There are only FOUR more school wake up days until summer is here! Our family cannot wait, since four out of five of us treasure our pillows and sleep. Apart from sleeping, we have a lot of plans ahead! Here are just a few:
- Rob and I will be going on a prayer/reflection retreat in Colorado
- Maddie and Whit are at Springhill middle school camp.
- Belle gets to go hang out with Grandma’s, Grandpa’s and cousins in Chicago
- Ellie the dog gets to hang out with all her dog buddies at her favorite dog hotel in town
- Belle is so excited to go to Springhill Day camp at GCC with her best buddies. (she keeps telling them WE GET TO YELL IN THE HALLWAYS AT CHURCH!)
- We get a “staycation” at the end of June together as a family
- We are pulling the plug on cable on our at home televisions. When I walked in on my girls watching “Kid Killers” the other day, it sealed the deal. Plus, we will save about a hundred dollars a month.
- Limiting “Screen Time” for the kiddies overall. One hour of reading gets them an hour on the computer or their iPods.
- Maddie is going on a Mission trip to Chicago with GSM and Whit is going on a local mission trip. So proud of them both.
- Cash for books–if the girls read “selected” books that Rob and I think would help develop their little minds a bit more than “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books, we pay them per book
- We are spending the last week of July at Hilton Head, SC. None of us have ever been there, so we are excited!
Mostly, we are looking forward to the low key days with not much agenda. I love having my kids home in the summer. I am sad by all the parents on Facebook or Twitter that are already complaining about “having kids around” all summer. There is nothing I enjoy more than a houseful of kids. We are jumping in to summer and we can’t wait!
Do you have any plans for this summer? I’d love to hear what they are and where your adventures will take you!
Love the idea about paying for reading. I know one child of mine would love that incentive. As for cable, we canceled ours about 4 months ago and have never really looked back. We do have a Roku that lets us watch Netflix and Hulu but there are serious commercial limitations and Netflix even has the option to watch Just for Kids items so all they see are kids shows. Sounds like a great summer! (Baylee is excited for Springhill, too!)
Sounds like a great plan for the summer! Big thumbs up on pulling the cable. We pulled ours before our kids were born and they are better for it – as are we. Since network TV has nothing, our big screen stays dark almost every day.
We have an overriding theme for this summer; instead of schoolwork, our kids will spend that time each day learning or increasing two new skills of their choosing, like guitar, drawing, photography or sewing. It’s their choice and they’re excited about it! We’re also engaging them in furthering basic life skills like gardening and cooking, financial management etc. Oh, and books. Summer reading is huge around our house.
We’re taking a road trip to Ft. Lauderdale (in July!!!) as our children will be competing in the AAU National Taekwondo Championships. Planning on taking our time and making lots of interesting stops along the way, including a couple days at Disney and maybe hitting the Florida Keys. We’re also planning on a couple shorter, two-day trips, like museum-hopping in Chicago.
We can’t think of anything better than having our kids around! At 14 and 17, they’ve become these wonderful, thoughtful and very funny individuals. Nobody else we’d prefer to hang around with more! We’re cherishing every moment before they “launch” as adults in a few short years.
We really love our life without cable- I think you will too. I was going to pick up some literary classics for Ethan and I love the idea of giving him an incentive to read them so we can get him away from the graphic comic book reading. I am working on a printable punch card for our site for screen time. 2 punches per day (2 hours) since my kids get way too addicted to the computer. I love your summer goals, Michelle!
We value our sleep in days too!
Matt is gathering up every last ounce of courage and going on the waterpark trip with GSM. Maybe camp next year when he knows more of the “big kids”.
Danny and Karina are over the moon excited for Springhill day camp.
Zachary is looking forward to having his big brothers and sister home to play with him.
We are planning a trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s farm in ND.
Best of all…NEXT MONTH WE FINALIZE KARINA’S ADOPTION!!!!!!!!!!
You won’t hear this mom complain about having kids around all summer. Having kids around is my dream come true.