McKenna Child Summary: 7.5 Years Old

This is a summary for McKenna from 7.25-7.5 years old.

EATING

Eating is great. All is the same, which means all is well.

SLEEPING

Sleep is also great, but we had some interesting tweaks to get there. During the summer, McKenna was able to get more sleep at night, and it made a dramatic impact for the better on her disposition and attitude in the day. Once school started, she was arguing with me and grumpy. I talked last time how she was not contradictory once she was able to sleep in during summer. Well, that is fine except during school year, she can’t sleep in until 8 or 9 each morning. That meant she needed an earlier bedtime.

That meant we needed to switch up the evening routine. Up until this point, we have always read family scriptures together in the evenings as part of our evening routine and before bedtime. I decided we needed to move family scriptures to the morning before school so that in the evening, we don’t have to wait for the full family to come together to get the bedtime routine done. That way I can more easily put a child to bed earlier than others. This makes a lot of sense as Brayden is getting older and Brinley is still four, anyway.

As soon as we started that, McKenna was able to get more sleep and she has been great!

PLAYING

Playing is great. McKenna has a fun spot in the family where she gets to have fun with older siblings and younger. She gets to do “bigger kid” things and “little kid” things. The middle child position has a negative reputation, but this is a big perk!

SUMMER

Summer was nice for McKenna. She had fun with family. McKenna took swimming lessons and took one short dance class (four classes). She wanted a summer of a big break off of things, and she enjoyed that. I wondered if she would like it once it was in effect, and she did.

SCHOOL

Once school started, McKenna was ready to have some extra activities, also. She is taking gymnastics and dance class and has been playing rec fall soccer. She also has her piano lessons. We do swim lessons every other week during the school year, also.

READING

As McKenna has gotten to be a better and better reader, she wants to show how big she is by not having me read to her. I am not sure why she things this shows her maturity; I still read to Kaitlyn and have only not been reading to Brayden for a few months (which I don’t love; I am needing to rethink that whole scenario). I told her I still want to read to her each night and told her being read to helps her brain get smarter.

DECISIONS

McKenna had a big decision this time period. She passed off all of her swimming skills and was told she could join swim team. This is two years younger than Brayden was when he joined. She was thrilled. The girl loves to swim.

The trouble for her is that she loves pretty much every sport she has ever tried. As I started to write down our fall schedule, I quickly realized that if she wanted to do swim team, she was going to have to drop gymnastics. We couldn’t manage both time-wise as a family.

At first, she said swim. Then she said gymnastics. Then swim. And so on.

While she is young, I am a believer in letting my children make decisions like this for themselves. She asked me what I thought and I gave her my input. I told her I thought she should choose gymnastics. She is already able to swim at swim lessons. If she stopped gymnastics, she wouldn’t have access to a gym.

McKenna is also very tall for her age. I think her days as a gymnast are numbered. I may be wrong; there are some taller gymnasts out there, and maybe she will end up being a shorty. But I think I am most likely right. She loves gymnastics so much that I think she should do it while she can. Being that she is two years younger than Brayden was, who was pretty young so far as most swimmers are when they join, her swimming years are long ahead of her.

Life would be easier for me if she went swim. Brayden is already there, and she would be on a different level of swim team, but practicing at the same time. The cost is very similar each month. So my advice was pure logic based on what I already explained.

I told her she should make a decision and then pray to know if that decision was the correct one. She did and she felt good about it. She hasn’t regretted it.

McKenna will face this many times in her future. She is very athletic and she has a personality type who loves everything she does. She especially loves being active, so she loves all sports and she is good at them.

Summer Schedule:

During the days, we did chores (I increase the number of chores done during summer months since they are home more), get ready for the day, practice piano, practice reading, independent play, SSR, free play, and family time each day.

SCHEDULE

School Schedule:

7:00 AM–wake up. Eat breakfast. Get ready. Do morning chores. Read scriptures. Practice piano.

9:15 AM–school starts

4:00 PM–home from school. Homework. Then free play.

5:30 PM–Dinner. Then time with family.

7:00 PM Start getting ready for bed.

8:00 PM–in bed

GOOD BOOKS