Friday, May 01, 2009

Summer Vacation

Our school year is finished !!
Yahooo !!
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Our Field Trip week did not go
quite as planned (DadToCherubs had to work a lot)
but we intend to get those missed trips in shortly.
(Hopefully before it gets too hot !) And as promised, DadToCherubs
announced his Summer Vacation Rules ....
much to the displeasure of certain
Cherubs who will remain unnamed.
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Hummmmmm.
No video games
&
No computer playing.

No television.
(except for an occassional Family Movie night.)
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DadToCherubs & I suggested a new idea -- to assemble a Plan Of The Day.
A Daily To-Do List for each Cherub that must be completed before 12noon.
Things such as gardening, canning, projects, errands, housework, baking, etc .
And if they get finished earlier, that's even better !
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Some Cherubs LOVED this idea ....
and some Cherubs were not so pleased.
(the irritated parties shall remain nameless)
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Then, after lunchtime (at 12noon), the Cherubs will
be "free" (assuming their jobs are finished) for the
remainder of the day, until dinnertime at 7pm.
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Seven hours of free time is A LOT of FREE time.
A lot of potential-lazy-dog-day time, for the unmotivated.
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It is our hope that this "plan" will minimize some family members working their whole summer away while the others do nothing but play, play, play. And we also hope it will minimize the "I'm bored" issues, and the boredom-inspired bickering episodes. Spreading the work (not the wealth - ha !) and getting accomplished what needs to be done every day -
with some peace, hard work, creativity, and fun added in.
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And of course we will continue our Before Bedtime Reading, as always.
Everyone here loves Before Bedtime Reading !
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Also, DadToCherub said that the Cherubs are expected to work on and finish a new project each week (more time of course is ok if it is needed) during some of their free time-- the project is their choice. We have several old Scout handbooks, the Daring Book for Girls, and the Dangerous Book for Boys for ideas, plus several other resources. And we visit the library weekly too if more ideas or resources are required. The idea is to encourage the Cherubs to use these "vacation weeks" to do some new things -- building things, creating useful things, general tinkering, sports, outdoor games, sports, fishing, art projects, forts, sky watching, more nature discoveries, making swings, hikes, wild food identification -- essentially trying new hobbies and acquiring other useful skills.
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The goal is to have no "lazy dog days" here
(or at least very few of them).
To be honest, it seems that some Cherubs
find and do these sorts of "projects" on their own,
and that others need to be pushed a bit to do
"new" things or necessary things.
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Does this happen in your family too ?? (Just curious !)
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We also have some day trips, weekend activities,
and some short-distance traveling planned.
Mountains, lakes, fairs, museums, hikes, picnics, etc.
And of course swimming in the pool ...
and perhaps on the summer swim team to ??
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Those summer-only activities
are almost the best part
of Summer Vacation, aren't they ?!?!
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So --- that's the plan.
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What's your plan ?
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it sounds like a great plan. :) Thanks for submitting to the CM carnival! :)

Unknown said...

What an inspiring plan you have! All of my cherubs have a hard time getting involved in new activities or anything productive it seems. Ugh! I like the no screen time rule...

Anonymous said...

Oh this is wonderful! I even sent the link to my hubby and I think I'm going to post it on my blog after we devise a similar plan!

Jamie {See Jamie blog} said...

Still working on our plans, but yours sound great. :-)