A Little structure and fun for the summer

Okay, I admit it. I miss teaching. And part of what I miss is the structure of the day. I like knowing what's coming next and feeling a sense of accomplishment when I accomplish things. Last summer to help give our days a little more structure, we did craft projects and it was a lot of fun for the kids and for me.
As this summer was approaching and I was searching blogs for craft ideas, I stumbled upon one blog where instead of crafts, they were doing daily activities. Just the basic, old fashioned, tried and true, kids love it and remember it fondly activities: build a fort, make paper airplanes, run through the sprinklers, play board games. The things my kids do sometimes but we don't seem to get around to as much as I recall as a child (probably because we're busier with acitivies).
So anyways, I decided I'd follow this woman's example. I made a list of activities and cut them up and put them in a jar to be picked out each day (makes the whole thing more fun).
But to earn the activity, the boys have to do 6 things first.
1. Eat breakfast
2. Get dressed
3. Brush hair and teeth
4. Read for 20 minutes
5. Do workbook pages (3 for Isaac, 6 for Ethan- takes about 20 minutes)
6. Ethan does a 1 sentence journal with a drawing.
They do everything but the workbooks on their own which allows me to get myself and Miles and the house ready for the day. It works most days. Some days they'd rather just play around and they just play and play and we get around to getting dressed and moving by 10:30. Which is fine with me. I think there's great value for all of us in having SOME lazy days.
But on days when they want to do something or when they're bored, I help remind them to work on their routine and then we all do an activity together.

Isaac's workbook is mostly cutting, clueing, coloring, and matching. No ABC's and very few numbers. Perfect for this energetic 3 year old. He's making a chain caterpillar here by cutting straight (semi) lines. What I love about this is that he feels like a big boy like Ethan. He's so excited to be part of "school" and is so excited when he cuts or makes something mostly on his own.

Ethan's workbooks are your basic 1st grade ones- short enough to not be frustrating but a good mixture of reading and writing practice.

And Miles refuses to be left out. I was hoping he'd just happily play but himself, but NO WAY! He wants to be in on the action and if you don't provide him his own action, he'll make his own by coloring on his brother's workbooks or taking their scissors/glue sticks.

So I found an Elmo coloring book and that has been a hit. He's part of the big boys now!

And then we all do something fun together!

Homemade popsicles! Who doesn't love pouring and blending and measuring, and waiting... 6 hours!

And folding paper airplanes and taking them outside for target practice.

Making homemade popcorn and watching a show together.

And more paper airplanes. Unfortunately I've forgotten to take a LOT of pictures. Can't wait for more this summer though!