When summer started I was super motivated to have my kids organized. We had a great plan for chores and school work. We also had a reward system going for accomplishing chores and other activities like practicing the piano and the violin. It was fun and we were getting a lot done until the inevitable day of burn out.

So, What did I do? I quit. I decided that the kids shouldn’t be spending their summer cleaning, weeding and doing school work so we quit. Or actually, I let them quit. I took over all the responsibility with the exception of reading and a few “quick cleans” they were off the hook. This sounds like a great solution huh?

Well, it was horrible. There is no possible way with them and all their friends here all the time, and all of our fun excursions that I can keep the house clean on my own. So, when my mother-in-law offered to take them for one night and a whole day you can image how excited I was! I was going to get everything organized and all of the laundry sorted, folded and put into the drawers before they got home. I cleaned for 6 hours strait and still had more to do when they arrive home and we ran our the door for swim lessons 5 min. later. (BTW in that 5 min. they were in a hurry and made a few big messed not to mention all of the sleeping gear that came home from grandma’s)

Now I’ve tried both extremes, All or nothing. What an amazing lesson about balance and scheduling!! I have finally figured out what the problem is as I’m sure you have from this post It’s true that I don’t want my kids working their summer away. It is also true that I can’t fly solo on this one because I’m sure no one is going to take them one day a week so that I can get my house clean and I don’t want to spend and entire day cleaning every week.(deep breath)

Here’s where the balance comes in. We are going to go back to the chart. We are veered from it several times and always end up going back to it. It’s simple.

There are 3 things I need to schedule for them:

Cleaning:

There are jobs that need to get done every day. These include picking up their rooms, practicing instruments and a few other small jobs. Then we have the weekly and monthly jobs. The truth is, the floor doesn’t need to be mopped every day. I would rather them be outside playing while they have the chance then inside mopping the floor.

Friends coming over and fun activities:

The kids can choose how quickly they get to have their friends over by or when we get to leave for a fun activity by how fast they get it done.

“School” work:

I want them learning in different ways during the summer but I also want them writing and reading every day. these are easily done at night before bed and a little math. The truth is if they don’t write one day they’ll be fine.

Taking things to the extreme has never really worked great for me I’m so glad we are finally reaching our summer balance! We are all going to have a lot more fun and be a lot happier.

I hope you all are having an amazing summer! Please share with us what you do to balance fun and chores during the summer. We are all looking for more great ideas from mom’s like you. You can also post them on our Homeschool Chic FB Page

P.S. Keep your eyes peeled for the release of the Homeschool Chic Chore Helper that will be released to our resources page soon.