Order....Order in the House

Summertime and the living is .......not as easy as it used to be. My 8yr old and 6yr old say they are excited to be out of school but all they really want is a firm routine with trackable goals. At first I thought I should swab their cheeks and wait for the results, these can't be my kids. My kid summers were spent playing outdoors rain or shine and avoiding chores and books. Upon closer inspection I discovered all my "lists": to-do lists, to-make lists, to-buy lists, etc. Nevermind. they are my children.

Their last day of school as we awaited Daddy's car pulling in the driveway so we could begin our annual water fight I sat with them and we made goals for our summer. My daughter wants to read 3 books, study history, jog daily, and keep a journal. My son on the other hand "wants a job". If you find anyone hiring a 6yr old boy who is good at legos, skylanders and soccer let me know. His other goals involve reading, keeping a journal and improving his t-ball and soccer skillz. But here is the kicker.....both said they wanted a color chart. Their classrooms use a color chart to track your daily behavior. They also want "centers", meaning a way to track certain activities. Apparently when my kids say they are bored it is because they stare at the walls instead of the floor covered in toys and see nothing to do. To remedy this we made a Summer Centers chart. 

They roll a die and it tells them what to do.
#1 Read for 15 mins
#2 Exercise for 15 mins
#3 Write in your journal
#4 Arts and Crafts
#5 Learning on the computer
#6 Rainbow Writing (workbook, spelling lists etc)

Then they each have a space they can put a tally mark to track how often they do it. They go crazy for this chart. However, I was mean and said #5 could only happen once a day.

Their color chart is a Godsend as well. They move up their clip for good behavior, move down for poor. There are rewards when you go up and stay up and punishments for going down. These kids love having very clear limits and expectations. It took me awhile to sit down and make the charts. So the first week of break was very aggravating for us all. I let the kids help design the charts. And now these two charts are made our lives make sense again. My kids aren't bored and I like to be around them again. Win win!