Our summer schedule

It's so far, so good. I have been really pleased with the way our summer schedule is working out. Here is what we are doing and it is the first year ever I have done it like this.

The kids always get up early and because I'm depressed about my running, I usually sleep in until about 7:30. I tell the kids that they can play the wii until I wake up. If they are noisy, I will wake up earlier. Then the chores begin. We have a job chart and they each have 2 jobs usually.

Then we have homework time. I saw on TV that most kids lose a huge amount of school memory over the summer. I refuse to let mine fall in to that category so I Googled "6th grade math" and other subjects like spelling too for each grade level my 3 oldest are at. I copied a bunch of worksheets at their levels and every other day we do math. The other days we do spelling, penmanship and I am going to add some history and art stuff that is fun too.

With the spelling, Jake has a whole list of words that he has to pick 20 words from, Seth picks 15, Heidi picks 10. They write them 5 times each and Jake has to do it in cursive which he hates and then I give them a test. It is actually a lot of fun. They are enjoying it and so am I. I can see why some parents like to home school. I can see how it could work.

I also had a web page pointed out to me by Tash that is free typing lessons. So they do that too. All in all, takes about a half hour to an hour depending on what we do.

Then they practice the piano. I bought candy kisses that they have to keep on the backs of their hands to promote proper hand position. That is fun! They are terrible about resting their hands and the kisses have really made them aware of it. At the end of the practice, they eat their candy. Heidi and Gabe wanted in on that fun so I have started teaching them the basics so they can have a kiss on each hand too!

It is amazing how well it's working. It starts the day out on a positive note and gets them in to a more cerebral state of mind. It actually makes the day happier with less contention and takes up some time so they don't get bored.

Next week we start swimming lessons so that will mess it up a little but we'll just push everything back an hour I guess. Then the rest of the day is free to do whatever. We are all usually done by 10:30 or 11:00

I'll be honest. I have never been this organized before and it makes me feel like a great mom to be doing it now. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!