With the summer comes the joy of family time, spontaneous playdates, a couple of vacations, and lots of swimming, which means being with my kids A LOT. During the school year we love doing hybrid 2 days a week at school and 3 days homeschool, so we’re used to the rhythm at home, but I’ve found my kids thrive on structure and without the structure of school, figuring out what we’re going to do each day can be challenging. My kids rarely sleep in 🤪 so from 7am-5pm (besides a 1-3pm rest time break), I have found it is daily dying to self, serving, training, and discipling my kiddos. I think I’ve mentioned before that parenting is sanctifying!
I want to make the most of this summer! It may be the last one with just these 2. And I have the joy of nannying a friend’s little one twice a week. It’s the first summer in 11 years that I’m not preparing for the biggest Kids Ministry Event – VBS. We’ll still try to keep some structure with a short Bible time during breakfast memorizing these short Truth78 Foundation Verses. Love that each verse has a picture so even my 4 year old who doesn’t read yet can recognize the verse. Link
I love all of the ideas out there like Make It Monday, Thinking Tuesday, Water Wednesday, Trip Thursday, Fun Friday. We’ll keep up a little math and ELAR (English Language Arts & Reading) and piano. We made a little weekly schedule that at least gives us a template of our day and can easily flex.
I have found going into the day with the expectation that I get to lean on the Lord for patience, wisdom, and perseverance really changes my attitude towards these 2 children God has given me to steward. Going into a vacation knowing it won’t necessarily be restful, sickness will try to thwart my joy, and things happen out of my control, allows for God to reorient my heart towards Him.
So just like any other season, let this summer be full of memories, loving our kids (or grandkids) and those around us well, looking for Gospel opportunities, and continuing to become a little more like Jesus day by day!