Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Summer 2007

The summer of 2006, with the exception of our family trip to the beach, was a complete disaster. I was new to being a mom of three. My sons were new to almost every experience they had. They needed more structure, something I don't particularly enjoy in the summer and didn't implement as needed. They couldn't understand that because we didn't go to the pool one day did not mean they would never go again. Their responses to not getting their way (as well as my response to their responses) made a house full of noise, disorder, and unhappiness. A lot of cleaning was left undone. We had to do a lot of fixing things they broke normal repairs.

We lived in chaos, trying to have fun together, but disappointingly, in the end , we were all overjoyed about school starting, except for my daughter who was content, even happy, to be at home by my side.

This school year, we have come a long way. We understand each other better. We have learned about ourselves. God has taught us about Himself. I do not want to go back to last summer.

This summer, I am determined to have a game plan. A friend wisely recommended that I make a few goals for the summer, and then order my summer around accomplishing those goals. She also suggested that I give more structure to my son who needs it, and more freedom to the ones who don't, while still accomplishing those goals. For example, one son may need a schedule for his day. My other son may need to know what must be accomplished by week's end, but I can leave him to figure out how to accomplish that.

With this in mind, here are my goals for the summer, in no particular order:

1. Read some books together. My goal is to read seven or eight books together, and then the children will have some reading to do on their own. Our current book list includes Shanghaied to China (a Trailblazer fictional story that shares part of the true story of Hudson Taylor), Spy for the Night Riders (another Trailblazer book, this time involving Martin Luther), Traitor in the Tower (A Trailblazer book involving about John Bunyan), a biography about Walt Disney, a biography about Betsy Ross, The Call of the Wild, and Little House on the Prairie.

2. Work on math skills. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is that my son will hopefully be in a different school next year with a tougher math curriculum, and thus he needs some help catching up to others in his grade.

3. Physical Exercise. My boys NEED this, my daughter loves it, and I could certainly do with some as well. To this end, we will be spending time outdoors and participating in some summer half day camps as well as swimming.

4. Household Chores/Projects. Being part of a family means pitching in to be good stewards of what God has given us. Also, we need to teach our children how to do certain jobs for the time when they eventually move out of our homes. Thus, this summer, we'll be doing some regular chores and some special projects around the house.

5. Cooking. My children all want to help in the kitchen. Honestly, this is often difficult during the school year. I want to take the time to teach them how to cook some things this summer. I haven't decided if this will mean one night a week per child or several nights a week with all the kids.

6. Scripture Memory. I will be memorizing trying to memorize the book of Philippians this summer. I would like my kids to memorize part of it. I am still trying to decide which part, but it will probably be the second chapter. In any case, their minds soak up so much information it should be a piece of cake to them, right?

7. Time with extended family/Fun. Summer also provides us with extra time to spend with out of town grandparents and other family members, and we would like to do some of that as well as create some fun family memories.

8. Catechism/Daily Bible reading. Last summer, we worked on a catechism but once school and thus, AWANA started, we fell out of that habit. We will be picking that up again. Also, now that all the kids can read independently to some degree, I want them to be in that habit of daily spending time in the Word.

Given camps, VBS, time away with relatives, etc., it will be hard to have a firm schedule for the summer, so at the moment I am thinking a weekly one will work better.

What are some things that have worked for your family during the summer? I would love to read your ideas on this subject.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i wish i could be an Oue this summer