How Do You Schedule the Unscheduled Days of Summer?

by Marji Laine

End of school always labeled freedom. I can’t help but remember those elementary days and how we all dashed out of the school building on the last day. Some of the kids ripped their papers out of their notebooks, letting the wind carry the testimony of the hours of work away.

I was never one to litter, but I did the dash! Perfect blue sky promising late-rising mornings, lazy days with friends and neighbors, and cool evenings of kick ball under the trees in our front yard.

With homeschooling, my kids don’t have that same dashing feeling. Or do they?

My twins have been completing one subject after another these last two weeks. Last night one of them came to me. “I’m done with History.” Satisfaction and victory lit her eyes.

“What do you mean? You have another couple of lessons.”

“Nope I piled them up and did them all today and I made a 97 on my final test.”

Wow. End of book stimulus!

My other twin has two more lessons to take before she’s done. But she has it over her sister because it is her LAST subject. Her sister still has the same thing to do with English.

And I found out why it was so important to finish earlier than normal this year. When all of her school friends from the youth group were enjoying spring break and we kept going, one of my twins told them that she’d remember their week off when she finished a month earlier than they did.

I think she’s going to do a little face-rubbing this Sunday.

But that feeling of freedom remains the same. Even for the mom. But for me, that freedom is deceptive. Have you ever felt that way. Okay, so I’m not grading papers and going through lessons, but I don’t have weeks of open days where I can write to my hearts content. In fact, writing can get even harder during the summer months.

Since my girls aren’t otherwise engaged, we take short day trips, do projects and spontaneous goofy activities. Without a routine, I’d get no writing done at all.

So I’ve set up a semblance of a schedule. During the day I get snatches of time to work on social media and a little writing here and there. But every night, sweet hubby engages the kids in games or a movie and I get quiet writing time from about 9 to midnight. (Yes, I still like to sleep late!)

Once or twice a week, I’ll take the whole evening from 5 or 6 on to get in a good long writing session. So our summer days are lazy and fun, just like the kids need them, but the writing goes on!

Your Turn: How do you schedule the UNSCHEDULED days of summer?