A Flexible Summer Routine

Our dc are getting older, and with that maturity comes some ability to plan their days.  I could see somewhere between having things all planned out and having no plan it all would be the perfect summer routine for us.  First, I tried a schedule that was pretty well... scheduled.  It had open times within it, but when we tried it, I could see it was just not flexible enough.  Here is the schedule we tried first...

This kind of schedule worked great the previous years, but now that the boys are older, it's too regimented.

So, I took a different approach.  There were things I knew I wanted in their day, and then there were things I wanted them to be able to decide when and how long to do.  I got a folder, some velcro, and halved some index cards.

The things I wanted them to have in their day for sure I put on index cards first, and if I wanted them to be done a certain time, I wrote that on the card too.  Some things that fell into this category were a 45 minute playtime for each of the olders with our toddler (keeping this up in the summer sure helps the school year go well), life skills time (a time I'm working on training the boys in new chores and life skills for the next school year), a video for Emmett so the olders can have time just the 2 of them, an audio book time,  outdoor and indoor playtime, and a time to encourage others.  I also wanted the boys to rotate through some different things during their playtime with our toddler, like puzzles, lakeshore games, coloring, educational computer, playdough, books on tape, etc. So, I put these on smaller strips of paper too.  I put velcro on the back of each card and on the inside of the folder.  I stapled a ziplock back to the other side of the folder with "DONE" written above it.  

Each day, the boys get to choose an order for their day.  It has already been such a good learning experience!  They are learning to manage their time and work together.  We have figured out a few things.  First, Wyatt likes to tell everyone what to do - he's the oldest, and used to being in charge, so we had to have a talk about how everyone gets input in this.  Second, Emmett just wants to play with either Wyatt or Riley first.  Third, Riley just wants to play computer with Wyatt first.  So, everyone compromised except for Emmett, as he's the youngest.  They do a playtime with Emmett first.  Computer for Wyatt and Riley is second.  Wyatt pretty much picks the rest of the order of the day, and everyone is so happy!  

I just thought I'd share this in case it helps someone else with balancing summer and some sort of a routine!
In Christ,
Julie