Summer Schedules

This list of helpful summer schedule ideas concludes our week of summertime tips. Thanks to all of you who participated. I can't tell you how grateful I am for these ideas--many of which will make for great summertime memories for years to come. Our winner today is Elizabeth who has a commendable ministry focus to her family's schedule.

SUMMER SCHEDULES

I have four children ranging in age from 8-12 and I actually just finished up making our summer schedule. Our household tends to run much smoother when there is a "plan".  I wanted to incorporate some fun ideas and still have some structure to the summer.

One of my favorite things that we are planning on doing is having a "ministry day" (ours happens to be Thursday).  On that day we (the kids and I) will use that day to find a family, or person in which we can minister to.  Ideas would be....babysitting a new mom's other children, baking cookies for an elderly couple or person and visiting with them for a bit, yard work for someone ill, making a meal (having the kids involved) for a needed family....etc.  I think it is so important that we teach our children the importance of ministering inside our local church.  It gives them opportunities to step outside themselves and give of themselves...a servants heart!

Another idea that I have incorporated is on Tues. and Thurs. mornings I will have them email a missionary.  My husband will set up an email account specifically for that reason and they will get to email them and let them know how we are praying and then also get to hear from them in return and be able to "visualize" the ministry there. Thankfully, our church has a list on their website of all our missionaries and their email addresses so they have made it easy for us in that respect. We are also going to use the prayer cards that we have and put them in a flip over (on the stand type) picture album.  We will pray for one at dinner each day and flip to the next one.