Summer Schedule

Hike on Monday with my brother

I just printed our summer schedule for the kids so I thought I would share.  It looks an awful lot like our non-summer schedule, but I wanted to include things in there that we seem to be forgetting as all of the neighbors are home from school and we are also leaving the house more often to enjoy nature in this nice weather.

Here it is:

Summer Schedule

1. Morning List, Journals & Scriptures
2. Chickens
3. Breakfast (ready at or before 8am)
4. Family Work & Yard Zone*
5. Skills Practice
    Cassia: Writing, Typing, Math, Piano
    William: Writing, Math, Piano
    Jessalyn: Writing
    Dallin: Reading
6. Devotional (starts at 11am)
7. Quick Clean Zone
8. Lunch
9. Free Time (finish skills or jobs if not done)
10. Dinner
11. Quick Clean Zone
12. Bedtime List
13. Gratitude Journal
14. Family Reading
15. Chickens
16. Bedtime


Friends are allowed during Free Time on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.  On all other days, we must stay inside, in the backyard or in the wild (a trip to the mountains).

I should mention that "Free Time" is where I hope the real education takes place.  "Skill Practice" is only for learning skills that will help them gain an education.  They have each told me what skills they want to work on and then I help them with those, or they work on them on their own during skill practice.  The reading, exploring, researching, observing, creative writing, etc. all take place during their free time at their choosing.

Perhaps that helps in understanding why I don't want them playing with friends everyday during free time.  It's also because they tend to pick up some rude ways of speaking towards each other when they play with friends too often.  I liked an a post by Nicholeen Peck that I read recently.  She explains that to establish a family culture, children need to spend most of their time with their families.  I have found this to be very true.  When I get lax about letting them play with their friends too often, we seem to grow distant and start to forget the vision we have for our family.

Nicholeen breaks down the number of hours that her kids spend with friends.  Since we are not involved in any groups during the summer (like Knights of Freedom, etc) they do get a little more neighbor time then they do during the school year.  I added it up and it adds up to 13 hours per week (including scouts and Activity Days).  During the school year they are involved in more clubs but neighbors don't get home from school until 4 (and free time ends at 5 for dinner) so it works out well.

Spice will be joining a scholar group this fall.  She'll be doing that for about 5+ hours/week at first (The "+" is because they do several activities outside of class time).  She's also starting Young Womens so that's 1-2 hours per week.  She'll still be taking piano, choir, and she'll be involved in a play.  That will be about 3 more hours per week.  That will be about 10+ hours of peer time already.  She's getting to the age where she needs more of that I think.  I'm going to miss her though :-(  However, I think she'll do great.

Anyway, that last part had nothing to do with our summer schedule, but it sure has been on my mind lately.  They grow up so fast!

*I divided the yard into zones, each child is responsible for weeding keeping their zone nice.  Each child has a part of the garden, a part of the front yard, and a part of the backyard.

More summer pictures:

My grandma was able to stay at our house for a couple of days during her visit from Mexico. We took her to the Church History Museum while the kids were at choir practice. When they got done (it was a dress rehearsal - they don't usually dress like pioneers) we went back to temple square and toured the Conference Center. It was beautiful. The kids miss their great-grandma

More from the hike: