Keeping The Family On Track!
With summer well upon us, I personally find it just as busy as a school year but without homework! Baseball practices, ballgames, sleepovers, camps, vacation, family gatherings, trips to Grandma and Grandpa's, piano lessons, birthday parties (practically the whole month of July,) yard work, swimming, and the longer days. Before you know it chaos has taken over your family life!
My family easily gets off track and before you know it, we are eating later into the evening, skipping meals, having more fast foods and staying up much to late. The kids then get up much later in the morning and before you know it the television has been on all day or my son has played hours of PlayStation games on days we don't have anything scheduled.
So we have implemented some expectations at my house before we lose all semblance of normalcy.
1. No more than 2 hours of television, computer, and/or electronic games a day. Yes, my son is not happy, but it is better than me taking it away which he has already experienced. This will help curb that summer time weight gain children can have from inactivity and be following the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations on television time. We have created a list of fun activities and planned ahead 2 weeks to curb their boredom and stay active.
2. The kids are now in charge of meal planning and some basic cooking to decrease our fast food and take out meals. We are visiting the local farmers market for fresh fruits and vegetables and the kids are learning how to pick out and cook with them. They are finding out how much better they taste and how much healthier they are for you. We are also getting some fractions in with recipes and cooking.
This week my girls made yogurt/banana/blueberry and mango/blueberry popsicles which everyone has enjoyed. They promise to keep searching for more interesting ways to mix fruits up for great healthy snacks. It's been a great way to get everyone involved in meal planning because I personally am in a rut with what to cook these days. Another plus is we are saving money not eating out!
3. Bedtime is 10pm for summer and if you can't get out of bed by 9am, then you'll go to bed sooner. Chores are still expected to be done as usual, feed dogs, cats, clean up rooms and put laundry away, not to tough. We are all reading a good book of our choice and sharing the stories with each other. Children can lose as much as 2 levels of reading by not practicing over the summer, it's called the "summer slide."
I hope this is helpful for those of you with children on summer break. Before you know it, it's back to school and better to keep on track now then starting the night before school is back in session.
