The plan that changed my life.

I wanted to share my 'good Mommy' summer plan with ya'll today.

Seriously. It changed my life a few summers back - and I like to share it because it really works.

Anyone with little bodies running around the house knows that summer can be a mix of bliss and boredom. Usually, heavy on the boredom.

Or, there's always the neighbor-kid issue... like when they're knocking on the door at 8:30 in the morning asking if your kids can play.

Either way - summertime can be a challenge.

Several years ago, I realized that summer wasn't working for me. I didn't like that some days my kids were driving me crazy by 11:00 am with their whines of "I'm BORED!", and on other days, they were out the door before I managed to even notice if they had changed out of their pajamas, coming home only for a quick lunch or to empty the snack drawer by feeding every kid in the neighborhood.

I needed a plan. An organized approach to keeping my kids occupied and a system of spending time with them so that we wouldn't drive each other crazy.

First step: I called all the neighbor Moms and told them my kids wouldn't be available to play until 12:30 pm each day - after lunch.

Second step: Make a schedule. The challenge? Make it interesting enough for all of us. The first year I did it that meant it had to keep my three year old, my six year old, my eight year old and me (34 at the time) happy.

Here's what I came up with.

Every morning, everyone has their normal chores - same as through the school year. There is more flexibility in the summer, so we aren't pressed to be done by any certain time, but I found that we could usually manage to be finished with breakfast and chores by 9:00 am. Sometimes 9:30.

When we're all done with chores and breakfast, we have Bible Time.

The first year, we read in Exodus about Moses and the plagues and all that good stuff. Very entertaining Bible reading. And through it all, we learned how much God loves us and how He always has a plan for us - even when we think things are just awful... Good stuff. In subsequent years we've read all sorts of Old and New Testament stories. This year, we're going to read Mark together. We also pick a big chunk of scripture to memorize. It takes all summer, but we usually memorize close to a chapter.

Then, the rest of the morning is spent in a variety of ways, depending on which day of the week it is:

Monday: Project Day
Tuesday: Science Day
Wednesday: Baking Day
Thursday: Outing Day

Project day means we tackle a large task together. It might be washing and cleaning out the car, or organizing the play room, or deep cleaning bedrooms. Sometimes we weed outside. Or maybe we'll paint something. It's a great way to accomplish big tasks - and the older they get, the bigger the tasks can be. Of course, many times I end up doing most of the work, and they end up goofing off - but at least the work is getting done, and we're together.

Science day is hands-down the kid's favorite day. I go to the library and check out lots of science books and come up with different experiments we can do together. We've tried all sorts of stuff together, from shadow tracking to growing crystals and mold, to experimenting with chemical reactions. It takes some planning ahead on my part, but it's worth it.

Baking day is flexible. Sometimes it's just too darn hot to turn the oven on. (I don't have AC...) Lots of times we go through cookbooks together and decide what to make for dinner. We'll go to the grocery store to get our ingredients and maybe to the Farmer's Market which is downtown on Wednesday mornings. If we just can't bear to bake or cook, we'll often do an art project on Wednesdays.

Thursday - outing day. This is my favorite day. We've hiked trails, tried new restaurants, gone to movies, gone to the lake, explored, walked, climbed and trodded through all kinds of new places. This summer high on our list is trying out the new Sonic restaurant and going on bike rides together, now that Mom finally has a bike. There's a cheapie theater that has free movies every summer morning, so we'll probably hit a few of those. Of course, good ol' picnics in the park are always a treat too. Give me a blanket and a magazine and a baloney sandwich and I'm a happy girl.

We take Fridays off from anything formal. Usually we all pile into the car and go garage sale-ing together. They each get a couple of bucks to spend and we see what kind of treasures we can find.

Interspersed with these activities, there's also a bit of 'school' work. They do workbooks and research and practice their handwriting... just enough to keep their brains engaged and the callouses on their little writing fingers nice and tough. Sometimes we borrow educational videos from the library - one year we learned some Spanish together and another we worked on sign language. They also get a 'P.E.' break on most days, which means they jump on the trampoline or ride their bikes, or on hot days, take a dip in the pool for 15 or 20 minutes. This gives me a chance to move laundry around or make a phone call or check my email quick.

It's truly made summer manageable for us. After lunch, they're eager to get outside and see the neighbor kids, or call their friends to come over to play. The rest of the day is theirs. Sometimes they get to watch a movie downstairs, or walk to the store for an ice cream. Whatever. I feel better letting them run free after I've built into them all morning.

This summer we're taking on something new - we're going to create a scrapbook together. Each day, I'm setting a 12 x 12 sheet of white paper on the kitchen island, with a variety of pens nearby. On it, we're going to record the day. Everything from what we did, to how long we slept in, to what came in the mail, to funny things that were said... and it will be in ALL our handwriting. Then, each person gets to take a picture to represent the day. We'll put the white page into a scrapbook, with the pictures and memorabilia of the day mounted on the facing page. It won't be a work of art, but it will be a record of our summer. And it will be all of ours. Cool.

So there you have it.

My summer plan.

It works for us. Maybe it will work for someone else... read it, use it, adapt it, copy it. Whatever. It's made me a happy Mom. And I have three generally happy kids during the summer.

And that's a good thing.