Summertime

Our summer break has been great so far and *very busy*.  On Mondays we have swim lesson, and we stay at the pool to swim and lunch--yesterday we were there for four hours!  Tuesdays we have an art lesson and then errands to run in the city.  Wednesdays we like to go to a library program in the afternoon.  That leaves Thursdays and Fridays for other things--and they fill up quickly with visits with friends, spending the day at the little local private lake, and many other activities. Between all that and meals/laundry, the days are flying past us!

In the tidbits of time I can grab I've painted the trimwork in our master bathroom (we ripped everything out and are redoing it--I'm almost done with the trim, and last week I visited the cabinetmaker to order the new vanity), finished my second grade planning, reorganized our schoolroom, rearranged several bookshelves of books, created a mostly-done schedule for next year, tweaked my housekeeping routines and created some checklists to make life go more smoothly.  I will share a few of these projects soon; I love peeking at how other people organize their lives and I find it helpful, so in the spirit of communal helps I'll do some sharing.

I'm also trying to do some reading, but I'm discovering that winter is a better time for reading.  In my mind I'd while away the summer hours with a book while my children play outside, but in reality I'm too busy washing siding, pulling weeds, etc!  But I try to read for myself for at least half an hour a day, and I try to read to my children for 30-60 minutes.  I read to them much more during the school year, but we are going to make hay while the sun shines this summer!

One thing I will share is a few ideas on what to do with children in the summertime.  I have heard many parents say that they don't know what to do with their children on summer break.  My children are 7 and 3, and I do not organize their free time for them.  If I sense restlessness, I will pull out the baby pool, but otherwise I expect them to entertain themselves with minimal involvement from me.  Here's how they spend their free time:

*sidewalk chalk
*drawing (Finn is an artist and loves to spend hours drawing every day)
*baby pool + swimsuits + water toys
*building train tracks and roads in the basement/schoolroom or playing with the dollhouse or other toys downstairs
*doing random things
*looking at books (Finn is an emerging reader, so he enjoys books)
*creating things out of modeling clay or play-dough
*"crafting"-I will pull out the craft bin and let them have at it in the schoolroom
*sometimes helping us with various chores (Finn helps take care of the vegetable garden, he has his own chores, and I sometimes recruit him for weeding help in the flower beds)
*free outdoor play

I do read to them regularly and sometimes play with them (either toys or games, or make-believe--for instance, last week Finn opened a shop that sells marbled playdough creations, so he'd make some, I'd come buy some, and then I'd organize bookshelves until the next batch got made, etc.). They love to play store with me, too!

We live in the country, so we don't have 'neighborhood kids', although across the road live two little girls who are 5 & 4.  They are sweethearts and our children play together once every couple of weeks.

Those are the primary things they choose to do during free time.  I think boredom and unstructured time are good for children, as it forces them to be creative and come up with things to do!  My children do not watch any television, but I do let them watch a video a couple days a week while I exercise (usually Thomas the Train or LeapFrog), and they typically watch an episode of Blue Planet or Planet Earth once a week.  We also don't have any video games or do any computer-entertainment.  When I had a newborn and a 3 year old and it was the dead of winter....my 3 year old watched 1-2 hours of Thomas videos most days(!)  So I'm not a legalist on this point--but we're in a season of life when we just don't need much screen time.  So we avoid it.

I will say this: only children are a different ballgame.  The only child doesn't have the diversion of a sibling, so that changes the dynamic of the day!