Like most homeschool families, our family has operated on a limited budget for most of our kids' lives. Some years we've had more to spend, but for the most part, things have been tight on a single income. For most of the year that's fine, but I used to find summers a challenge when the kids were little. Summer camp flyers started showing up in the mail. Friends would talk about the programs they were signing up for. At the same time, our heavy work schedule was winding down. What were we going to do with that time, but little to no money for programs?
Then one summer I hit on our summer schedule that actually worked, actually keep us busy, and genuinely kept us engaged. And I knew I was on to something.
This Summer Camp Schedule was loose enough to work around the camping and family reunions already on the calendar. And structured enough that I wasn't reinventing our schedule every morning. It allowed for some life skills, some downtime, and still plenty to do to keep my kids from getting on each other's nerves. It worked so well, in fact, that I found myself repeating a similar structure for multiple summers until my kids were working or making their own plans.
The following are some details about our summer camp schedule:
Our Daily Non-Negotiables--
Each morning the kids got up leisurely (usually around 8 or 8:30), and we'd have breakfast together. If they got up earlier, we would eat on the back patio before it got too hot. This gave time for me to remind them about their daily to-do's and a chance to give them a hug or a smile before we headed off for our individual work. For the morning, they each had to complete their "Bored" list:
--Be Creative---Spend 30+ min being creative... bake cookies... draw with chalk pastels... create something with origami... write a song... write a story... create with Legos... journal...
--Outside Play-- Go outside and be active for 30+ min... jump on the trampoline... ride a bike... garden... roller-skate.. play hide and seek with your siblings... sketch something in your nature notebook...
--Read--- Read for 30+ min
--Exercise-- Go on a bike ride... find a workout video on Youtube... take a walk (with permission) around the neighborhood.. break out those roller-skates again...
--Do something helpful-- spend 15+ min working in a chore zone... pull an extra chore stick... water the herb garden... sweep the front porch... read a picture book to a younger sibling...
These five things (sometimes combined with an online typing lesson or math worksheet)were the structure for our mornings. Sometimes it got a little tricky. My mischievous 7 year old tried to complete O, R, and E by jumping on the trampoline while reading. :-) So we had to iron out the rules that would work best for our family. But for the most part, it keep them busy and learning for several hours a day.
Daily Adventure Afternoons--
Here's the part were it got real good. (And required a little extra effort on my part)...
We decided to specify specific ideas (or categories) for specific days. I wanted to keep the categories broad enough that we could vary the activities, but also structured enough that I wasn't groping too hard for ideas. We took a large piece of tag board and created a Summer Bucket List together. Some years I reached for 100 ideas. Some years we had around 50. After the kids helped me come up with a list, we posted it in the dinning room, and I went to work creating categories for different days.
*Make-It Mondays: Our bucket lists always included lots of projects... everything from bird house kits to planting sunflowers... to making stained glass creations with pony beads (gorgeous by the way) to making a pulley delivery system to go between their rooms (genius). Monday afternoons were reserved for any bigger projects on our list that we wanted to "create." This gave me time to shop on the weekend for any supplies we needed.
*Think It Out Tuesdays: For some reason, our Tuesday late afternoon/ early evenings always included sports, etc so whatever we did that day had to be smaller, closer to home. This became the day were we watched documentaries we were interested in. Or researched information on a larger personal project. One year, my daughter spent this time looking up the cost of ingredients so she could calculate the profit margin for a cookie business she started.
*Wet and Wild Wednesdays: Wednesdays we were typically at the lake. Once everyone was swimming well (thank you, YMCA Swim Class), we would spend several hours at the lake once a week. Sometimes with friends, sometimes just us. If there was a week that it seemed the lake was losing its appeal, I'd plan slip and slide time or a water balloon fight, always with neighborhood friends, of course.
*TB Thursdays: We have a local children's museum (TB) that we were go to on Thursdays. The kids loved the hands-on exhibits and if all else failed, there was the reptile house. But sometimes this grew old, so we might find ourselves at a local historical site, a park we'd been wanting to explore, or a local factory tour. TB became our catchall day for exploring local sites.
*Friend Fridays: Invite a friend over... play with dolls or garden... I didn't might if the kids had a project that they wanted to make with their friend. They just needed to let me know ahead of time so I wasn't leave a much of kids at the house to run to the store. :-) And we always wrapped the week up with Family Movie Night and popcorn.
I loved having a loose schedule for our summer to keep us from the dreaded "I'm BORED!" (although I do realize it has it's place. So if the week was draining or we had a trip coming up, we could drop the schedule and everyone could help get ready. Or if we had too many days at home and just needed something to work our minds and bodies, this was there! It helped give purpose and enjoyment to our days. And was a whole lot cheaper than summer camp. :-)
How do you handle the summer schedule with your kids?
Posts
