It’s school holiday time! But what should you be preparing and organising in order to make the most of your children’s school holidays and make sure that they go smoothy? Today I am sharing my top preparation tips and organisation hacks for rocking the school holidays.
Table Of Contents
Create A Summer Bucket List
What do you and your family want to do this summer? Get together with your kids and brainstorm some fun ideas of things to put on your list. Add big things like trips and adventures and small things that can be done in the house.
You could also add projects that you have been meaning to do to this list, such as decluttering a certain room, painting a fence or sorting a wardrobe.
Plan Ahead On A Calendar
Plot out all of the summer appointments, plans and commitments onto a calendar as soon as possible. Make sure that you include all work commitments so that you can see when you will be working and organise any necessary childcare arrangements.
Once you have done this, you can start to schedule some items from your bucket list onto your summer calendar to ensure that you can tick off as many as possible.
Set Out The Family Rules From Day 1
Starting the holidays where everyone knows what is expected of them is an excellent way to start the summer on the right foot. Ask your children to help you come up with your rules. This is an exercise http they often do in schools, as involving children in the rule design process makes them more inclined to keep them.
Some suggestions for the types of rules you might want to consider;
- Be kind to one another
- Beds to be made in the mornings
- Eating and snacking at the table
- Everyone helps to tidy up before bed
- Screen time allowances (more about this in a minute)
Choose rules that work for your family that are specific to your children at their stage of development.
Set A Summer Routine
Routine is not for everyone, but as a Mum of 4 children, 2 of which have autism, I can report that our family thrives with routine.
While I am not suggesting that your summer routine should be as rigid as a term time routine, having a basic summer routine can help your children know what to expect from their days and which activity might be coming up next.
I have found that my children are overall happier with a reasonably early bedtime, even in the summer. As with term time, during the holidays we differentiate between “weeknights” and “weekends” with the weekend bedtimes being later than week nights.
If set bedtimes are not something that you feel your children need during the holidays, consider implementing them for the last week or so before back to school, in order to ease them back into routine.
Set A Summer Challenge
Consider setting your children a summer challenge. This could be a reading challenge, such as a number of books to be completed. It could be a new language challenge with an app to work though, or even a challenge to have their bed made without being asked every day. Think about creating a reward chart to monitor progress of the challenge and maybe even a reward for when the challenges age is completed.
Stock Up On Art Supplies
It’s a good idea to stock up on craft essentials to keep your kids entertained on rainy days or while you are trying to squeeze in some work from home. I like to keep a stocked stationery caddy full of the basics all year around for occasions like these.
Stock Up On Snacks
For some reason kids that can make it through the school day with lunch plus one snack are constantly starving at home. Make sure that you are well stoked with snacks for when hunger inevitably strikes.
Use Screen Time Wisely
Set up screen time on your child’s devices to ensure that they are not spending every waking moment on their devices. The video below explains how to set this ups on Apple devices.
I’d also consider using devices strategically. For example, while you are attempting to hold a zoom meeting while working from home, allowing your children to play on devices may actually allow you to pull this off.
Try to make sure that your child’s devices have a good selection of educational games too. Check out the blog post below with my top picks for educational apps for kids.
Structure Your Working Day
Consider how you will among your work commitments over the holidays. Get together with your partner and look at who will be working and who will be with the children each day. Look at which childcare you have available to utilise on other days.
For days that you have no option to take time off and no childcare either, consider fitting in a few hours of work before the children wake up, or working after they are in bed in the evening.
Take a look at my early morning routine where I get up to fit in working before my children are up for the day.
If you do have work to do that must be done while the children are home and awake, consider where you can both work and keep an eye on them.
On a standard school day, I work at my desk in my home office. If, however, I am home alone with the children and have to work, I tend to work in the kitchen where I can easily supervise them as they play, as you’ll see in the vlog below.
For more tips for working from home when the kids are home, click the button below.
Pack Early For Trips
If during the school holidays you are going away, pack for your trip as early as possible. This will avoid any last minute panics, plus stop your family from wearing things that they will need to take on the trip.
Do A Back To School Stock Take Early
Before you commence your back to school shopping, do a full back to school stick take. See exactly what your children already have that will be suitable for back to school, then make a compere naive list of what you will actually need to buy. This avoids wasting money on doubling up on things that they already have.
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