New Normal--Our Summer Routine

A month ago I wrote about starting a new routine around here.  I kept to the routine until Memorial Weekend when we went on our first family camping trip.  After camping, I had a crazy messy house from all the camping stuff--laundry, bins of stuff to put away, a camper to clean out.  It was the last two weeks of preschool for Joy which meant field trips and parent programs which sucked up even more of my time.  Plus I was trying to wrap up the bulk of our homeschooling subjects before the craziness of summer started this week meaning we were spending more time than normal doing school.  Needless to say, our routine and my homemaking skills pretty much went out the window for those two weeks.

This week we are back in business...sort of.  Lizzy is spending the week attending our church day camp.  Next week we start swim lessons for two weeks.  All of which means lots of driving and breaking up of the schedule for the next three weeks.  

So I am going to have to adjust our schedule to fit our summer lives.  We've done our next schedule three times so far (last Thursday, Friday and partly today).  I really like schedules.  A plan keeps me on track and makes sure things get done around here.  Our summer schedule has been amended to this:

7:00am-Up, dress/shower, breakfast

8:00am-Family prayer time

8:15am-Math

8:45am-Chores

9:15am-Free time, errands, walk, field trip, etc

12:00-Lunch

12:30pm-Quiet time (David and Lizzy read, Joy listens to audio books)

2:00pm-Outside play

3:00pm-Snack

3:15pm-Free time

5:00pm-Dinner prep

6:00-Dinner

Obviously our mornings will be adjusted significantly until July due to day camp and swim lessons, but we're fitting in math and prayer every morning before having to leave.  The beauty of a schedule is that it's flexible.  My kids can do their chores after quiet time if we don't have time in the morning.  The important thing is to just know what your goals for the day are and to have a loose plan for how you're going to accomplish everything.