Surviving Summer

Summer is challenging for me, as it is for many moms who stay at home. Routine is disrupted significantly, and we have lots and lots of time to fill. Some love the idea of free flowing days of no plans. I do not, nor do I have children that function well without structure (apples don't fall far from trees, remember?). BUT. And this is a big BUT. I am on a mission to have more fun with my kids, and to infuse a bit of flexibility in their lives. I also am trying very hard to be more intentional about the time I spend with them, not just trying to keep them busy so I can get stuff done. Around here, I need to start planning for summer in early March. This is when many camp registrations open and one of them (I'm talking to you, QH nature camp) is like a mad frenzy to sign up before spaces fill because it is so beloved. Adrienne is now (or will be in 2 weeks) old enough to do some camps and I decided to try and find camps they could both attend when possible, and to offer some new experiences (for Jillian this means drama, ice skating, and basketball. For Adrienne, it's all new). Thus began the quest to strike a balance between structure and "freedom". I think I have a pretty good calendar lined up, but we will see how it flows. So back to that intention I was talking about. I know myself well enough to know that I can easily get swept up in tasks and desire productivity, and that one task leads to another, and leaves me begging for more time with kids occupied so that I can prolong productivity. Thanks to Pinterest and a good friend, I now have a weekly routine that includes some fun together time for all three of us each day. On our fridge is a small dry erase weekly calendar that I can fill in with the activity of the day in the following categories:

Make Something Monday (craft)
Try It Tuesday (science experiment)
What's Cookin' Wednesday (kid kitchen activity)
Throwback Thursday (we play a game, read a book, or do something I enjoyed as a kid)
Friday Funday (out for a treat, playdate, new park, or some kind of fieldtrip)

The categories allow for weeks we are really busy with camps (meaning I can tweak it to be really short if needed), and also for weeks we have more time at home (the first make something Monday had the girls engaged in the task for almost 2 hours). So far it is going great. The girls are excited about it everyday and you can bet they won't let me forget! In addition, we are trying out more formal chores with a chore chart (this system still  needs a lot of work, but Jillian is especially eager to help) and I picked up a devotional book for 2-5 year olds that we have been reading at breakfast each day. Add in a Bible verse of the week to memorize and I think we have a pretty solid plan. Since I never can find anything I write down on paper I'm going to summarize each week on the blog with my activity lists/reviews and hopefully this will save me a bunch of planning/searching next year. One can hope.

So, the last two weeks went like this:

Week 1:

Make Something Monday--Homemade playdoh. Big hit. Both made their own batches. Used all my cookie cutters and plastic knives and giggle the entire morning away. Always a win.

Try It Tuesday--Ice Experiment; timed how long it took an ice cube to melt in a class (35 min), hypothesized if it would melt faster in hot or cold water, counted how many ice cubes it took to overflow a half glass of water. And then they just played with the ice and wanted to build igloos.

What's Cookin Wednesday--Peanut Butter and Jelly Sushi. HUGE hit. I cut crusts off bread and let them roll the bread flat, spread PB and J, roll up, and then slice. They ate them with chopstick trainers. We now make this all the time.

Throwback Thursday--Played Simon Says.

Friday Funday--It was the Vietnamese Wedding and I thought that was plenty of fun!


Week 2:

Monday--coffee filter art, using folded up coffee filters and paint dabbers. Our back door is now covered in beautiful sun-catcher type designs.

Tuesday--Soap Souffle. Microwaved Ivory soap to watch it grow, then played with the 'souffle'. Big fun, disastrous mess. At least it was a clean mess.

Wednesday--Ants on a log. Jillian loves celery now, so that's a win. Adrienne things 'ants on a log' is peanut butter

Thursday--Read my Velveteen Rabbit book given to me by my kindergarten teacher

Friday--Daddy was off! They had a morning of outdoor play with him.

Homemade playdoh

Ice experiments. This was a good distraction for them while their hair set in rollers for practicing wedding hair.

Peanut butter sushi was very exciting!

Coffee filter art

Our pretty back door

Ants on a log post return from the pool on a hot day