Michele's Summer Schedule

I love to see other people's plans and ideas, don't you? I find it very helpful. My friend Lisa is an idea girl, and we joke that she comes up with the ideas but I implement them.

Know what else I love? Blog readers who connect. Michele was living in New Zealand but traveling in California when we met. "I read your blog and I'd love to stop by your house and meet you. Would that be okay?", she asked. Of course!

So Michele and her sweet family eventually moved to a city about 80 miles from us, and we see each other from time to time. And they bought our 12-passenger van. And she brought her kids to swim last week. Fun connection, huh?

As our kids swam and Michele and I chatted, she mentioned that she was planning a summer schedule. I begged for her to show me so I could share it with you, and that night I received this in my inbox:

Here's how Michele's summer with her 4 kiddos will go:

Breakfast

Morning Jobs

Play Outside (I hang laundry, finish my jobs)

Inside - snack and books

Acitivity together - art, games, reading, letters

12:30 Bring in laundry

         Lunch and clean-up

         Read-alouds

1-3    Quiet Time

4       Snack

        Put away laundry

        Finish projects/quick clean-up

        Screen time

Play with Daddy/prep dinner

Dinner/clean-up

Play outside/together

See how there are very few set times, and that they serve as markers for the day? Summer isn't a time when we want to be ruled by the clock, but a sense of routine will help us to feel like we're not wasting the hours, our kids are accomplishing good things, and we've given ourselves time to get ready for the fall school start. Which I refuse to think about until August.