Originally published October 13, 2018
Just a few short weeks into the summer break, and it was pretty amazing how the school routine seemed like it was ages ago. And even more amazing how all the kids, as well as Tom and myself, quickly adapted back into sleeping in a little longer. To me, that’s one of the best parts of this laid back time of year!
It took us about a week or two to fall in step with our summer rhythm, and we were loving it. This summer didn’t look much different than summers past and that’s mainly due to the ages of the children. At these young ages, we travel as a group most anywhere we go. And the routine at this stage in our lives is largely still established around nap time/rest time.
I truly enjoy the fact that I’m able to spend these weeks with my kids. It always seems that the time off from the regular school routine is just too short. I remind myself regularly that through the joy and struggles of these little years, this will pass so quickly. In a few short years the routine will change, and we’ll be off to something new. So I want to savor it!
This summer was pretty open as far as our family calendar goes. Outside of our church’s bible school/arts and sports camp, visiting family on a few weekends, a tennis tournament for Tom, and a possible baseball camp for Thomas, we had a lot of open space. And I love it! Even though there’s plenty of open space during this laid-back season, we still kept a loose routine to our days. Here’s a peek into our summer rhythm and how we filled our space with a mix of structured and unstructured time.
Meal Prep- Just because it’s summer doesn’t meal our weekly meal prep goes out the window. We still do a weekly grocery trip and have a general idea of a handful of meals for the week ahead. As always, I find breakfast is the most helpful meal to have prepped or made ahead. It makes the morning routine smoother to have muffins, granola, or some yummy oatmeal ready to go. While our summer mornings are much more laid back, having a healthy, protein-packed breakfast ready to go makes getting out of the house for whatever we’ve planned for the morning happen a little faster.
Morning routines– For whatever reason, the morning routine is still usually a tricky time of day for me. I could help this by rising earlier than they do, but it’s summer and it’s glorious to be able to sleep in! After 30 minutes or so of everyone being awake, we’ll head to the kitchen to have breakfast.
Over breakfast we’ve been reading through their Jesus Calling for Kids devotional together. I love that the daily selections are short enough to keep their attention. I also love that Thomas is getting more practice reading from the Bible and looking up the verses for us to read. This is a sweet time of our day, but not void of interruptions of all types: spilled milk, people talking over each other and not listening, etc. I just pray that some of what we’re reading is sinking in!
After we clean up from breakfast, the big boys start on their tasks for the morning. They get themselves dressed, brush teeth, and “make” their beds while I get JL ready. After everyone’s ready we’ll head out of the house for a bit in the morning. This may be making a visit to the library, swimming, playing with friends, tennis lesson for the big boys, heading to the gym so mom can get in a workout, running a few small errands. I like to look ahead to see if we have any appointments or commitments set for the week and plan a few things around that. We’ll head home for lunch or, as a special treat, meet Tom for lunch.
Nap/rest time- After lunch the boys help unload the dishwasher. After that it’s time for some quiet time! Once JL goes down for his nap, the other boys separate for a while as well. During this time they don’t have to sleep, but Arthur often still does. They’ll each pick something they plan to do for quiet time and head to their designated spot. This is a time we all need. While we absolutely enjoy togetherness as a family, we also require space for ourselves. It’s important to me that they learn what it means to practice quieting themselves in a fast-paced world. So for an hour and a half during the afternoon, we’re still. I can often hear each of the boys wrapped up in pretend play and it makes me so happy. This is a part of childhood that their little brains need!
Afternoon time/screen time- The late summer afternoon always proves to be a brutally hot time of the day. The boys wouldn’t find many friends out playing at this time of day! After snack and waiting for JL to wake from his nap, this is when I’d often allow them to watch a show or a movie they picked that week from the library. I’d also use this time to prep dinner and get some one-on-one time with one child at a time helping in the kitchen. I’d also usually pick one day that we would work in a larger chore together and this worked well. Their attention spans are still so short that focusing on learning one thing at a time(dusting one day, mopping the next time, etc)works well. Outside of these few things, there was plenty of time for open play. One of their favorites was water balloon fights!
Dinner/after dinner walk/pool/playground- It didn’t take us very long into the summer to realize our favorite time of the day to go swimming or take a short walk to the playground was usually after dinner. Some nights if dinner was ready and just needed to be heated for us to eat, we’d be ready to hit the pool as soon as Tom got home and stay until dinner. Other times, we’d eat and head on a walk to the pool or playground close to the sun going down. Hands down, that was a favorite for everyone. Of course, that meant there were nights when swimming counted as a bath and we’d crept later and later on the bedtime routine. But that’s what summer’s for. Right?
Reading/learning- As always reading remained a constant thread in our days. This summer I let Thomas take over reading to the little boys before nap time. For the most part, this went well. Occasionally, things would take a silly turn; and I’d have to get them back on track. I’d hear, “Thomas is reading too fast!” frequently. Having him read to them not only fostered some one-on-one time for the boys, but also helped Thomas work on reading aloud.
Our afternoons were filled with a lot of down time. So with some extra time in our day, I’d take a few minutes to work with Arthur some more on his letters and handwriting. While I worked with him, Thomas would review over math facts. Outside of those things and an occasional simple science experiment, we didn’t do much else in the way of learning.
The non-bucket list- We’ve never been into the habit of making any type of bucket lists as a family. For that matter, Tom and I both aren’t much for New Year’s resolutions either. Instead of making a bucket list of things that we may or may not have gotten around to doing, we wrote down some fun stuff we did each month on the chalkboard in our kitchen. Less pressure!
The summer break came to a close a few weeks ago when Thomas started school. The little boys don’t begin their mother’s morning out program until a few weeks later. Then the summer for our family officially comes to a close the week of Labor Day. We close it out with our favorite trip to the beach for a few days with just our little family. It’s such a special time and one that we’re so grateful to spend with these boys!
