Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / The Super Summer Challenge | a conversation with Linda Wicks the creator of the SSC

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The Super Summer Challenge | a conversation with Linda Wicks the creator of the SSC · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hi friends, welcome to today's Simply Wholehearted podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you joined me.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking to Linda Wicks, who is the author of The Super Summer Challenge.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Linda Wicks' book, Super Summer Challenge, was created from her own experiences of raising her three kids over 30 years ago.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: She and her friend created special moments in the summer to keep them accountable as moms to not only get things done, but to have fun with their kids in the summertime.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And for their kids to be able to gain new experiences and continue on their learning skills through the summer months.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So what can often be lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer became a more productive time that her kids treasured, and so did they as moms.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Linda Wicks has traveled all over the country sharing this message with other moms.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: She's spoken at women's conferences and mobs groups about how other women can create Super Summer Challenge for their own family.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: The Super Summer Challenge is a very simple concept.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's basically a list of challenges and rewards to help you keep accountable throughout the summer months, to help kids grow in maybe their reading level, their swimming skills, or even their ability to get along with their siblings, which, as moms, we all know is very important.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be continuing to talk about Super Summer Challenge, getting closer to the summer months.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I started doing the Super Summer Challenge with my girls when they were three and two.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: We were waiting for a little brother to arrive.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: This created some fun moments of distraction for them and some sanity moments for myself.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: We've continued to do this every year, and it's grown and changed and looked different depending on our trip that year or other fun camps that they may have been involved with.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So Ashley, my co-host and partner in crime for this podcast, she has never done Super Summer Challenge, but it really intrigued her and she wanted to know if she could do it with her three kids.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So listen in as she asks Linda Wicks all the questions that us moms want to know when it comes to Super Summer Challenge.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And stay tuned because we have a lot more opportunities about how you can create a super summer challenge for your family.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, how are you doing, Linda?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: How about you, Amy?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Ashley and I are here.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are so excited to share with our friends about Super Summer Challenge.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have lots of questions for you.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know that I have done this with my kiddos for years and years.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, Ashley, this will be her first year doing Super Summer Challenge.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So she's got lots of questions.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I do have lots of questions.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, wonderful.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So um first I want to just um uh start off by saying you um this uh Linda Wicks wrote the book Super Summer Challenge.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And how how long ago did this come out?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: About 10 years ago.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, about 10 years ago.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you have spoken, and wow, that's a lot longer than I thought, but yeah, that's probably right.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You have spoken to literally thousands of women and mom's groups all over the United States about this concept.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, and so we're just excited to share more about what Super Summer Challenge is and your passion for it.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, well, good.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's almost nothing I would rather talk about than this.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: You do really enjoy that.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I can tell you that I've looked through your book.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we were on vacation with the kids, and so I've read through the the book.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_04: It was an easy read.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um I have a question for you.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: Here's my my first question, um, because I feel like um well, I don't know you at all, actually, so I'm not sure.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_04: So here's where my question comes from.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um Okay.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_04: When you did this with your kids years ago, was this something that you did as kind of a natural outflow of your personality?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_04: Or did you come to a moment of kind of difficulty and crisis where you thought, okay, something's gotta give, I've got to do something, or I need to change something?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: Or was this just kind of just the way you are?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_04: You know, are you super organized and this is just what you do?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I felt like it was a gift from the Lord.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: I am organized, and um I was parenting very intentionally before that, and had a great friend who lived a block away, and our kids were the same age, and we were really close, talked every day, and we kind of parented together.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: But back in the mid-80s, when I first heard about this, uh James Dobson on Focus on the Family had a show every day where it lasted an hour and he interviewed different people.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I listened to it very religiously, and one day he interviewed these two women, Claudia Art and Linda Dillow.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: You'll both hear both of their names today.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they between them, they were best friends.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Between them, they had seven kids, I think.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And they just put out a book called Um Sanity in the Summertime.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's out of print, but you can get it on HAF.com.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's an amazing book, and it is packed with hundreds of ideas that you can do with your family during the summer.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this super summer challenge was just one of their suggestions.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: They really um spoke to me and to my friend Becky, and so we got really enthusiastic and said, let's do this.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we did it, our family, the next 11 years.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: So wow.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: We really it really took off with us, yeah.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, but that's a great book for any mom.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_04: Sanity in the summertime.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_04: Sanity in the summertime, okay.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_04: Good deal.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so then my next question is I'm not very organized.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not a highly uh I'm kind of a by the seat of my pants person, and honestly, that doesn't work very well with children.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_04: So it really doesn't, especially not as bad as she's painting herself to really.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I maybe have grown a little, but I have done a lot of wheel spinning and frustration and things like that.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um and honestly, you know, my kids were very close in age.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_04: I have well, I have four kids.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_04: The oldest is in college now, but the other three are um seven, eight, and ten.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: So they were all kind of, you know, back to back.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_04: And um so in that was just a lot of for me frustration and trying to figure out how to make things work.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so so as somebody who's not so geared towards this kind of a thing, how easy do you think it is to implement?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's not bad, nearly as bad as you think.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've had a lot of women express the very same thing that you have.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the real key is first of all to have a book because there are a lot of resources in it.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think there's 11 or 12 sample superstar challenges.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you could actually, I mean, they're geared for all different aids, you could actually find the age of your child and just kind of replicate it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: It wouldn't take a lot of work to personalize it.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the other key is to start early, like in January, right after Christmas, I would get a notebook and just keep thinking and praying about it.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was mostly mental.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And when I would hear a scripture, maybe in Bible study or church that I wanted them to memorize, I would jot it down.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And if I thought of, you know, oh, they could work on Girl Scout badges, I'd jot it down.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just had a page for each child, and you know, it'd take me two seconds to write something down when it came to mind.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then when it was actually time to make up the chart, I had already done most of the work.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that is the real key, I think, is to mold mold and pray about it for three or four months if you can.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now you don't have that much time this summer.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: But you still have a couple months.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and at Simply Summer, we have um been highlighting one of those steps each month and creating a printable to go along with it that you could easily go back and and look at those, and maybe in our show notes we'll we'll tie to some of the ways to find those um, even on our website where you could just, you know, you know, you're learnt taking the time to learn more about their love languages and just all the steps along the way that helps you uh figure out the right challenges and the right rewards for each kid because that does take some thought, but if you do it ahead of time, it helps a lot.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_04: It's great.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: So each kid is gonna have their own challenge, it is gonna be age-based and just personality-based, or maybe geared towards what you want them to learn or focus on.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think a little bit of both.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: I remember one summer um Spencer, Amy's husband, was uh four years old, and he just was really lacking in self-confidence, and we were concerned about that.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was kind of our goal that summer was to help him develop better self-esteem.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: How did we do that?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: We decided that we would give him challenges that we knew he could accomplish, and then just intentionally really praise him every time.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: By the end of the summer, we were astounded how much his self-esteem had really grown just by doing that.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't a difficult thing to do, yeah, but you know, I think it's really important to identify things like that, areas where you want to see them grow, or they might have a weakness, and then build your challenges around that if you can.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: So something that they can could succeed at, but they will have to work for it.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and then our oldest daughter, Jenny, we wanted to make her things really challenging, or otherwise she didn't even want to do it.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: So personality really, really plays in.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 9:51
  unknown: Yeah.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_04: I was gonna that's what I was wondering.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_04: If you had how many kids do you have?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_04: Three.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_04: Three.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: And they were the first two were two years apart and then three years.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_04: So that was kind of something else I wondered.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: Did you have any kids who didn't necessarily get on board or just kind of thought, I don't want to do this, or did you have to prod some of them?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: And how did you do that?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, Spencer.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Not surprising.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: He has a degree in forestry.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: He has been an outdoor boy from the day from day one.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: And he couldn't have cared less about the super summer challenge.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: So um what we did was use positive peer pressure.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: We made their reward at the end of the summer a combined uh actually, we usually used a trip, but we made sure it was something they all had to reach their goals.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the first morning, summer vacation, Jenny and Tyler were up looking at the charts, seeing the way they could earn the most number of points that first day of summer.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And Spencer couldn't have even glance at his, he couldn't have cared less.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: But then as it got closer to the end of June, first part of July, the other kids started to panic because Spencer wasn't going to reach his goal and then nobody would get their prize.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: So they really started encouraging him and picking on, no, not picking on him, but you know, saying, You better get going.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do this.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the only reason he participated.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_04: So okay, I can see I've got one like that that maybe just isn't even a goal-oriented human.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's hard to look that far.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I have trouble with that too.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_04: If there's a a goal or a prize, but it's three months away, I just kind of like, oh, it's so long.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_04: But and so when I know I have one like that.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think uh a good testimony to it is that he has gotten way better about you know that in his life, it's become a a better discipline.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: But then and then another piece of it, this is where knowing your kids well beforehand really helps you even maybe break down the goals to smaller, measurable results.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that way, you know, there's plenty of kids that idea of three months or two months or whatever it'd be too daunting.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe a commute like the cumulative prize is the three months away, but then there's little pieces along the way to encourage them to go towards the end goal, which is very helpful.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: I bet that's very helpful.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's a huge piece of it.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think my kids would be.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I would I just that would be really hard for me.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_04: And so yeah, that's good.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: So maybe a weekly goal or yeah would you go that small?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_04: Like what's the smallest increment?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like, would they say you had a three or four-year-old.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's when I started it, they were uh two and three actually, because I was pregnant with miles, and I was it was the whole idea of having the three under three, you know, three and under was a little daunting.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about all the crazy things they were gonna get into when I was trying to nurse my youngest, and I was just like, oh my goodness, what are we gonna do?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so besides just finding every body of water in, you know, like a 30 mile radius that summer, we did a super summer challenge.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the goals were very smart, uh sh short.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: They were just like Monday through Friday, and you know, very majorable.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big chart and it was stickers because they love stickers.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my boy for some reason is traumatized by stickers, so we can't use stickers for him.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, so it was just little stuff on, and it I had a a box of little trinkets that were from the dollar store that they were excited about, and I think we may have added some sort of ice cream or treat incentive along the way.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Kids are motivated by treats.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: I am too.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Give me chocolate.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Give me chocolate and I'll do whatever.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, women are too.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't even try when they were that age, I did not try it in summer goal at all.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we just kept it at a week.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the next year I ended a month reward and we had some fun opportunities that were presented that I think incorporated.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I incorporated in there, and thankfully they reached it.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because I wasn't gonna adjust it so they could reach it.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, gosh, that's hard.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is really hard.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_04: Because you wanted to hit it, and especially if you've got one kid lagging behind, bringing everybody down, I would have a hard time.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_04: That would be so hard.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_04: But I guess you would have to just let it fall, huh?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right, you would.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then they wouldn't fail the next summer.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: They would really learn from that.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say that the first summer our daughter did it, um, and she had four little well, she didn't have four kids then, but now she does.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they had a weekly prize and it was something fun to do together, like go to Chuck E.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Cheese Friday at noon if they m each met their goals, or go to a particular park or do a park hop.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: What you know, she had all these different ideas for activities.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that was good.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're not spending a lot of money on prizes.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: But and I like the idea of it helps the naturally segment your week so they're not asking to go to something every day, they know then Friday is the day that we get to go do something really fun together.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's good, and something to look forward to.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's great.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_04: So, talking about the ages, what do you think is the age range that this really works for?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_04: Like what's too young, and then at what point do they get to the age where they're like, okay, I'm um I'm kind of over this, this isn't fun anymore.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think if they're an only child or the oldest child, probably around four, depending on the the child.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: But now if they are a second child, um, they usually pick it up from their older sibling and they you know somehow that helps them figure it out.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I think four is kind of a good target range.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now I quit it when the older two are in upper high school, but I have this friend, and she has literally done it for 20-some years.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow she finally told her daughter that okay, I'm doing this for you during college, but when you get married, that's the end of it.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that amazing?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the summer before she got her daughter got married, she actually made a chart for her fiance, too.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Can you believe that?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_04: That's so funny.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_04: That's it.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_04: And he was just on board.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, everybody loved it.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: She did really creative things like the summer of the Olympics, she made the whole chart around the Olympics and they won medals, and it was just she was super creative, yeah.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I think you can do it as long as you can keep the enthusiasm up for kids.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: But boy, when you get when they're older and you're still doing it, there are just amazing opportunities to get them to read books that you want.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, really maybe do some service projects for a vacation or for a mission from your church, or there's just so many things they can do at that point that's really great.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's yeah, it doesn't look like the dollar store trinkets anymore.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't look like knowing how to pick up your room or you know, taking a adequate rest time or, you know, not killing a sibling.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: It looks, you know, it it it has to be fitting to the kid.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I mean we really believe in doing an individual different challenge for each kid.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: You don't make it all look the same, even though it'd be easier as a parent.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's some, there might be some things that are similar, but you really want to customize it.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the kids value that.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: They go, oh yeah, this is this is just between me, myself, and I.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I need to pursue this as a family, and we have to encourage each other, this is just my goal.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is for me to do, and not doesn't matter what your overachiever or underachiever sibling does.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because we all have that.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is true.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, as you know, our kids are now mid-30s or so, or and they who did it when they were little.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think they have all expressed that more than anything else, that said to them, we are so excited about your summer.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: We're so excited about you being home and getting to spend time together.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it it it just really spoke to their hearts that we would do that with them.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I think that's great because I know kind of the uh stereotypical image of summer is oh my gosh, my kids are coming home for summer.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_04: And then it's like party, back to school party, you know, because they're back to school, because there's this whole two to three month time, you have to figure out what you're gonna do with these people.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_04: They need to be able to be, you know, maybe educated and continue skill building.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: And so I like that because you don't want your kids to think, oh my gosh, my you know, my mom is frustrated now because I'm home all summer.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: It's a totally different feel that wow, she was so excited that I was here and she's planned all these fun activities for us.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_04: So I like that.
• 18:38
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_04: That's great.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's I I I can just testify to that too, that as a mom, it's shift m shifted my perspective.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we're looking at a long break or um maybe a road trip and all of that, I kind of look at it through that lens of how can I make this a real super intentional focus time for them where I'm not where they're not climbing the walls, I'm not feeling frustrated that I'm getting behind, quote unquote behind on everything.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And even though we homeschool, and it maybe even especially because we homeschool in a way, I need the summer to feel completely different than our school year.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I've found that homeschool moms respond to this better than anybody.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: They absolutely love it because they're usually structured people and they want to continue with an education, but they don't want it to be the same.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they want to make it, you know, a change and have it be fun, and they are just wild over the super summer challenge.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really neat.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it does help.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've talked to a couple of friends who maybe their school year hasn't gone as they wanted to, and even moms whose kids are, you know, whether in private or public school, and they're debating about summer school or they're they're feeling like they didn't get through all of this or they didn't master the skill, or should they find tutoring?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, you need the super summer challenge so that way you can figure out how to get that done and still spend plenty of time at the pool and at the parks and having the downtime not only they need, but you need too.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's good stuff.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I find that even at my age with my kids all grown, in the spring, I start to feel really excited.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of it's just the anticipation that people are gonna be doing this super summer talent.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's so great.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: What a legacy you have.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's awesome.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: What a gift.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I am so thankful that we that the Lord led us to that idea so many years ago, and that I had a friend to do it with and talk through all the issues because I didn't know anybody else who had done it.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: I just heard about it and then this friend and I took off with it.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it was wonderful.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it had a huge, huge impact on our kids, each one of them.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: So tell me again, what were their ages when you started it?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_04: All of them.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well uh I don't remember exactly.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: I should be able to sit down and figure it out sometime.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: But Tyler was really young, he was probably two, so Spencer would have been maybe five and Jenny seven.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: But somehow that first summer, maybe they were a little younger, but that first summer they didn't really.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: I explained it and I asked and they seemed to think they understood it, but they didn't.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe I didn't explain it well.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but it just didn't within a few weeks I could see that they weren't they didn't get it.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just I was really disappointed because I had prepared a lot.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was pumped, but I just put it away and then you know, we'd talk about it during the winter, and by the next summer they totally grasped the idea and ran with it ever since then.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I think that's a good idea.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_04: Well, my grandkids do it.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: I have ten grandkids, and they all do the super summer challenge.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really thrilling to me.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's a great legacy that this is something I mean.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: I think that speaks a lot, speaks highly of the the whole idea.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_04: If if your kids are doing it with their own kids, that says a lot.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very difficult.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not it doesn't have to look the way you did it with yours.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: No matter kind of the technology battle that we have or lack of it or the age of the kids, it's just um so easily um catered to where we're at in life and um the ages of our kids.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's just a matter of us kind of putting a little bit of time and gathering the right resources to make it possible.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because there are no right or wrong ways to do this.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, it's just totally a personal thing, suiting the personalities of your family and the goals of your family, and and passing on the values of your family.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I really appreciate that.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: That it can look like anything.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm excited about the opportunity to do it.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: And I know that um, you know, for for me, for the I look back, so I'm one of those that, like I said, just tends to be more disorganized, and I've had a lot of um frustrating times with the kids.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_04: And so I really want to turn that around.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_04: And so for me, I think, you know, how how I could maybe redeem the time that was lost, you know, right and the the ways times I didn't do it right.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: So from your perspective, this is totally doable then.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I can start today and we can really make some changes.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, they won't remember the times you consider perhaps more of a failure.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: They remember the good times and the things they've learned.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you can you can make such a difference from this point on.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I remember years ago thinking about how all of my efforts are feeble in relationship to my children are serving the Lord, and what whatever it is I'm trying to do, it's like a wall with cracks and holes and it's crumbling, and I just don't get it done right.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And how God really comes in and fills in the cracks and makes it new.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, he'll do that too, even you know, with your past and help you to build a new wall that's really perfect and strong.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_04: I'm tearing up a little over here.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, preach.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: We all we all have that opportunity no matter what.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: We all do.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: It every day is a new day, and each summer is a new summer to to try this again and to go after our kids' hearts in in this really fun way.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the time is so short.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: With having a college student, you really know that.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: But so many moms with young kids feel like their kids are gonna be around forever.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I remember thinking that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: And and honestly, the time just flies, and before you know it, that whole stage of your life is over.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it's just such an opportunity to impact the hearts and lives of our children, and you just don't want to waste a moment of it.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: And this is such a fabulous tool.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, when the first when when our daughter went off to college, I know that I had this total moment of panic, like, oh my gosh, this is going by so fast.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I wanted to hover, just grab my kids and then hold we're coming home.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_04: You're homeschooling.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_04: I'm never gonna let you leave because you know, because the day's coming, they won't be here.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, they don't be with me anymore.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: So exactly.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so I do want to.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's why it's worth and that's why it's worth putting any amount of effort into, because you know, just truly make it a priority, because it's only for a short little time during your life.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I wish someone had told me that after your kids are graduated from high school and gone away, you're still gonna have 30, 40, 50 years of your life left.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, probably not 50, but 30, 40 years to do the things that you want to do and put your focus elsewhere.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think if you have that perspective that I'm gonna have a lot of time for me, I can learn photography, I can do, I can travel, I can do things I want to do, but now it's irreplaceable and it's it's so important.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's a good word.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: Because that's a hard battle for moms, I think, because you you know, because you feel, and we've talked about this, how you feel like so much of what you do, you will not see any outcome or really pay off for years.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_04: And then you may not even.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: There's no guarantee at the end.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_04: So if we can just see that you know, there's a day coming for me that I can kind of pursue some of my interests.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and not that I can't pursue any now, but it will look different.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_04: But it will look different, and so I think it's what we're doing now is very valuable.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's how we can really give our whole heart to these child wearing years and raising our kids and our focus and our intention and making it great.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think just a quick little side note too, you know, we've talked about doing this over two or three months of the summer, but really, even if we if you just do this over spring break for two weeks of your summer, um, or for, you know, just if the whole I idea of it sounds so daunting, just try it even for a week.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And get your feet wet in it.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you ha still have time left in the summer and you're like, oh, that actually went really well and I have more ideas now.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's no like there's no perfect way to to start it and stop it, you know, within a uh summer at all.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I know someone who had um a challenge for June and a challenge for August, and they took off July because they were gonna kids were gonna be at camp and they were gonna take vacation, and that worked really well too.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Or you could do a week each of the months.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, you can do whatever works for your family.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: But you can really impact them in that short amount of time.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just about it's kind of tying all the different pieces together: the love language, the intention of time, building skills, building character traits, empowering them to go after their dreams and their talents.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: It just really kind of it it focuses it all in one thing, gives a specific way to walk all these out and to carry them out really well.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: In a fun way.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Linda, thank you so much for your time.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we appreciate how you have lived your life wholeheartedly, um, not only in these the years of raising your kids, you know, and some of them now are in their 40s, but as um being a grandma and um and empowering so many other moms, inspiring so many others to do this with their kids.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we just want to um point out that people can find your book on Amazon.com and it's Supersummer Challenge.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh SupersummerChallenge.com and simply summer.com.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give lots of information to help you kind of build your toolkit and ideas and all the ways to go about having the best summer ever.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's right.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much again.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to you soon.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: I so appreciate Linda and Ashley asking these thoughtful questions about Supersummer Challenge.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is the first time you've heard about it and your your curiosity is definitely piqued and you want to find out more.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, like we mentioned, you can find Supersummer Challenge at Amazon and um also at www.supersummerchallenge.com.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be sure and link these in the show notes.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I think a lot of what she shared is is true and valuable wisdom, speaking from someone who's lived this life out well and um and that we can all glean from and use in our homes with our kiddos.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, I hope you live simply wholehearted, finding more ways to live unplugged, purposeful, and intentional.