Monday Morning Musings - School's Out For Summer!

As the children slept in on their first official morning of summer break, they had no idea that I was downstairs planning ways to make their summer miserable. OK, really, I'm not that evil. But I was makin' plans. 'Cause I am always the woman with the plan. Dan. The three oldest slept in the playroom and this is how I found Aubrey this morning. You can't tell very well from the picture, but her feet are on the floor. She is 1/2 on the couch and 1/2 off. I don't know how she was able to sleep like that.

I let them sleep in as long as they wanted (I'm buttering them up for what is to come) and then we had "First Day of Summer Waffles" complete with celebration candles. We sang a chorus of "School's out for summer, school's out forever!" before blowing the candles out.

If you have been reading my blog for very long, you will remember my "Summer Fun" chart I make every week showing what we will be doing. It made it's first appearance on my mud room wall early this morning. After breakfast, when I told the kids it was up, they made a mad dash to see what was on it. I really wish sometimes that I could be more unstructured, and just kinda like whatever, go with the flow, mellow mamma. But that just isn't me. I have to have a plan at all times. I am one of those people that you probably wouldn't want to go on a relaxing vacation with because I operate on a schedule and I want to know exactly what we will be doing everyday so that I make sure we get everything in that I want to get in. I am not so structured that I am inflexible. This chart is just to give us an idea of what is happening. Sometimes things come up and we have to change things, or sometimes we just don't feel like doing what it says one day. But anyways, here is this weeks chart:

On Tuesday's we will be having a "Heroes In History" lesson. One week we will learn about a hero from the Scriptures, and the next week we will learn about a hero from American history.

I also revamped my "Summer Chore Charts". I have different charts for the school year. I am including it because last time I said something about chore charts I had a bunch of people wanting to know what I had on them. So here they are:

In the middle of each kids chart is a "Weekly Focus". I am rotating them for each kid. I have "Meals", "Laundry" and "Dishes". I am the kind of person who would rather have everyone clear out of the kitchen and stay outta my way when I am cooking. And I also have this thing about me being the only one who can load the dishwasher or sort clothes, because I am the only one who can do it right. But I have realized that that is not helping my kids to learn these basic life skills that I am supposed to be teaching them. So now they will be learning how to do those things, and I will be learning how to let go.

HAPPY SUMMER!