How to Survive the Summer with KIDS!

The summer sneaks up on me every year. I love the hot, sunny days that summertime brings, but I'm stumped as to how to keep my five kids entertained (and not killing each other) for the summer.
I came across an article where a mom talks about how she started a thing called "kid of the day" in order to keep peace amongst her kids. I decided it was worth a try. After the first week of them all being home from school, I was willing to give anything a try. But my unorganized brain needed to take it one step further. I pride myself in being a free spirit. Our weekends are never planned. Taking an impromptu trip to the beach or some cool little town is right up my alley. I started thinking about a time many years ago when my sweet friend Summer lived with me. She had organization down to an art, and she taught me how to plan out a schedule for the next day. (Yes, someone as unorganized as me actually needs to be taught how to plan things) We would have so much fun writing out our schedule for the next day. So I decided to try scheduling each day and start doing the kid of the day. And guess what? It worked! The kids love waking up in the morning and seeing who is chosen to have the esteemed KOD spot. Even though we don't follow the schedule exactly, it gives us all a good idea of how the day is going to go. There's no chaos, no rolling around on the floor complaining of being bored, no fighting over who chooses what cartoon to watch.
After making these small changes, I really feel like there's a chance I could homeschool and succeed at it. That's something I'll talk about more another time. But for now, here's a typical summer weekday-

Getting a membership to the YMCA was the BEST thing I've ever done. The kids always have a blast and I get an hour (or more!) to work out and have some time to myself.

Monday was Malachi's turn to be KOD. He got to help me prepare lunch. The kids love carrots!

We packed up our lunch and ate at a walking trail by our house.

We're learning about butterflies. Actually, the older kids knew more than I do about butterflies! But after our lunch, we went for a butterfly hunt. They drew pictures of what they saw.