Because I love lists and schedules and planners and color coded folders, I decided the kids and I would sit down together and create a summer schedule and a list of fun things to do. So that's what we did the first week school was out. The kids were on board with it (really, they were). Ellie exclaimed, "I can't wait until snack time. And we have TWO snack times! But I will not like personal time. I do not like being by myself."
I should've known from the very first day that this was not a good idea. The children shall remain nameless. There was the child who took this very literally (perhaps said child gets it honest) and was checking the schedule every thirty minutes to let everyone else know what we were supposed to be doing at that moment. I tried to explain to child that the schedule was just a guide. It was just supposed to help us use our time wisely.
(Who am I kidding?! The main reason for the schedule in the first place was to hold me accountable to at least having a few productive hours during the day and the children to limited screen time without me having to be the electronics police.)
Anyway, this child just did not understand the concept of an unscheduled schedule. I'm sure I probably just made that up anyway. The second day was even worse. I established the rule from the start that no one was allowed to wake anyone else up no matter what time it was. But this child just could not deal and made everyone miserable with the monitoring of the schedule and subsequent directions.
The other thing that happened on day two was that another child "finished" some parts of the schedule in less than the allotted time and proceeded to sit in a chair and stare at me until the time of the next activity. I finally told said child that I was not to be stared down. I should've just chunked the schedule in the garbage at that moment. It was creating way too much frustration. For everyone.
And then there was the child who made it a goal to sleep until 10:00, thus missing out on summer reading. That's okay. You can make that up during your screen time, of which there isn't much anyway so you can also read during your personal time. That child is no longer sleeping until 10:00.
The schedule police has since calmed down and doesn't even mention it anymore. As a matter of fact, no one mentions the schedule anymore or even looks at it. I asked yesterday where it was and no one even knew. You know what? I'm just going to go ahead and own up to it. You know what is NOT fun? A summer schedule. Because summers are for NO schedules. With ten months out of the year dictating every facet of our lives down to the days and times and all while having to accommodate how awful interstate traffic is, we need a couple of months without all of that. Summer reading is still getting done. Screen time is probably more than it should be but definitely less that it could be. Sometimes the chores get done, and other times they don't. There are lazy days, and there are more active days. And that is just fine. They are just fine. Now that most of our commitments are finished for a couple of months, and baseball is coming to an end this weekend, I anticipate the summer days to get even a little longer, lazier and just happier. And that's perfectly fine with me. We'll resume with the schedule in August.
