Keeping it Fresh

Well, summer sure has gotten off to a pretty great start for the Marshall kids! The first week after school got out, they all had the opportunity to spend the entire week with their Grandmom, Pop-Pop, Aunt Judy, Uncle Ryan, and cousins Christian & McKenna. While there, they also had the opportunity to do VBS at the church they used to attend. And last week we had some of Jake's family come stay with us for a few days. Emma, Abby & Nate had lots of fun playing with Beezy, Joe, Auntie Christine & Nana. What special times!

It seems like things will be settling down here for a little while at least :) We still have lots of fun things planned for the summer. But as far as vacations & visitors go, I think we are clear until August. So this weekend, we began working on establishing a routine. I know what you are thinking, "A routine on summer vacation?!" Yes. A very relaxed routine, but a routine nevertheless. But don't worry the kids LOVE IT!

Jake and I have been very relaxed with the kids when it comes to doing chores and stuff around the house. Mostly because we felt like they spent so little time with us that we didn't want them to always be "working." But our schedule with the kids has changed drastically over the past year and they now spend several days at a time with us. So, we decided it was time to enforce the importance of helping out around the house. They each have a special chore that they do each day in addition to their typical responsibilities like making their beds and cleaning up after themselves. Each time they complete a chore they earn a pebble (thank you for this idea Christine, the kids LOVE it!) and they are working together to earn enough pebbles to get a reward. The kids are super excited about it and do their chores with great care and diligence. Yay!

In addition to all that, each day the kids all do some pages in their workbooks to keep their brains fresh for school in September. This has also had a very positive response!

Emma, working out some problem solving...

Abby, carefully printing her numbers and letters...
And Nathan, so proud of himself as he should be! Nate has not been overly excited about doing anything constructive or anything that has to do with numbers, letters or the word "school." I must say, we have made a LOT of progress with him in the recent months and we are so proud of him. I'm hoping doing his workbooks everyday this summer will help him even more.

So, in between having TONS of fun this summer, we will also be helping out around the house and prepping their brains for the 4th grade, 1st grade and pre-school:)