Gearing up for Summer

In four short days my Kindergartner will be on summer break.  She has been in school a LONG time it has felt like.  She started in mid-August when Iowa kids go back to school, spent 2 and a half months there, was home schooled for the month of November while we were transitioning to a new city and now is finishing up with the Minnesota kids the first week of June.  It has been a cool spring so summer has sort of snuck up on us!  The beautiful thing about being a little "settled" is that we have the next three months to explore our area, vacation (it was hard to do that last year while we had our house on the market), and just enjoy having three kids around the house during the day.  I know myself and kids though and I know that if I don't plan a few things that we will be set up to have some rough days in there.  So, with the help of some blogs and pinterest, I came up with a plan to have some structure to the summer but also to make sure we are having FUN!!  I really like planned fun.  My husband is awesome at the spontaneous stuff but I know that if I left it up to that we wouldn't be making the most of our summer. 

So first I thought about what I would like to have happen this summer and what needs to happen.  My overall "vision" for the summer if you will.  I knew I wanted to really enjoy being outdoors with the kids this summer and explore our new area, I wanted to vacation this year (because of various reasons we really haven't done a vacation since October 2010 so we were itching to do that this year).  I wanted to visit friends and family.  Also, I feel that both Andie and Isaac have been doing great with reading and writing so I wanted to have a fun way to keep that going.  I know that is something that could easily get put on the back burner.  And finally, I knew I NEEDED some help this summer keeping the house clean.  I will have three kids around, two potential no-nappers and I want to have fun and do fun things but know that I will start to get stressed if our house is messy. 

So here is the Sanderson Summer Plan

To address keeping the house clean:  I picked out 10 chores that my two oldest could help me with:  scrubbing toilets, vacuuming, dusting, etc.  I wrote them on 10 popsicle sticks and put them in a vase.  Each day (Monday - Friday) they each pick a chore and do it after breakfast.  When they are done it goes in the completed chore vase.

The house won't be perfect but I am hoping that it will help with the cleaning and I think it will be great to teach my 6 year old and 4 year old a little responsibility.  And they love to vacuum so I put that on there for them a lot because it always seems like we could use the house to be vacuumed!!

Next, what I am doing for the reading program.  Thank you pinterest for this idea!! I made a "board game" and Andie and Isaac will each be able to move along the board.  Andie is reading well so I decided that she could move one square for every 15 minutes she reads, either silently or outloud to us or her brothers.  Isaac is reading with help so he can move one spot for every reading lesson we do together (they take us about 15 to 20 minutes) or for every book he reads (he is starting to read those very basic books about mats, cats, etc.)  For every six squares they get a reward:  treat at gas station, ice cream, sleepover with mommy, 30 min staying up at bedtime, pick out redbox, etc. 

I made journals for each of the kids this summer.  Andie, so she could actually journal, and Isaac so he could draw pictures and work on his letters. 

 

Just waiting for them to color it now!!

And finally, the list of fun and adventure.  I took a bunch of ideas from blogs, pinterest and my kids and put them all together on a giant checklist and hung it on our door leading out to the garage.  I think it will be fun exploring our new area and going on vacations and having some planned things to check off but also doing some things a little more spontaneous (water balloons, making ice cream, etc)

 

So, as you can see, I am not an artist!  But I think my kids will enjoy the summer fun list and the reading program and I hope to have some help cleaning the house so I can enjoy my summer with the kids.