Ready or NOT summer is coming...

Ready or Not... summer is coming!!

This year I was scared, until i started planning... now, i'm a little scared, and REALLY excited.

My nephew, Justin, age 7, is coming to live with us NEXT MONDAY... so, I'll have 7 kids under 10 at home with no money... a little overwhelming. I need to brainstorm and come up with my plan for the summer. You may just laugh and think i'm nuts... remember, in real life, i'm VERY laid back... my plans change easily. But, i need to start with a plan or else i go crazy. So...

Here are my TEN TIPS FOR SUMMER SANITY...

1. Pick a THEME. I don't know why I need a theme to get excited about something... maybe it's my years at girl's camp. This year our theme is "Be a HERO." I really want to teach the kids about all different kinds of heroes... people who have overcome adversity to do great things. Regular kids, people with disabilities, smart people, athletic people, people in the armed forces, leaders... oh, the possibilities. I'm particularly excited about this because my sister, Justin's mom, will be oversees with the Marines. She's a hero, and i want Justin to know how proud we are of her. Remember this post about praise?? It seriously has changed my life. I want my kids to look at life as EXERCISE... i want them to see potential and growth...HEROES. love it. (and, i think my kids will love it too...)

-- i'm excited to find some of those neck medals and make "Kindest", "Cleanest Room", "Most Respectful" and stuff like... every Monday I'll have the kids nominate someone to receive that award... they can hang their award on their bed till the next Monday... yup. i need to find these still...

2. Go to the LIBRARY. We LOVE the library. The kids can each pick one or two books each time we go. This is so that they can't complain everyday when we have QUIET TIME. yup. we READ a lot. i love it. Before the kids are out of school i check out tons on "themey" books. This year it will be books about heroes. I just keep the books in a basket in the living room and right after lunch, when the baby is down for a nap, i read to the kids. We read and we talk and i love it. The library here has an AMAZING summer reading program. It motivates the kids to read without me nagging them. We also sign up for the Barnes and Noble Summer Reading program-- it's great! Plus, the library around here has a lot of fun, free events. i like to mark them on my calendar just in case we're looking for an outing when they're having one...

3. Have scheduled free-time. OK, i like structure, but i also like lazy afternoons. So, I usually have structured mornings with open afternoons. I think you need to have checkpoints during the day. Checkpoint one- Breakfast. Before anyone eats breakfast they need to be dressed with their bed made. Checkpoint two- Lunch/Free time/Field trip... before you leave for the day or before you eat lunch or before they play, kids need to have their chores done, their school work done and their music practicing done. You don't need to nag them, just say, "We're leaving in a few minutes, are you ready? Before you go swimming you'll need to have your stuff done." "Mmmm. Pancakes for breakfast. Who is ready?" When kids ask to play on the computer, watch tv, go outside, etc., you just say, "Sure, as soon as your stuff is done." I use this kind of visual schedule, just so the kids know what i have planned... i like to put the next day's schedule up the night before to get them excited.

4. School Work, Scouts, 4-H, Music... kids like to learn! This year i found some school based workbooks at sam's club for $5.88. They go from PK up, so I got one PK, one 1st grade, two 2nd grade, one 4th grade and one 5th grade. Sound's like a day care no? I LOVE these books. But, i don't check them or nag them, i just say, "Did you do your school work?" Sometimes I use them as ways they can earn more time on the computer... nothing official, just, "Don't you think you've had enough screen time? I'm afraid your brain is shrinking. Do 5 pages in your school book and you can play computer again." The kids actually LOVE doing this. Not all the pages, but most of them. They just leave a pencil in them and we have a basket where they're stored. i LOVE summer school work.

My boys don't have scouts during the summer, but the scout book is so fun for ideas... i like to look them over when i'm planning our field trips and projects. Keep these books with the workbooks so you see them on a regular basis. My kids are still in music lessons over the summer, violin and piano... they have regular stuff to practice, but this summer i want them to practice playing more church songs. i love music for kids. And finally, Taneil has been telling me for years about 4-H... this year i'm going to take the kids to some place that she told me about and let them each pick out a project book-- sewing or rockets or cooking or collecting... i'm excited. 5. Do fun, crazy stuff. I like to have FUN family nights during the summer. By far, my kids favorite memory is our No Manner's Dinner. Shelley Wille has some fun books with crazy, fun ideas... i don't have this yet, but i'm dreaming of a Jell-O party!! 6. Enjoy the outdoors. We have a neighborhood pool, that we LOVE. Trampoline, bikes, sprinklers, basketball hoops, jump ropes, bubbles, sidewalk chalk... oh, summer days are the BEST. There are so many great parks. One of my absolute favorite things to do is to pack a lunch, go to a beautiful place and just let the kids play. My neighborhood-raised kids, don't have much time to explore the wilderness... this year i'm on the look out for a great texas lake?? do they have those? i want a place where i can sit, they can play and we can watch the great outdoors... Maxey Park is probably my favorite so far, but i'm going to check out some of the other, pay for a pass, places. love it. 7. READ. have i mentioned this yet? OK... here are some of my great HERO books... i found this book- Amazing Tales for Making Men out of Boys, at Sam's club... here is an amazon link... it seems great. my sister in law told me about another book-- rebekah, what is it? i thought it was childhoods of famous americans, but i can't find that on amazon... oooo i need that one. i'll add to this list as we go... 8. POSITIVE, POSITIVE, POSITIVE... Although I am a big fan of the time-out bench, by far my favorite discipline principal is PRAISE the right choice. My kids can be perfect all day, and i say nothing, then they do one thing wrong and BANG, i'm there. I hate that. So, I really try to praise 10 to 1 negative comment. With 7 little ones, there is usually one kid doing the right things. Instead of saying, "Jakob, go get your shoes on." I say, "Anna, I LOVE how you are all ready to go with shoes and sock on..." Yup. Positive works better. I like changes, so this year, we're doing "Tokens of Appreciation". I HATE things that require consistency, so I won't do a program where the kids get paid for everything they do and they have to pay for tv time and stuff like that... maybe this will work for you, if you want a full-fledged token system, V and Co. has a pretty reasonable system. My system is easy. I can give tokens whenever I appreciate their behavior. If they ask for a token they CAN NOT EVER have one. They can use their tokens to buy good things. We haven't started yet, but here is my set-up...

Doesn't it look fun?!!! Don't you want your own jar with some TOKENS of my appreciation? I'm a bit worried that the chocolate won't last until a kid earns 10 tokens...

9. Plan some BIG, fun things. I HOPE to sign the boys up for a 2 week sports camp and the girls up for a once a week gymnastics class. We don't do summer sports, and we try not to get scheduled in the summer, but i think a few fun things are good for summer sanity. I'm not a big swimming lessons fan-- we just are ALWAYS at the pool, and they just learn to swim. But, if your kids don't have access to a pool, swimming lessons are a great way to give them that experience. I LOVE to take the kids to live plays during the summer. But, it's expensive, so we plan a couple fun outings and then make a deal of them. Last year we got tickets to a live performance of 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. We bought the dvd and watched it 3 times before the show... so, my kids knew what was happening and had so much fun. They still love that show. We also read scripture each day during the year... we usually finish up during the summer and to celebrate we do one big outing... last year it was Joyland (i know, it's sad cause joyland is not an amazing amusment park.) This year I HOPE we can go to 6 flags in Dallas... let me know if you find cheap tickets. And, we ALWAYS take a road trip out to Idaho at the end of the summer... fun, fun!

10. GO EASY!!! Popsicles, Easy Mac, Ramen Noodles, Hot Dogs, Corn Dogs, Big Pickles, Boxed Snacks, Bottled Drinks, Pringles... Last summer i learned a great lesson from Grey- have kid-friendly food available!! Stocking up on the easy stuff makes summer fun and a house full of kids managable. Yes, we LOVE fresh fruit and veggies all summer long!! But, during the summer my shopping cart is definitly more full of EASY stuff. I love the flip-top water bottles... easy to grab on our way out the door to the park. And, i try to have teddy grams and ritz bitz and granola bars as an easy grab on the way out the door... we do LOTS of pizza picnics at the park. And, POPSICLES GALORE-- yup. Between popsicles and pickles we keep our neighborhood hydrated. Our other neighbor has a fridge in her garage stocked with kid-drinks... i just have cups and a water machine...

SOO GLAD THIS ISN'T ME THIS YEAR!!!

oh. i LOVE summer! so, what are your SUMMER plans? any hero ideas??