Rice Counter: Strict or Scheduled?

Anyone else out there noticing something different about the last few weeks? Like a noisier house? More lunches to fix? Exuberant children with nothing to do?

Yep, it's definitely summertime.

I love the extra time with the kids, but with five to keep track of, I can tend to be too strict. Not so much in reality, but in my own head. The kids really are great, but at times I add stress where there doesn't need to be. The only one that suffers? Me.

So this year I'm going more for a loose schedule than a strict idea of what each day should look like. For instance, because nothing is harder than prying a sixth-grade boy off Minecraft, some days will be unlimited electronics. However, some days will be FREE of electronics. Most days will have the usual 1.5 hour limit per child. Even those lines blur: if one boy is watching the other play, does that count for his time or not?

Also, each day each child is expected to have outdoor time, 15 minutes of math, 30 minutes of reading (the Bible for some of it), and do their usual chores. Simply by asking them to fit these activities in, I'm guaranteeing they can't spend every moment begging for more computer time. They don't know it, but they're also stretching their time-management muscles. :)

One of my favorite sites for math work is freerice.com. For each question the kids answer correctly, 10 grains of rice are donated to United Nations World Food Program. I'm now thinking of watching them read and adding a scoop of dinner to their plates as they turn a page ...

Any tips for how you handle having your lovely children home for the summer while keeping everyone learning, growing, moving, AND having fun?