Friday thoughts--kids' summer plans

My random Friday thoughts. . .

My weekly inspirational bathroom mirror quote.  I should have laminated these after Ben gave them to me.  Sometimes putting things on the bathroom mirror has water hazards :)  But I love this quote.  We do need each other.

So I am a planner.  Summers are a great time to relax and enjoy each other, but we also have to get things done.  We make goals and plans for each of the kids each summer.  This year we made check lists for them too.  I just put them in a page protector so they use dry erase markers on them, and we can reuse them each week.  I got my ideas for the summer plans from the book 3 Steps to a Strong Family by Richard and Linda Eyre.  A great book. Their 3 steps were traditions, order, and economy.  Their economy gave a detailed plan of weekly 'allowances' and then summer plans to raise money.  The allowances are earned and not just given.  My kids have weekly lists to earn their allowances every two week.  If they don't work, they don't get paid.  That is the way it works--at our house in in the real world.  Their summer plans they make goals for themselves in different areas--physical (shoot 50 free throws a day, etc), spiritual (pass off a personal progress project, read a certain amount in the scriptures, etc), mental (read so many books, do math games, etc) and then we assign a money amount to each goal.  At the end of the summer we look at their goals and see how they did and adjust the amounts accordingly :)  To help them keep on track, we made these weekly check lists. 

This is 14-year-old Miss O's.  Not everything on there has to be done daily.  The first six items must be done before they can have computer or TV time, or go with a friend or anywhere.  The bottom ones are weekly projects or a few times a week things.  

This is 12-year-old Miss E's check list. Again top 6 are daily requirements.

And this is 9-year-old Mr J's check list.  Same thing--top 6 are required.  Their "Project" changes day to day.  I choose it.  It usually involves their section of the garden (our garden is divided into 4 sections and each kid is in charge of their own--planting, weeding, watering, etc), cleaning out different parts of their rooms--shelves, dresser, closets, or it can be a project they choose and check with me.  The kids did a bunch of puzzles one day, Miss O made a school scrapbook.  

My 16-year-old Miss A also has a check list, but she also has 2 different jobs--babysitting and working at a local ice cream shop, so with working those 2 jobs, she has less free time than the others and less need to get money from me :)  But she still has her goals she works on for the summer--ACT prep, reading, etc.

The kids were scared when they saw this and thought they would never have free time, but they are finding out it works well.  They have plenty of time to do other things, and they have their most important things done also.

Yeah, I am a crazy, planner mother like that :)  but it keeps our summers sane, productive, active, and fun.

2012 Blue Jeans Week 28

Thanks for visiting Blue Jeans Momma.  It has been so hot here that it is not fun to be outside at all.  We have had to be creative and do things inside.  Extreme winter and extreme summer are not too different in that respect.  Here is our week. . .

Sunday:  We did finally get a little bit of rain and had a pretty rainbow at the end.  

Monday:  Indoor fun--oh the things you can do with blankets--blanket forts are our favorites.

Tuesday:  Miss O is working on making her own cookbook of family favorite recipes to take to college (yes she is only 12, but she is a planner), so she is making by herself every recipe she puts in.  Today she tried homemade wheat bread.  It was delicious!  Way to go Miss O!

Wednesday:  Mr J and Miss E are attending a daily kids' summer activities camp this week in the mornings.  Today they learned how to make rag rugs, and Mr J was showing me how to do it when he got home today.  His ended up more like a rag bowl than a rug, but that is okay.  Still cool :)

Thursday:  My previous post talks about our summer garden and how we did it a little different this year, and the results are very good.  Check it out.  Miss O is very proud of her harvest today.

Friday:  One of those way-too-hot-to-be-outside days, so we played with magnets inside.  Mr J likes to make the little triangles spin.  It seems like the kids have lots of toys we never play with, so on 'inside' days it is nice to hunt through and play with things that we haven't in a while.

Saturday:  Make my day--this note was on my nightstand this evening when I went to bed.  It was from Mr J.  I smiled as I went to sleep that night.

Thanks for visiting and hope you have a great week!!!

Blue Jeans Week 27

Finally got a little rain and some cooler-only 99 instead of 104-temperatures :)  so we are doing good!

Sunday:  Miss E reads to Mr J.  Love it when the older girls read to their younger brother.  So sweet!  Of course 5 minutes after they are done they are fighting with each other, but at least we have a few minutes of peace when they read to each other :)  We will take what we can get. 

Monday:  Went to the city today, and whenever we go we hit Costco--our favorite store.  They always have such pretty flowers, and today they had these awesome pinecone type flowers--don't know the name--the girls were so impressed with so Miss A took a picture.  Anyone know what they are called?

Tuesday:  The library was having a Spiderwick mini-camp this week.  Miss E is making her fairy/sprite house.  Love the library.  Love that the mess is there and not at my house :)

Wednesday:  Summer fun--swim in the pool to keep ourselves cool

Thursday:  It seems like in our house someone is always on the piano--with 4 taking lessons.  Got a shot of Miss O getting her practicing done today.

Friday:  Had a church camp out this weekend.  Mr J and his friend enjoying their meal in between their swimming in the lake they camped by.

Saturday:  Ben and Miss A enjoy the lake on the camp out. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Blue Jeans Week 25

We had a great 4th of July weekend.  Didn't do too much, kept it low key, watched fireworks from our back yard, went swimming, BBQ, Ben slept with the kids in a tent in the backyard, and enjoyed being together as a family.  Hope you all had a good one!

Sunday:  Our kids really like paying games--board games, card games, etc.  This afternoon they played PayDay with Ben.

Monday:  For part of our 4th of July dinner Miss E made patriotic strawberries dipped in white chocolate with blue sprinkles.  They were yummy!  She saw them in Family Fun.  Ben was her helper :)

Tuesday:  I love to fly our flag.  So grateful for our country, freedom, and the men and women that work so hard to keep it that way!  God bless them and their families!

Wednesday:  Nana taught Mr J a duet that they can do together.  Having a sucker in his mouth must have helped him play better :)

Thursday:  Like I have said before, we love the library and are there lots in the summer.  For each pound of books the kids read they get to donate a penny to the library for new books.  Mr J adds his 10 pennies for reading 10 lbs this week.  He is up to 100 lbs for the summer so far--super reader!

Friday:  Classic summer shot, I am watching the kids in the pool--love summer time!

Saturday:  Got up to a city and a Toys-R-Us to get these Poptropica toys.  My brother is a web designer for the kids' online game (he does the people and scenery), and they just came out with some toys from it.  My brother designed these toys.  The kids were so excited to get their Uncle's toys!  If your kids aren't Poptropica fans, they should be, it is a safe, fun online kids game, and so much fun!  All of my kids ages 6-13 play it.  Check it out  http://www.poptropica.com/

Hope you all have a great week!  I am getting caught up on my paper Project Life this week.  Catching up on my journal cards and putting photos in.  Love it!

  

Blue Jeans Week 21

It is always so fun when family comes.  We just loved having Ben's parents here for a week.  We wish they could come every week!  We love you Grandpa and Grandma!

Sunday:  Playing Yahtzee with Grandma and Grandpa.  That is such a fun, classic game.

Monday:  Went on some fun hikes with Grandma and Grandpa and found this pretty waterfall.

Tuesday:  Grandma and Mr J.  He was excited to have Grandma help him with his piano since she was a piano teacher for years.

Wednesday:  One of our favorite summer activities--putting the sprinkler under the trampoline.   Mr J and Miss E love it!

Thursday:  Going to the library--we go to the library lots in the summer--sometimes every day.  We love the library and are going to read a ton of books this summer!

Friday:  For the last 2 weeks the girls have been participating in a children's summer theater workshop.  At the end of the 2 weeks they put on plays.  Miss E was the "meanwhile character" in her play that came out in between each scene and said, "Meanwhile" or "40 minutes later" and she did it in a very villain-like way, and she turned out to be the play's villain.  She did awesome.

Saturday:  Miss A was the narrator for her play and Miss O was the dragon--or the turtle with a shiny cape as she told me :)  So much fun!

Hope the summer is going well for all of you and that you have a great week!

 

What do you do in the summer time?

Oh what do you do in the summer time when its a 106 outside????

Okay the official temp isn't 106, it is 96, but we have a wonderful thing called humidity, and the heat index is 106. That means even though the temp is 96 it feels like 106. Ugh. . .so

we swim in a pool to keep cool (love the goggles)
or go around on the lazy river,

or bang on an African drum,

or find every blanket in the house, every extra chair, and every spare chip clip and redecorate the family room. Is that what you do?? So do I :)

Drumming on Drums!

Have you ever read the book Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins? If not, you are missing out on a choice childhood picture book. Go check it out. It talks about "Millions of fingers! Millions of thumbs! Millions of monkeys Drumming on Drums! Dum ditty, Dum Ditty, dum, dum, dum" This week we had millions of monkeys making drums and then drumming on them. We are so blessed in our town to have a fine arts center that has amazing programs for kids that are either free or very reasonable. Case in point--for 2 weeks my girls participated in a kids theater workshop--every day for 2 hours for 2 weeks, they got a t-shirt, snacks every day and a $5 DQ gift card at the end, and it cost $30. Next month my kids are taking week long art classes, choir classes, African drumming classes, and with each they all get a t-shirt, snacks, and $5 DQ card and the classes range from $10 to $15 each. Lots of cheap summer fun. Can't beat it. It is amazing. We are very blessed. So this week they had a free drumming class where the kids got to make their own African type drum. The girls all went and loved it.

Miss E makes her drum. They covered them with a goat skin top. Then the day after they had a big community drumming circle where everyone participated.
Miss E, far left, drumming on drums at the community drumming circle.

Miss A with her drums and cool percussion instruments they had to play.

And Miss O drumming on a drum. Feel the beat. Dum ditty, dum ditty, dum, dum, dum.