Summer

My oldest just had his last day of Kindergarten. I know. I can't believe how quickly the year has gone by! He's had summer breaks in the past, but his preschool went until mid-July so I only had 6 weeks without the structure that school adds to our lives.

Historically, this time has been, well, not good. Every morning would begin with some sort of screen time, and getting the screens turned off so we could go out and do something, anything, often resulted in a big fight. But this summer I want things to be different. And I think I know the key, but I don't really like it: I have to be on top of our daily and weekly schedules.

Over the past year I've been doing lots of soul searching (think Myers-Briggs and Enneagram, taking self-study courses and just trying to be more introspective about myself and the choices I make). I've realized that while I dislike a strict schedule, I also really like knowing what to expect each day. Yes, I realize that this is a contradiction, and it's something I'm trying to come to terms with and balance out. (If you care, I'm an INFP and a 9).

Here's my plan to both have a plan but not have a strict schedule:



Zeke and I are going to agree ahead of time to our basic daily schedule, and also a basic weekly schedule. So far it's been working!

What's working less well? My attempt at a daily schedule. I haven't been as strict at enforcing bedtime so far this week (which is not a terrible thing since my kids will sleep in if they stay up - I know lots of kids aren't like this!). So we've all been getting up later and we've been starting later. I'm trying to give myself grace this week to not be perfect, but I want to get us back to getting up earlier and getting out of the house before 11 o'clock.

That's my goal for next week! I will keep you updated on the whole endeavor, I'm sure you're riveted. But really being this disciplined is not my strong suit, so it's kind of a big deal that I'm giving it a go.

How do you keep your unstructured time productive? If you have kids, what are your strategies for summer? We love your comments and input!