Popsicle Activities

It's summertime!  

Problem 1:  And I have 3 little boys who are easily bored.  Miles is actually very excited and entertained to have both brothers home.  Isaac lasts about half the day (which is normal since he's normally gone 1/2 the day and is used to entertaining himself the other half).  And Ethan is just plain bored.  I take that back.  He would happily entertain himself 24/7 with the Wii, the TV, and the computer.  Occasionally he'll get engrossed in legos or playmobil or playing outside, but very often I hear the dreaded "B" word around here:  BORED!

Problem 2:  Normally I only have to clean up after 1 1/2 little messy boys.  Now there are 3- all day, every day.  So the house quickly gets destroyed and I'm often attached to the couch feeding Isla and can't enforce the normal rule of cleaning up before getting out new toys.

So what's a mom to do?

Job charts!  

Each child is in charge of getting themselves dressed, making their beds, brushing hair and teeth, and always clearing their dishes from the table.  Then Isaac and Ethan have various jobs that help me keep the rest of the house clean- trash, watering plants, vacuuming floors, etc.

Once those are done they each have workbook pages and journals to do.

And of course silent reading or reading to each other.

Naturally these 3 little boys aren't always excited to stop playing when I say to.  Luckily I found this cute idea on Pinterest and got it all ready before the baby was born.  Now as soon as their jobs are done... they earn a "popsicle activity".

Okay so the popsicles just make the process cute.  Really I've just found 50 or so fun activities and wrote them on each one.

On our first day of summer they pulled out "Make a marble track."  They followed me excitedly around the house for 5 minutes while I collected the pre-bought supplies (marbles, tape, scissors, pool noodle, toothpicks, paper, marker).  And then we spent 5 minutes cutting and taping and building.

And they spent literally the rest of the day playing with it.  On the couch.

Down the stairs.  And a number of other places I didn't bother to photograph.  They LOVED it!  And more importantly they were excited the next day to get their jobs done and pick another activity.