn't just float on the top of the water....

Tuesday was the first real day of summer and by 10 o'clock I was beginning to count the days down for when school would start.  The boys don't know how to do summer.  They are used to being shipped off with a couple hundred other kids to 'camp.'  While conditions and care are less than desirable, at least BoyOne could sneak off the premises every day for most of the day and be with his friends doing who knows what by the Sea of Azov.  I have no idea what BoyTwo ever did other than drive everyone crazy:)  So, on this first day of summer when BoyOne couldn't get ahold of any friends (because they had plans, were out of town, couldn't hang out, or were already somewhere else), he had a bit of a meltdown.  Like four different times.  He also asked at least twenty times what he could do because he is so boring.  (love those language mistakes:))  That's pretty much when I started thinking that summer was going to be a disaster.  As the week wore on, he got a little more used to the flow of things and I began assigning jobs when he asked me what to do.  Magically, the whining has stopped!  We all realized we would survive (some days more easily than others) and now it's all good.

One thing I have to be really good about is being very structured.  Structure is good for most kids, but for a few of my kids, it is vital.  Some days I wish I could just say, yeah whatever, just do whatever you want, etc.  But they can't handle that kind of limitless freedom.  They come unglued.  So, structure it is.  I have set up a very complex (or at least needing more attention from me than being self-sustaining) daily schedule where the kids can earn points (individually) throughout the day.  As soon as x amount of points have accumulated they can select from the grab bag.  Accumulating enough points to get the grab bag takes approximately 6 days, weekends are not included.  The three bigs have to do a little bit more than the littles and earn a few more points to get the grab bag, I take away points for excessive whining and fighting and tattle-telling.  Extra points can be earned and specific ways to earn them have been set.  The grab bag contains a variety of things from the dollar store, along with things like 'get an ice cream cone' or 'get a slushy' or '$5'.  They have to draw from a jar to see what they get (it's written on a piece of paper), or they can decide not to take their chances and instead opt for $2 cash.  We pay well.  haha.  So far it's off to a good start.

My hope is to not only provide structure, but to get the kids in some good habits (brushing your teeth not only daily, but twice daily!  A certain boy of ours still doesn't do this unless forced to, exercise-a younger certain boy has no physical stamina unless it's when he is raging and beating someone up, journal and letter writing, etc).  I am also doing a lot of school catch up this summer, helping kids with things that they struggle with or for whatever reason did not grasp or learn. 

That's where we're at!  Hope you all are off to a fabulous start of summer!