Summer Goals

Summer is upon us and in full swing! Not calendar official yet, but with school being out and the garden up and running it certainly feels like summer around here. We started our summer break with a week of slothfulness. It gave my kids time to recharge from their school-at-home, constant screen time schedule into a more relaxed, choose your own adventure schedule. I was pleasantly surprised to find them reading for fun. With their school year schedule this didn’t make the cut as often as I would have liked. I asked my kids to think about what their summer goals were and they all looked at me like I was speaking a different language…summer goals?!? Typically I am the program director around here, but this summer I wanted some input from them. After all, it looked like we would be spending lots of time at home for a change. I simply explained that when summer came to an end, I didn’t want them to look at the past couple months and wonder where the time went and regret that they didn’t get to do what they really wanted.

From the oldest (the goal driven one) I got a very specific list. She set out to finish a book for piano lessons, improve on her cello and complete a book series she started a while back. She wanted to get a job, but the former idea of being a bagger at the local grocery store lost its appeal with COVID-19 circulating. The second child wanted to get a job, then he didn’t, then he did. Not sure what the final verdict will be on that and pretty sure at the end of the summer he will blame me for the fact that he did not take the initiative to get a job. Although I understand his delay in applying, it’s the fear of growing up. I’ll admit that sometimes I share that fear – after all, I’m still deciding what I want to be when I grow up. This may very well be the last summer for him without a job, so it’s ok to live it up and be a kid one more year. The third child wants to learn to forge metal and make weapons.  I’m not even sure how to foster that desire, or if I even want to! From my fourth child there was a specific list, but not one of the same caliber of his older sister’s. He wanted to avoid mom & dad as much as possible, not receive any extra tasks, stop the requirement of daily chores and play video games at his leisure. He’s a work in progress. His list of summer goals prompted a summer goal of my own: to teach him what hard work means! I didn’t really engage the four year old in this conversation, but I think her summer goals would look something like this: be the boss, accumulate mass amounts of “treasure” and be able to go to Grandma’s house at her leisure to eat “smarshmellows” and drink juice. You can see why I didn’t feel the need to ask that one, right? My goal for her is to keep her underwear dry. The struggle is real.

So schedules are my friend in this house, but I also like change. We have tried every sort of chore chart, point system, required non-paid “citizen of the household” chores, allowance based chores, sticker charts and gem rewards. It seems like all of my systems work at first and then somehow lose their effectiveness and either need a reboot or rework to see productive results. The current system is just a simple binder with a 3-hole punched transparency over an individual chart where they can mark off their chores weekly with a wet erase marker. They all like marking off chores, and I like when they actually do their chores. We had to switch to an allowance based system this past year when one of the children started trading dollars for quarters because they were shiny. Seems like he missed the money-managing lesson so we needed to give access to money for him to practice managing it.

We are only one and a half weeks into the new and improved chore chart, but it seems to be working very well so far.  My favorite new additions to the chores this time around include an outdoor assignment, an organizational task and a workday with Grandma. The outdoor assignments are typically watering, weeding or chicken related. What I like about it being a daily chore is that it doesn’t take long to know that in the heat of a SC summer you typically want to get your outdoor work done first thing in the morning. First one up gets to pick his or her assigned job – no more kids waking up and saying, “What’s my outdoor job?”, then groaning when I announce we are going to weed the garden – makes my life so much better. The organizational job started with their closets. Removing outgrown clothes is one of those tasks that I love not to be doing for my older kids. It works better when they do it too because they know what they are actually willing to wear and can easily see what fits much faster than I can. It worked really well until the eleven year old bagged up his entire closet for donation. I was a little alarmed until he received a few hand me downs from his older brothers. Those helped, but I still wonder what he will wear for the rest of the summer. It’s a good thing he has an allowance to shop with! We live next door to our parents, and my mother-in-law needs some extra help these days. I think having a workday with Grandma as an additional task just one day a week for each child is helpful to Grandma and teaches them what it means to take care of family. And it’s more like four days of help and then payment for the help when we send the 4 yr old up on the 5^th day. That’s just helpful for us! Although Grandma seems to love her time with the little one, she brings a lot of sunshine and little mischief with her every time.

So what about you? What are your summer goals? I hope to add some helpful content to this little website, but the weather lately has been absolutely amazing! Seems like a crime to stay inside on a computer, especially when there are all the things to do outside with the yard & garden calling me. I have been sneaking in craft time to test some mediums new to me for an upcoming project/tutorial, but I am hoping to have more dedicated craft time this summer to see some projects to completion. I also took on a couple volunteer positions that will surely help me fill my summer as a youth group helper and camp craft lady.  I guess my goal after reviewing my summer schedule should be to avoid burnout in the chaos manager role this season of life has given me.

Hope you have a great start to your summer!