Summertime Schedule

Ahh, Summer is finally here. Time to have fun and play all day! Vacations, trips to the pool, and sleepovers. So what happened to that schedule we got so used to during the school year? It is easy to slack on keeping our kids on their normal routines during the Summer and sometimes that's ok. Just make sure they know your expectations of them. It's ok to tell the kids, we are on vacation, so bedtime is a little more flexible, but make sure that you still have a set time for bed (even if it varies from day to day depending on your activities)and that you still take a bath brush teeth and read a story (or whatever your routine is). The harm from getting too lenient on following a schedule is that if the child begins to learn that anything goes, then when it's time to go back to the old routine, chances are you are looking at some major meltdowns. Another example is screen time. You may be kicked back in your lounge chair gettin some sun on the beach and not notice the kids are playing video games or watching TV for 12 hours a day as long as they are staying out of your hair. Just know that the moment you realize they need to get out and get some exercise, they are probably not going to want to put down that DS or their device of choice... So just make sure you try to keep some kind of schedule even if it is a little more flexible and keep the kids involved in what is going on so they know what to expect.