School Holiday Strategies

School holidays can often be challenging for parents. You feel you have to come up with ideas for the kids to do. When you run out of ideas, or your kids reject every idea you come up with, it’s easy to lose patience.

Sticky Notes

Get your kids to come up with their own ideas instead. Grab some sticky notes and pens and spend some time planning together.

1. Let your kids write on sticky notes all the things they would like to do.

• • Let them come up with any idea that pops into their head.
  • If you can’t do the activity these holidays because of the cost, planning or the travel involved, then plan for a future time.

2. Put all the sticky notes on a noticeboard or a wall.
3. Write up a weekly calendar on a big whiteboard or use the fridge door as a whiteboard.
4. Each evening, plan the next day with the kids.
   • Get them to choose an activity from their sticky notes and put it on the calendar.
   • Kids are calm when they know what’s going on each day ahead of time.

4 types of activities

Plan to have one of each kind of activity every day.

1. Things kids can do outside
2. Things kids can do inside
3. Things kids can do by themselves (to give you a break, or focus on work)
4. Things kids can do with you (so you can focus on your kids, and they can connect again with you)

Routines naturally occur around mealtimes and bedtimes. Keep these routines at the same time each day. Keep bedtimes the same as a school week.

Use your calendar to build predictable daily routines for your activities. Plan activities after each mealtime, break up the time halfway with a snack. Kids can decide after their snack if they want to stay with the activity or pack up and move on to something else.

Spend time together

Plan time where you are fully focused on your kids to play with them, tell stories, or teach them new skills. Kids are more settled when they know they can regularly connect with their parents.

Relax: Expect Mess

With more people at home, things are going to get messy. Time spent with your kids is more important than time spent cleaning the floor. If the mess gets you down, this could be a time to teach kids housekeeping skills.

For more ideas check out these links:

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Thanks so much for reading. Got questions or suggestions?

I’d love to hear from you.