last day of school, summer begins, and our summer school plan

School is out and summer is in full swing. Let's look at these cuties on the first day of school vs the last day of school.

First day:

 

 

Last day:

 

They all look a little bit older and wiser, don't they? But isn't it crazy how much Kyler has grown this year??

Our summer break is so much shorter here because we are on a year round school schedule (which I love!!). But much to my older boys chagrin, we are still doing a summer school, of sorts, here at home.

First of all, I did not come up with any reward this year. I don't really feel like my kids needed it this time around. My kids are just getting used to the expectations in our family. And we have some other goals that we are working towards to get to Disneyland in the fall. And we are just trying to have a relaxed, yet productive, balanced summer. And it's working for us.

We all have our basic summer expectations. We get our work done in the morning and play in the afternoon. No screens until after lunch. Mom Time is around 9:15 each day (but that is pretty flexible depending on our day). But the littles and the bigs have some differences after that.

The littles are supposed to go through their daily jobs each morning. Those daily jobs include picking up their rooms, a house help chore, and homework time. Homework they do with me and it's just a little letters practice, singing songs together, numbers work, etc. We use one of Perry's star charts and do three things together. It lasts 10 min at the most.

 

 

 

The bigs created their own individual daily schedules. I just approved them. They are not held to their schedules by any means but it's been a good reference when someone is bored. Or someone starts bugging and bothering someone else. They are also encouraged to initiate sib time each day.

 

 

We have also begun a family study of different religions. Each week we have picked a different religion. We are researching and learning about that religion and then we attend one of their religious services. Our goal with this study is to foster respect, understanding, and appreciation for people of other faiths. We also want to deepen our understanding and testimony of our own religion. And it's just very interesting!

Mom Time is still my favorite time of the summer day. After a prayer, we have been starting by answering a journal question. We then take turns recording everyone's answers in a notebook. Then I share a little devotional. I've been using this book called "Q&A: Common Questions and Powerful Answers for LDS Youth" By John Hilton III and Anthony Sweat. We end mom time by reading a chapter or two from a book. We finished "Alice in Wonderland", "A Hundred Dresses", and today we started "Frindle". I'm hoping after that we will read "The Secret Garden". Usually the kids color or draw while I read to them. 

 

We spend the afternoons in front of the tv, swimming, playing, and hanging out with friends. I'm trying to make sure we have some kind of outing one or two days a week (even if that just means a trip to the library). But mostly we are just relaxing this summer.

We have a vacation that we are looking forward to soon and school starts back up again in four weeks. The summer is flying by!