Two For Tuesday

Yeah, I still have links to share.  :)

The first one is about creating a summer bucket list.  I'm so busy these days with work that I want to make sure I carve out time over the summer to really BE with the boys while they are out of school.  My "real job" schedule allows me three half days a week and my other job is at my own schedule (nice right??  Someone not so long ago told me I was lucky.  I told them I am not lucky, I don't believe in the concept of luck actually.  THIS is the life I've created for myself.  BOOM.)  Anywayyyyyyy, I'm working on compiling a list.  Because I'm a list maker.

Here is your link to my Summer Fun board over on Pinterest.  It's just a jumping off place.  For me personally, reading other people's lists gets my own thoughts going.  I'll (hopefully) at some point in the next week-ish post my own list for us for you to puruse.  We've done a lot of the things on the board I shared, but just by re-visiting it today I saw three things that I want to add that I saw and know we either haven't done or would like to do again.

The second one is about limiting screen time.  This is a HUGE problem for us.  There are multiple old blog posts about it here on my blog, so it's been a problem time and time again.  With summer approaching, I was looking for a way to limit how much time the boys are in front of a screen.  My girls remind me all the time that they had to EARN screen time and they are salty AF about the fact that their brothers do not.  Well, boys, summer is about to be a rude awakening because yesterday while cleaning out my closet I found STONES.  Yes, stones.  This is the system I used with their sisters.  Each stone allowed for a certain amount of screen time.  You started off with a small amount, but you could earn more.  You could also lose them for bad behavior.  For us, it's going to look like this.  You can start your day with three stones.  Thirty minutes.  If you'd like more, you will have to complete things from a list.  The things on the list will be reading, writing, playing outside (although, we tend to do that anyway,) chores, helping me or Two with something.  They will also be weighted.  Three HATES to read, so if he will read for the 20 minutes that school recommends he can earn an entire half hour of screens.  Judge me if you want, but I'm doing what I need to do here.  Four loves to do all the things on the list so he should be watching Gotham ALL SUMMER LONG.  Here is your link to some tips you can look at and see if something seems like it would work in your household.