Getting the Kids Ready for Summer!

I am so excited! Summer vacation starts a week from Friday! We are planning to have a bit of structure but only to make it as fun as possible. What we have found in the past is that we hang out in our pajamas until way past noon and the day is over before we know it. This year it is gonna be different! This year we will have routines! This week I will go through the process of getting us organized for summer. We will purge the school year first. I have a wall dedicated to the children's art work. We will be putting favourite pieces in a scrapbook and completely empty the wall for our new summer creations. next we will reboot the bulletin board. This is the place where I post our routines, schedules, meal plans and calendar of events. When I get them set up I will post a picture (I have a camera now!)

The routines are guides. They are what we do on a "typical" day. Of course not all days are typical. Some parts will always be the same like the morning routine because we have to get up and get ready to get going everyday. But sometimes we will have field trips and sometimes we will stick close to home all day. The routines I will post below is for such a day. I cannot stress enough how much easier and stress-free life is since we have started using routines. Here they are for you to see and maybe get inspired to start your own. I promise you won't regret it!

Children’s Morning Routines

• Get up and make your bed immediately
• Go to the dinning room for breakfast.
• Do Table Chores (see schedule for duties)
• Get dressed brush hair, brush teeth and wash face.
• While you are in the bathroom; pick up after yourself.
• Check your calendar for today’s activities.
• Morning meeting at dinning room table

Children’s Afternoon Routines (if at home)

• Tidy up Morning activity
• Wash up for lunch
• Have lunch
• Do table chores
• Prepare for afternoon activity

Children’s End of day Routines

• Empty back pack put items away
• Put hat and sunglasses away
• Wash up for supper
• Quiet activity until dinner (reading, TV, etc.)

Children’s Bedtime Routines

• Gather items needed for next day and put on bench
• Go through house and put any belongings out of place where they belong
• Have bath or shower
• Brush teeth
• Put on pajamas
• Hugs and kisses and get tucked in for the night!

The Launch Pad

For those of you with children in school you already know how important this is! The Launch Pad is the place where everything you need that day is placed ready for you before you walk out the door. At our house each school-aged child has a bench in which book bags, musical instruments and sport equipment(of the small variety)can be placed the night before as part of the before bed routine. In the closet is a shoe rack with one shelf dedicated to baskets that hold hats, scarves, mitts, sunglasses, umbrellas or what-ever else is needed before leaving the house. I have a coat rack that I use to hang my purse and/or backpack for the day. The coats, sweaters and hoodies are hung up and shoes go on the bottom shelves of the shoe wrack. This set up seems to work really well for us. The before bed and Morning routines along with the launch pad have made it so that we can be out of the house within an hour of waking up and it is done with no stress! The nice thing about being organized like this also allows me to not think about it. If you knew what kind of morning person I am you would know this is a very good thing. :D

Back to School- Back to Routines

Tomorrow my three oldest children go back to school. This means the care free days of summer are replaced with the routines of the fall. I have to say I am looking forward to it. I like routines. When I was living in utter CHAOS I swore I hated them, that they were incompatible with me. LOL Boy oh Boy! Do I know better now! Routines are helping to bring me out of the CHAOS; they are my lifeline. They give me that place to start and keep me from getting overwhelmed. I have three that I use daily. In their most basic form they are as follows:

Evening

Brush teeth
Layout clothes

Morning
Make bed
Get dressed
Eat breakfast
Brush teeth

Afternoon
File mail
Read to children
Make dinner

This is the very bare bones of my routines. I also review them and update if needed this time of year. I will be posting my updated routines this week. If anyone is reading this and wishes to share a link back to their blog where they have posted their routines that is certainly welcomed.