Summer Survival for WAHMs: Structure for Kids

It's time for intervention. The glorious wonder of school, and the way it manages to keep even your hyperactive children busy from 8 till 3, is that is has structure, a routine, and activities with purpose. (Or, at least, it's supposed to.) You need to have structure, a routine, and activities with purpose, too. Kids know when you're making stuff up on the fly, and they know when you're just inventing busywork. They resist. We all resist pointless instructions designed to distract us from what we really want to do. Problem with the kids (younger ones, that is) is that they don't always know what they really want to do.

The way to thrive in summer time is to take what teachers of all kinds have figured out and use it for non-school life. Public, private, and home educators know that a structure gives them (the teachers) the freedom to not have to make decisions constantly. Routines give the students freedom to take responsibility and initiative. Purposeful activities make everybody feel better, because the day has been spent in learning and doing profitable things.

Apply this knowledge to your life. Here's how:

1. Get your calendar, paper and pen, and an hour or so to yourself. We need to do some planning. Look at your schedule. What do you need to accomplish in a day's time? Do you have a lighter work load for summer or do you need to work at your normal level of productivity? How many hours of work or projects (or parts of projects) must you complete each day? The key is to get your structure in place, first, then design a corresponding structure for your children's days. Work it out as much as possible into daily obligations: 8 hours of work or 4 hours of work or 20 pages written or 10 items sold or 8 to-do list items completed. What's your daily average requirement for a livable level of productivity?

2. With your daily work needs in mind, look at the normal rhythm of your day. A few things are in place already: waking up, meals, evening, bath time, bed time, tv shows, and other normal, daily occurrences. How can you arrange your daily work into the rhythm that already exists in your day? Do you have a few open blocks? What are they? Do they occur every day, most days, some days? Does your schedule change every day? Can you make your rhythm a little steadier by getting up at the same time every day? Eating lunch at the same time every day?

3. Now you need to determine what kind of structure your kids need. Let's say you're going to get up first, work a bit, then wake the kids for breakfast while your husband gets ready to go. It takes, say, an hour to get everyone up, dressed, fed, and the kitchen cleaned up. Then what? Is this your first block of work time? Then it needs to be your first block of work/play/activity time for your kids as well. Glance through your notes about your own work needs and you'll see the major blocks when the kids need something to do, as well: their own version of a daily work requirement.

4. Put your kids to work. It doesn't have to be work, of course. It could be art projects, playing outside, riding bikes. Kids don't really mind work that much, either, if you give them the responsibility as adults. "Bry, you're in charge of these two rows of the garden." Instruct them as they need help, tell them you expect the work completed at X particular time every day, and then leave them alone to do it. You may need to remind them at first, but don't nag. Let there be a significant consequence for undone work and apply it when needed. Plan in fun things, too, perhaps as the time block following the "real work" they are required to do. What is your child's passion? Can you invest in a few supplies to spur on that interest?

5. Make it routine. Once you've established structures for both you and your children, with the corresponding activities, make it routine by consistent repetition. The first week you will encounter great resistance. Plunge on. Be brave. Be the leader. You're the one they are looking to for help in filling their days. They want to have good stories about their amazing summer, but they don't know how to get there. Gather the supplies, the materials, put the structure in place, and then give them freedom to take it from there.

Build the structure of your children's day with these kind of purposeful activities. Let summer be a time of learning, maturing, taking responsibility, and gaining new skills. Boredom should not be a problem in any child's life who has a pet to take care of, a portion of the garden to tend, a few significant chores, and the supplies and time for exciting projects. Add a stack of interesting books, a few good movies, and the promise of a fun outing on the weekend. Then make sure you get your work done, so you're free to have fun on Saturday, too.

Annie Mueller writes and mommies in St. Louis, MO. You can find more of her work at SisterWisdom or WritersUnbound.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com