Yes, school is finally out and the summer holidays are here. My 10yr old son is over the moon because he imagines he will sleep any time he wants, watch TV all day and do anything he wants. I laugh in “latin” – because that is far from the truth.
Pulling together all I have learnt, I have come up with our SUMMER RULES:
- Begin each day with – bible study, prayer, bath and breakfast, in that order.
- After breakfast, we complete our assigned house chore. Not completing your chores would result in your forfeiting 1hr of screen time.
- No screen time (TV, ipad or video game) till you have done the following:
- Daily house chore
- 30 mins of reading
- 30 mins of writing/creative work
- 30 mins of outdoor play
- Do one worksheet
- Screen time during the holidays is for a maximum of 3 hours. You can earn a maximum of 1hr extra screen by doing the following:
- 30 mins of reading (earns 15 mins)
- 30 mins of writing/creative work (earns 15 mins)
- Help someone (earns 15 mins)
- Do additional chores (earns 15 mins)
- Keeping your room and seating room tidy (earns 10 mins)
- Time spent watching news or discovery channel or playing 9ijakids games is not counted as screen time.
- Sunday is “free-for-all” day where there is no limit to screen time. But its expected that you must ensure you do other off screen activities like playing outdoors, playing with toys, etc.
- Bedtime during the holiday is 9:00pm.
Wow. You just might be thinking aren’t these rules too much? Shouldn’t summer be fun, fun, fun? Rules don’t have to hinder summer fun. Two months is just too long for the children to be without rules and structure. And its ok to be flexible and bend the rules once in a while. So let the fun begin…
