Summer is quickly approaching….about a month from now for our family! Hooray! Last year, I created charts for Ginger and Liam based on the book The Super Summer Challenge by Linda Wicks. It worked really well to keep the kids busy, helped them continue learning, and it got them to work on things they thought were really hard!
Basically, the idea is to give the children goals in four categories: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Sharing/Caring. Every challenge is worth an assigned number of points. The more important it is to you that they work on the challenge, the more points you assign to that activity. One of the things that I really appreciate about the book is the inspiration that comes in the first chapter, called “Redeeming the Time”. She talks about John Wesley’s life and his famous phrase, “redeeming the time”.
That’s what the Super Summer Challenge is about – redeeming the time…making the most of the incredible gift of spending a summer with your precious and impressionable children. Your children will be grown before you know it and your days of shaping and influencing them will be past. With just a little time and planning, you can make an amazing impact on the young lives the Lord has placed within your hands.
It is such a good reminder to treasure the extra family time in the summer and use it to “train them up”, so to speak. And not just for the summer!!!
Now, you are supposed to jot down ideas throughout the year to use for the next summer, but I have failed to do this. So it is time for me to start searching for ideas and pulling all my stuff together into a basket. Because the kids are excited about it already, I want to make sure it is finished in advance and well thought out. If you are thinking of taking the challenge, I would love to hear from you! We can share ideas 🙂
Here is a picture of our chart at the end of last year. They made their goal…but it sure does look like efforts trailed off at the end! Maybe I need to do two 4 week sessions this year.
Since it is hard to read, here is the document that I used to list all the challenges and estimate how many points I thought they would earn. Super Summer Challenge 2011
About the chart: I just bought a piece of poster board and little dot stickers at Wal-Mart. I thought about making each color of sticker a point value, but since the kids are still young, I thought they would be more excited to actually see 5 stickers put on the chart when they earned 5 points.
Do you have any special things that you do in summer with your kids? Great ideas for challenges? Please leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts! 🙂
I Don't Have Time For This 
Jessica, I think the Summer Challenge is fantastic! I think I will do it with my girls. Let me ask you, did the kids get some kind of reward at the end for reaching their goal? I know the achievment itself should be the reward, but my girls are very goal/reward oriented.
By the way…we have a pending adoption that will be happening at the end of the summer. We have a birthmom in North Carolina with twins!! It is very exciting!
Wow, Maureen! I am so excited for you! Keep me updated!
Thanks for asking, because I should have mentioned that part!! She talks about having a reward for reaching the goal. Whatever it is, she recommends that it is something that your children would be REALLY excited about. Last year, my kids were excited to go ice skating (indoors in the summer!) and a sporting event. An indoor water park, a set amount of money for x number of points, gift certificates to a store they love, a special family trip (maybe a day trip). Just decide before hand so that you can tell them as much as possible about their reward to get them excited!
Pingback: What inspired me this week? | Our Green Spot