Soon summer is once again upon us. Are you prepared to make it a fruitful, productive time for you and your family? To do so, I suggest you pray for the Lord’s direction for summer goals and priorities. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). Then implement a schedule that sets aside time for what you want to accomplish through the summer. “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6).
We recently received a sweet story regarding some of our products that might motivate and give you ideas to pray about concerning summer goals and routines.
We were reading the 5th book in the Moody’s serie, and we got to the ChorePacks. I told Olivia (7) that we have the same book about chores and even the packs and everything. This was bedtime.
The next day Olivia copied all the chores she found in the book. I showed her the real chores book, and we added some more. We printed the cards on regular paper and cut them out. Both kids were involved, but Olivia was super excited. We put them in order, and I told them I would print them again, with the numbers on top and on better paper. With only two children and one of them reading, I didn’t think adding the name was needed. But then I thought that they would be happy to see their names on the cards. So I added their names too. Bedtime came again, and I told my daughter I would work on it that night. She really wanted to start the following morning.
The next morning Olivia told me she could barely sleep because of the excitement of having the ChorePacks and starting the routines. The first day went great. I am very encouraged, too, as I have been having a super hard time keeping myself consistent and having routines. The Lord truly is working through our children (among others) to sanctify us.
What about working on consistency and routines? This mom says that’s a struggle for her. Over the summer she can work on those for herself and also can teach Olivia how to do her chores. They can find places for chores in the schedule and be accountable for doing them.
Maybe you don’t have time for reading during the school year. That is a great part of a summer schedule. It can be mom read alouds or children reading on their own. Make sure to evaluate the reading material, though. The Moody books drew this mom’s little girl to – wanting to work – a positive appetite. You can inadvertently introduce bad appetites as well if you aren’t watchful. I remember the time I read a book to our children where one child called a sibling, “Stupid.” That was not a word we had used in our home to describe a child. Sure enough, though, after I read that, our children began using “Stupid” in that derogatory nature of each other.
Perhaps the Lord would lead you to Scripture memory with your children through the summer. We have a couple of great series on that on our website:
Is He calling you to grow in your walk with Him? That probably means time spent with Him, focused on Him. I wonder if Sweet Journey could facilitate that? It helps with ideas on what profitably to do when you spend time with the Lord.Maybe this summer you want to develop your children’s conversational skills – and your own in the process.
We have something for that – Making Great Conversationalists.I didn’t start this Mom’s Corner to be a promotional for our books, but as I thought about your summers and what you might want to accomplish, I got excited about what we have that could enable you. This is the time to get tools for whatever your priorities and goals might be so that you are ready to utilize your summer productively!
Blessings, Teri Maxwell
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Practical encouragement for homeschool moms by Teri Maxwell, and weekly e-mails for Christian men by Steve Maxwell.
