Summer Chaos - Controlled?

We've been working with the large calendar on the left since Mr. H. was in school, but this is our summer control center. We have it all hanging between the kitchen and the dining room right at the kids' eye level. The top checklist in the middle has everything kids are responsible for doing every morning: make their bed, brush their teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, put dishes in the sink, etc. The bottom checklist is what they have to do before bed.The dry erase board on the right is our daily note that the kids read to us each morning. H's teacher had this in his classroom, and encouraged us to continue it to help with reading, days of the week, scheduling our day, etc.

Since we have started using the checklists, the kids are SO GREAT in the morning!! The run downstairs to check things off, and buzz around making sure everything is checked off. No more nagging them to do this and do that, and asking them if they've brushed their teeth or not... I LOVE IT.

Every morning after they've finished everything on their checklist, we sit down and do these Summer Skills Daily Activity Workbooks by FlashKids. They really love to do them, but just to ensure enthusiasm, we picked out all of these stickers to go in their sticker books. After each day's activity, they get to pick out a sticker (or five...). Their sticker books are just spiral bound sketch books that they can draw or paint in as well. (the bottom photo is Miss Mae looking through an entire book of LISA FRANK STICKERS!!!! Oh how I remember how my heart would pound at the thought of a new Lisa Frank sticker when I was young!

I can't tell you what a difference our little scheduling has made in our mornings! Everyone knows what to expect, and what will happen next. I REALLY hope we can hold on to this into the school year!