I'm Bored!!

If you're a mom chances are you read Jen Hatmaker's latest blog post Worst End of School Year Mom Ever where she encouraged us all in solidarity with statements like: 

"Hang in there, Mama. Just a few more days until summer, when approximately 19 minutes into our glorious respite from homework, liberated from the crush of it all, ready to party like it’s 1999, our precious children, having whooped and celebrated and “graduated” and squealed all the way home will announce: "I'm bored.""

Around here I've been luxuriating in the relatively homework-less last couple weeks of school, and I'm looking forward to a break from packing lunches, washing uniforms, and dragging my child out of bed every morning. However, I regard the end of the school year more with healthy trepidation than unadulterated glee.

Stay at Home Moms, you've probably got this all figured out; your season passes to the pool, museums, and the zoo were purchased long ago. Working Moms, I bet you have your sitters all lined up, a plan for dropping the kids off at daycare, or a system of juggling them between family members. But here's what I wanna know, what do you Working From Home Moms do when your little ones aren't being cared for by the public school system 8 hours/day?? Unless Angie is glued to the TV or mesmerized by computer games she is calling "Mommy" on average 17 times/minute. Now fortunately for me, and my employer, CVM, summer's my slower season, with little travel, and a lighter workload, but still I'm not taking a Summer Sabatical here. So, instead of cartwheeling over our imminent freedom from test anxiety and writing assignments, I'm clinging to my one last day of freedom to work in peace before Fifth Grade Graduation on Wednesday brings Angie crashing home for three months!

Some of you may remember that we started a behavior chart a couple years ago, and I'm still printing a new one every week. Angie loves predictability, routine, and rewards so the chart, although it has yet to pull her out of a tantrum once she's started slipping down that slope, has motivated her to get in the shower on more than one occasion. And, it's given us a consistent way to calculate her allowance each week.

Now, inspired by my friend, mom of three, Jenny Cabantac, I've put together a plan for Angie's days at home with me over her summer break. Likely without a schedule she'd be vegging in front of the TV by 10am when I've exhausted the tiny ration of patience and creativity I've been blessed with, trying to get her to do something useful with her life. My hope is that the list might keep her busy with productive activities, give her some control over her schedule, some goals, and ultimately build into her some confidence for sixth grade. Because while I'm panicking about the end of fifth grade, Angie's dreading the beginning of sixth.

Don't worry, we're still open to invitations to your pool, we still plan to visit Bolivia, and we're all set for family camp in California. Angie will have the flexibility to play with friends outside and make good choices about time management and priorities. And no, I didn't embark on this motherhood adventure yesterday, I know it's not gonna be flawless, but if we don't even try, the kid's gonna forget what a fraction is and probably how to spell her own name, if there's not a character named "Angie" on one of her cartoons.

So, moms, dads, grandparents, nannies, organized people of all walks of life, we welcome your input. How do you keep your munchkins' brains from going to mush and simultaneously get some work done during the summer months of our children's vacillating fun and boredom??