At the beginning of the week I told my kids that today would officially be the first day of summer vacation.  I never liked the concept of learning and fun being independent of one another, and I never made a clear demarcation between the two.  Our summer schedules tend to be more relaxed than during the year, but similar.

However, my ds10 has friends who are in school and who homeschool who have all made a clear end date, and I saw that he liked that.  And I understand the desire for clarity on what will be happening when, so I decided to make an official announcement, too. No end of the year parties or celebrations, but he appreciated it.  And as the kids get older, the academic schedule of each becomes more intense and I think everyone benefits from shifting gears and having time to recharge. 

Now I’m spending time thinking about outings and activities for the summer.  Today we spent hours with homeschooling friends at our monthly get together, and when I got home at around 5:45 pm I immediately took a nap.  I’ve been really wiped out this last week – probably from doing too much too soon and not taking my opportunities to nap when things are quiet – and I literally felt like I could hardly move.  One dd had a bas mitzva to attend at 6:30 and I guess she walked the mile or so to get there, because I didn’t wake up to take her (she told me before I went to sleep that she wasn’t going to ask me because she saw how tired I was and would make her own arrangements).   I don’t even remember closing my eyes – I was totally out for a couple of hours!  That was good, since as soon as I woke up it was time to go with the older two girls to our shul’s talent show for women.  It was a really nice evening, and when we got home at 11 pm, everyone else was still awake (except for the baby and toddler) – they had just finished a game of Monopoly.  And the house was a mess.  But they were all happy and I reminded myself that it’s vacation which was immediately a relaxing thought.  🙂

Before they went to sleep, I made plans with my three middle kids and wrote it on my planner to be sure it happens – I have a date with ds7 for a card game of his choice and some reading time, ds8 wants to read with me and we’ll watch A Little Princess (she mentioned it but it will be for everyone, not just her), and I told ds10 he could spend 2.5 hours with a friend (who invited him over today but he was busy with other friends). 

Then in the afternoon I’m going to try something new – I had an informal family meeting with my kids at the beginning of this week about preparing for Shabbos and making it more relaxing for everyone.  With these long Fridays it feels like there’s plenty of time to do everything, so there’s no sense of urgency and we end up doing too much at the last minute.  I felt there’s no reason for tension at the last minute, and the reason for the meeting with the kids was to get them on board so it’s not me imposing a new schedule on everyone, but something they’re invested in themselves.  We decided we’re going to do all the cooking on Thursday afternoon from 3 – 6 pm instead of Friday, except for challah and fresh salad.  Then on Friday morning we can do the cleaning, have time for a family trip, and still get home with plenty of time for everyone to shower and get dressed.  That’s the idea, anyway – I’m optimistic about it and we’ll see how the next couple of days go!

Avivah