Summer Bucket List

Summer vacation officially begins today.

What's that you say?  The kids have been out since June 15th, so why, oh why, did we wait until the beginning of JULY to begin making plans for our summer?!!


Well, since you asked, the first week the kids were out of school was taken up preparing for our ginourmous (it's a word!) yard sale we had on the 23rd.  Plus my darling husband (DH) was still working on the 18th AND the two boys I did enrichment activities with after their half-day kindergarten for half of this school year were here two days that week, too.

And last week, well, last week pretty much sucked.  DH's outer ear started bothering him on the 22nd.  The doctor said it was infected and gave him some oral antibiotics on the 23rd, but apparently, that didn't cut it.  He was in so much pain by the 24th that I took him to the ER.  He was admitted, put on IV antibiotics, and eventually had to have SURGERY to drain the MRSA infection in his ear.  He was in the hospital all week.  DH was discharged on Friday, still needing to rest a lot this past weekend.

And so I think it's pretty clear why I say that our summer vacation begins NOW.

One of the first things we did was create our family's Summer Bucket List.  Now before you started siding with my DH thinking we're being a little morbid here, a bucket list for summer makes sense!  This is all the stuff we want to do before the summer is over.  Plus I got the idea from more than one location on Pinterest, my new favorite obsession site to search for new ideas.

So thank you, Whatever . . . and A Mom With a Lesson Plan (whose list actually is written out on clothespins attached to - what else - a bucket!) and any other summer bucket list I saw and forgot to pin!  Be sure to click on those two links for their amazing summer lists.  I know our Bucket List is not that legible, but it got all of us excited about making plans for the summer.

And what about you?  Any plans for this summer that could go on your family's bucket list?

Summer 2012

It will be here in TWO WEEKS!

Can't believe it, but this summer is coming faster and faster.  It's time to dust off this blog and start writing down some plans and ideas before it gets here.  Luckily, this time around, there is Pinterest, so I don't have to constantly feel like I am pulling ideas out of my butt from thin air.

Reading Time

One of the items on our daily schedule is reading time.

This makes my heart smile.

Summer of 2011

It's summertime again!  This summer is a little different from last summer (money's tighter so we couldn't renew all of our museum memberships, A refuses to go to the movies any more for reasons that seem to only make sense to his autistic senses) but knowing how important structure is for all three kids, I have been researching ideas for the last couple months.  I decided to make a very clear schedule that has each child's list of things they need to do on it.



My supplies

   

I bought some supplies: a giant magnetic white board, colored craft sticks (different color for each kid), colored tape, and magnet tape.





And look at what I made! 



Isn't it pretty?!!  And is it dorky to be so proud of how it looks?

The board's divided into three main columns (one for each kid), and each column is split down the middle for their TO DO list which they move to the other side to become their TA DA! list as they complete each job.

The kids earn one poker chip for each stick in their TA DA! column.  Each of the kids already has a chip jar for this positive reinforcement system we have in play.  Twenty chips can be traded in for either $1 OR fifteen minutes of extra screen time.  We have just added that they can LOSE chips too for not correcting their behavior after receiving a warning from us.  They can get warnings for having a meltdown (screaming and crying when something disappoints them) or whining or asking about something over and over and over again about which they already were told no.

And that's it - our organized summer schedule.  Keep your fingers crossed that it works!