A Calendar of Days

The judge ordered our summer schedule for custody to be that Steve and I switch full weeks with the children. He has them from Saturday at 9 am until the following Saturday at 9 am at which point he brings them to my house and I have them for a week and then take them to his house, and so on throughout the summer. This is new to me, to go without my children for so long, and I want to maximize the time we do have together as a family. So I have come up with the following plan (they come back to me this Sat. morning). Each day will have an activity, so that we follow the same schedule each week that they are with me. Each Saturday, for example, is Beach Day and we go to the beach. Doesn't have to be the same beach each time, the point is that it is always Beach Day and so there is some kind of routine. I think that having something predictable and steady will help with the transition back and forth between houses. It will also help me as I get excited about seeing them again and can plan for it! I shared this idea with a friend and she said she was going to use it with her own kids since you always think, oh, we should go to the park... but if you don't put it on your plan it won't get done.

Here is my plan:

Saturday - Beach Day

Sunday - Pool Day

Monday - Playdate Day
(one of the children's friends is planning a regular Monday morning playdate)

Tuesday - Park Day
(this includes hiking and going camping for overnights)

Wednesday - Museum Day
(if we are far afield for our camping trip, we can visit whatever museum is local)

Thursday - Cooking Day
(stay home and cook a new recipe)

Friday - Cleaning Day
(laundry, grocery shopping, so on, getting the house tidy)



I wrote each day on a Creative Memories journaling card (what happened to be in front of me, index cards would work just as well) and I'm going to hole punch the corner and put them on a ring so that the kids can look at the cards after dinner to see what tomorrow will bring.