Summer Survival Part 1

Summer is fast approaching. For some of you, it might already be here. Last night, when Mellow was looking at his hot lunch calendar for the month of June, he pointed to the last week and asked why there were no lunches listed for those days.

"That's summertime," I said.

His jaw dropped. He counted the remaining days in the school year and began jumping up and down, announcing to all his siblings that there are only 16 days left of school.

Umm, no that can't be right. Only sixteen? Really? I thought I had a whole month left. 

Nope. Three weeks. Plus one half-day tacked on at the end to make up for an errant snow day. Which means I have exactly two weeks (because I like to be early with these kinds of things... just in case) to get organized. The good news is that summertime means no pesky socks coming through the laundry to match up. The bad news is that I need to figure out how I'm going to keep my five kids from killing each other (or going brain-dead from too much screen time) while they're home over the summer.

Of course, this is not the first summer I've had to make a plan. I'm the queen of hyper-organizing and for years I've had a detailed summer schedule in place that dictates what we will be doing for every hour of every day. Some parts have worked great. Others, not so much. I tweak the plan every year. Because my kids are getting older, I think the plan is now in need of some major tweaking.

I've learned a lot from my years of summer planning. First off, I have to say that kids need structure. I need structure. A summer plan is a must if you want to make it more than a week or two without going crazy. Once you have the plan in place, however, don't be afraid to alter it as needed on any given day. Don't toss it entirely, or your kids won't take you seriously, but if you're involved in a great activity that's taking longer than the scheduled time, be flexible (not one of my fortes, I must admit).

Since I have a lot to say on the subject of summer planning, I'll split the rest of it into three separate blog posts. Today I'll focus on handling lunchtime.

"How complicated can lunchtime be?" you may wonder.

Well, we've always had an "If you don't like it, starve 'till you do" policy at dinner time, since I refuse to be a short-order cook. But somehow, lunch feels different. And with five separate palates to please, there is no single item I can make for lunch that everyone will eat without excessive tears being shed.

To solve this dilemma, when the kids were young (and there were only three of them), I assigned days out to each child. On their assigned day they got to pick what everyone was having for lunch. This worked well for a few summers. But as they got older and multiplied in number, even that was not enough.

A few summers ago, I decided to shake things up a bit. Energy, as my pickiest eater and most capable child at the time, inspired me to adopt the policy that still stands today: I will make lunch for the baby and/or preschooler. If you want what they're having I will make it for you. If you want something else, make it yourself. And clean up your mess, too!

It worked fabulously well. Energy was (and still is) highly motivated to fix his own lunches since he hates almost everything I make. Within a week or two, he'd mastered a variety of lunchtime fares. And now that he's had several years of practice, he's become quite the little chef. Sometimes he even gets in the mood to make lunch for everyone and opens a 'Diner' in the kitchen where his siblings can place their orders and play as waiters and waitresses. Sometimes I have the luxury of placing my own order and having a PB&J delivered right to my room. Mellow and Bright have slowly followed his example and are each learning how to fix lunches for themselves as well.

So my kids are learning to cook and take care of themselves, while at the same time alleviating some of the extra work that summer brings. Summer lunchtime is no longer the ordeal that it once was. (Insert sigh of relief here).

So what's the take away?

Don't do for your kids what they can do for themselves... especially over the summer and where picky eaters are involved!