Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Sandwich Days Revival

Even though it is the beginning of July and school has been out for weeks now, I am just now getting into our summer routine. We've been traveling a bit up to now and have only been at home for more than a few consecutive days recently. So while the rest of you probably have had your summer schedule running smoothly for weeks, I'm just getting started on that. To get my groove on, I am reviving a trick I created last summer that worked great for our family. Here's a replay of a post from last summer. The Sandwich Days are back...

School is out and summer is fully under way at our house. That sounds great. But for my kids, the wide open slate of a long summer day actually can be overwhelming. All school year they yearn for more free time, the chance to just be kids and have no schedule. But when that situation finally arrives, they sometimes don't know what to do with themselves. Their days during the school year are mapped out for them and it takes some time for them to settle into the freedom that summer allows. The most frequently asked questions in our house are "What are we doing tomorrow, later, next?"

To ease them (and me) into the lazy days of summer, I have created the illusion of a schedule. I call it our "Sandwich Days".The slices of "bread" are the morning and afternoon activities that we must do everyday: get dressed, brush teeth, make beds, practice piano, household chores and the like. Generally, the bread activities take short bits of time and really help to start the day. And there are bread activities in the evening too - baths, picking up toys, etc. The "meat" of the sandwich is the fun stuff we do for the rest of the day: swimming, bike rides, playing with friends and such.

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The kids so far like reading the daily schedule each morning and knowing what fun awaits!

After a few days of our Sandwich Days Revival, I am thrilled to see that my boys need this schedule less this summer than they did last year. They are growing up and are relying less on me for quite so much. Sniff, sniff. Silent cheer!

1 comment:

Whaddaya think about that?