What's new

Summer schedules | pad patter 6.8.17

keepscrappin

keepscrappin

ScrapWithTheWind
Team Lead
Joined
Apr 2, 2010
Messages
11,303
It's the fourth day of summer and I still can't get on a regular schedule. Most summers are crazy around here, so I want a semi-flexible schedule this year. I had big plans to have the kids do 2-3 chores in the morning and work on math and reading for 30 minutes each. Then we would do a fun activity or hang with friends for the rest of the day. Well, it hasn't happened yet. We've done the hanging with friends and reading, but none of the chores. My house looks like a tornado hit inside!

We've all been staying up too late and sleeping in too long. No wonder everything's in chaos. I admit it's my fault for not adhering to the schedule. I've been so distracted with being in charge of the ward pool party. That's finally over, but now I have another project (making camp t shirts) that is taking all my attention. It's keeping me up at night, trying to figure out the best way to tackle it. There's not much money for it so that's why it's so hard. I want something cute the girls will wear again, but can only spend $5 each. The screen printing place is twice that for a basic design. My goal this morning is to make a decision on that project. I don't want it to eat up another day of my summer. I just want to decide and call it good so I can get my house cleaned and restart our summer break off right.

How about you? Do you have a semi-flexible summer schedule? Or do you just go with the flow?
 
I work full-time, as does my husband. And our kids don't finish school until the 29th. Our schedule this year is INSANE. Not only is there a calendar and a to-do list, but I've scheduled Monday night briefings to go over the plan so we can keep everyone on board. I think I'm going to scrap it. Once school ends, my kids have 3 weeks at Grandma and Grandpa's in Waterloo, Ontario. Followed by a dizzying (and pricey) array of sleepover and day camps (with a little bit of family holidays thrown in for good measure). For your t-shirts. Do you have any friends with a Cricut or Silhouette? iron-on t-shirt vinyl could be an option.

As for cleaning my house. I am hoping that once I stop working 10 hour days at work (I am switching jobs next week), that might happen again. Maybe, if I feel motivated.
 
I think you guys deserve the downtime between a schedule and summer... then when you start feeling antsy, then implement the new summer schedule. You might just need a break from a schedule.

DH and I keep the same schedules at work, so boys have summer camp. More fun, sunshine and happy, and way less stress! We all still get up early, so they have to go to bed around the same time every night. We are a relaxed family for the most part, but with summer, no school, and less soccer means less of a strict schedule. Summer just allows us to enjoy our downtime more often, get together with different friends, and relax.
 
@Juliestcyr - Thanks for the suggestion. My friend has a silhouette so I'm thinking I'll hit her up on helping me. I've been working on a design this morning so if all else fails, I'll print it on inkjet iron-on paper and call it good.

@jk703 - You're right. We do deserve a break. I don't know why I'm always so hard on myself and keep crackin' that whip! :whipThanks! :yourock
 
My hubby and I both work, too. My schedule does change though. Instead of the usual five days we change to four 10-hour days so I will work 7am to 5:30pm with Fridays off....bleh...not a fan. lol

My kids are lazy and aren't really into anything so they will be home and we will usually do something fun on Friday.
 
We totally fly by the seat of our pants in the summer...the only scheduled thing we have is our Wednesday movies.

We're on our second week of summer vacation here and I had every good intention of having my middle read and do some math each day, but it hasn't happened yet. I do have the girls make sure their room is picked up, shoes put away, dirty clothes in the hamper before bed; in the morning if the garbage bag and recycle need to be emptied they need to do that after they eat breakfast and vacuum the tile under the island where they eat.
 
keepscrappin said:
I want something cute the girls will wear again, but can only spend $5 each.
Click to expand...
Could you do a night where the girls could all get together and tie dye their shirts???? Our family did that for a family reunion and loved it. Several colors were provided and then everyone just did their own thing with them.

SCHEDULE????? WHAT IS A SCHEDULE??????? :)
 
Summer vacation starts for us tomorrow and I am totally looking forward to no schedule!! We fly by the seat of our pants the whole time and it's wonderful!
 
I work full-time outside the home, so summer doesn't mean much to me except that I can quit asking my son if he has homework and nagging at him for going to bed too late, etc. LOL Oh, and I save about 5 minutes in commute time in the mornings.
 
I have a hard time keeping a schedule ALL the time- not just in the summer! I'm naturally a night-owl, so I have a tendency to stay up way too late (even though I also like being up early in the mornings). I also work at home and am self-employed, so I set my own schedule there and only have daily shipping cut-off times to give me any sort of structure.

I'm a little better when Darren is home- he has to get up early for hospital rotations, but he is not always here. Most of the time I'm left to my own devices, which is often NOT a good thing!
 
Last edited:
No schedule this side of the Atlantic either. We are still n the midst of exams - not all going THAT well, and when the schools break up - end of June for 3 weeks, it will be staying at home, not having to get up early or do anything that does not have to be done. Yuck. And hiding at home under blankies watching tv if it rains.
 
My kids' early wake-up time demands a schedule, whether I want one or not. Since they're up by 6:15 (and that's sleeping in for DS!). The days are just way too long if I don't have some semblance of structure, even if it's as simple as "breakfast at 6:30, snack at 8, etc etc."

If my kids got up at like 10am or something, then the day wouldn't drag and draaaaaag lol, so maybe I wouldn't care about keeping our same eating schedule just to help keep the day from feeling overwhelmingly unending. I love my kids but the day can get ... tedious without a little bit of structure. Not a super rigid schedule, but just something to help all of us know what to expect.
 
This week was my daughter's first full week off from school and it has been rough! First off... she's out of school which means she's up late either out with her friends or just wandering around the house. BUT my son is still in school until the 20th, so he's up early and out of the house by 6:30. So I'm up late waiting for her to come home or chatting with her and up early to make sure Alex didn't oversleep for school. Second... she wants to do something all of the time. The plus side to this is that I've logged an above average number of steps for the fitbit challenge, but the downside is that I have gotten little else accomplished other than run errands with her. Part of me thinks that I should have told her no on some of the outings this week, but she's so busy during the school year with school and dance that these were all things that needed to be done... I just would have preferred to not do them back to back in one week.

We won't ever settle into a routine this summer I'm afraid. Clara and I leave tomorrow for a week in California (Disneyland and San Diego). Then she's in all day dance intensives for two weeks. Then we're in Michigan two weeks. Once we're back, Alex starts his second job and he'll be working all day most days between the two jobs. Clara has another dance intensive. We go back to Michigan in August for my in-laws' 50th Anniversary. Then Clara starts school on the 17th and Alex doesn't go back until after Labor Day.

I love summer and spending more time with the kids... but my goodness, I'm already looking forward to fall (except for the fact that this is Alex's senior year... sniff).
 
My daughter got out May 31, and we have taken it easy since then. I've been lax about screen time because I knew we'd be going on vacation next week and that would make summer 'official.'

After vacation next week, my daughter has art camp + soccer camp, spending a week at her grandparents' house/VBS, spending FOJ weekend with us at her uncle's lake house, day camp, 2 weeks of swim lessons, and then it's almost time for school again! Screen time is not as big of a deal if she's only home for a couple of hours at a time.

It'll be the 3yo who will be the death of me this summer. He refuses to pottytrain so he can't go to any camps or anything else fun, and without his sister here, he'll be (literally) all over me while I try to get things done around the house. We'll have a loose schedule but he's definitely feeling all of this threenagerhood lately so we'll have to modify if he's throwing a fit for no reason at all or otherwise being naughty and not able to go out in public and mind me.
 
The only schedule I'm instituting this summer is that we (me and Daniel), go to bed at midnight on weeknights and 1 am on the weekends. Wake up time is 9 am. That fuels our night owl selves and keeps us from sleeping all day. Other than that, we go with the flow. We've had a family staycation for a couple of days this week while my hubby has been off, so have gone to the movies and the beach and then will see family tomorrow and Monday, but most of the time it's quiet and easy-going here.

I highly recommend you choose a bedtime/wake time to stick to or maybe meal times . . . something that gives your home a bit of structure. The rest of the things, playtime and work time, can be flexible.
 
i so miss the 'unscheduledness' of summer (and summer in general!) We still try to keep bedtimes before 9pm though and have the normal 'non-screen time' couple of hours where they have to do something creative or scientific etc - ast holidays this meant that when they weren't allowed to play minecraft, they drew minecraft pictures! :eyeroll
 
I love the idea of keeping a sleep/wakeup time! I think I'm going to try that! Especially this month while I'm at Mom's.
 
keepscrappin said:
It's the fourth day of summer and I still can't get on a regular schedule. Most summers are crazy around here, so I want a semi-flexible schedule this year. I had big plans to have the kids do 2-3 chores in the morning and work on math and reading for 30 minutes each. Then we would do a fun activity or hang with friends for the rest of the day. Well, it hasn't happened yet. We've done the hanging with friends and reading, but none of the chores. My house looks like a tornado hit inside!

We've all been staying up too late and sleeping in too long. No wonder everything's in chaos. I admit it's my fault for not adhering to the schedule. I've been so distracted with being in charge of the ward pool party. That's finally over, but now I have another project (making camp t shirts) that is taking all my attention. It's keeping me up at night, trying to figure out the best way to tackle it. There's not much money for it so that's why it's so hard. I want something cute the girls will wear again, but can only spend $5 each. The screen printing place is twice that for a basic design. My goal this morning is to make a decision on that project. I don't want it to eat up another day of my summer. I just want to decide and call it good so I can get my house cleaned and restart our summer break off right.

How about you? Do you have a semi-flexible summer schedule? Or do you just go with the flow?
Click to expand...

Perhaps a smaller or starter screen printer could do them at your price???
 
Summer schedules here are pretty lazy. We just sorta go with the flow. But we do keep a pretty regular bedtime routine.
 
Back
Top