I love school holidays! I love not having to work to set times. I love the reduced running around and I love spending more time with the kids. But to make sure that we get the best out of the short time (only two weeks) there is some preparation that I like to undertake so that everyone has fun during the school holidays.
These tips are aimed at having things organised around the house, so that there are only minimal trips to the shops required and that we have supplies on hand for kids to choose their own activities.
Home and Away Plan
At a family meeting in the lead up to the school holidays, I will ask the kids if there is anything special that they would like to do over the holidays. We will agree on a couple of activities and then I like to schedule them throughout the school holidays, so that we have a mix of days at home and then “away” being out at activities.
With 5 kids it works well to have changes of scenery to make sure that we are all still getting along harmoniously. When making this plan, I generally try to have a day or two at home at the beginning of the holidays, so everyone can get some rest after the long school term and then some days at home again towards the end of the holidays, so that they head back to school refreshed.
Stock up on cooking supplies
This has two purposes, firstly with all of the kids home and visitors coming, we tend to go though a lot more food and secondly my kids love to cook as an activity during the school holidays. I like to make sure that I have plenty of:
- Self raising flour
- Plain flour
- Caster Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Baking Powder
- Vanilla Extract
- Butter
- Vegetable Oil
- Chocolate Chips
- Rolled Oats
- Golden Syrup
- Condensed Milk
- Cocoa
- Marie Biscuits
- Desiccated Coconut
This means that depending on what the kids want to make we can have:
Stock up on lunch and morning tea ingredients
During the school holidays it can sometime seem like all I do is prepare food and tidy up afterwards! The last couple of school holidays though I have started having the kids become responsible for doing more of this themselves. Each day one child is responsible for making the morning tea and I will alternate lunch times with a combination of me making them and the kids making it themselves. To make this easy for the younger children I also like to make sure that I have food supplies on hand that make the morning tea and lunch process simple like:
- Lots of fruit and vegetables
- Water crackers
- Home baked treats (see above!)
- Puff pastry
- Cheese
- Eggs
- Bacon
- Frankfurts
- Bake At Home Rolls
This means that kids can help make their own lunch like:
- Eggs In The Basket
- Vegemite Scrolls
- Traffic Light Sandwiches
- Quick Egg and Bacon Tarts
- And for special treat Mini Hot Dogs
Stocking Up On Craft and Art Supplies
This doesn’t need to be expensive, it can be as simple as keeping all boxes, cartons etc instead of putting them in the recycling bin so you have a range of materials for the kids to create with or if your kids like painting making sure you have a good range of colours for them to use. Craft and Art Supplies that I like to make sure I have on hand are:
- Drawing paper
- Recycled boxes
- Straws
- Paper plates and cups
- Masking Tape
- Staples
- Glue – glue sticks, craft glue and refills for the hot glue gun
- Chalk
- String
- Beads
- Blu Tak
- Pegs
Do you do anything special to prepare for school holidays?
14 comments...read them below or add one
Hmmm you are inspiring me with an idea for a blog post
Like you, I work out activities / outings with the kids, and schedule the big girls’ sleepover at my parents’ place (with my mum & dad living over an hour’s drive away, we don;t see a lot of them during the term time, and both they & the kids look forward to their sleepover each school hols). My balance is, if we are not going away anywhere (and we’re not this hols), to schedule things on only about 6 out of the 14 days. This hols we are going to my friend’s house in Brighton for a play day, we are going to the Melbourne Museum, we are going to Ballarat for a day when hubs has a day off, and the big girls will be at Mum & Dad’s for 2 days (which will include going to the theatre with them). I’ll probably try to only schedule one more firm committment in there.
I also try to be prepared for anything they have expressed interest in doing at home – the eldest is doing MS Readathon at the moment so high on the list for the week before the hols will be a visit to the library to stockpile some books, for instance!
Great post as always Nicole. I love school holidays as its a chance for us to catch up with friends that have school aged children, so we tend to visit and have visitors alot more.
We also like to visit the shopping centres. Yes they are busy but often they have free activities for the kids during the holidays.
.-= nell´s last blog ..Menu Plan Monday – 7th June 2010 =-.
Thank you. For the first time in a long time I’m not dreading the school holidays! Thanks again for all the fantastic ideas, my four will definitely be enjoying some of your wisdom.
.-= Cindy´s last blog ..Safety in the Home. =-.
What great ideas. Our holidays are a bit different because we generally go away to the city and Daddy is home, but we definitely have a list of activities to do there.
I love the idea of having the big girl responsible for morning tea, she will be thrilled.
.-= Deb´s last blog ..Interview with Dr Karl =-.
It sounds like you’re organised! I usually do a list of some sort… lol
.-= Hear Mum Roar´s last blog ..It’s a wet one today =-.
[...] 16, 2010 · Leave a Comment Nicole at Planning With Kids has been blogging about preparing for the school holidays and asked her readers if they do anything special to prepare for school [...]
And here we go, inspired by this post:
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I agree with you on stocking up your home school supplies with crafts and arts activities. My kids love it when I bring out special things to make collages with and introduce them to new art projects.
[...] Marita on June 16, 2010 /* */ Nicole at Planning With Kids has been blogging about preparing for the school holidays and asked her readers if they do anything special to prepare for school [...]
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