We're halfway through the school holidays here in NSW and I'm finding them thoroughly enjoyable and exhausting all at the same time. Once I got it out of my head that this was meant to be relaxing for me (I still think of hours reading novels on the beach when I think 'holidays', and that just doesn't reflect reality!) I feel like I've hit my stride. Don't know when exactly I'll get to rest, but I do love having my kids home with me.
Now that Dave has gone back to work we've been a little bit more home-based, inviting others over to play rather than attempting big excursions. I'm aware that term time can get pretty overwhelming for us at the moment, so while most of our time is spent relaxing, I'm trying to use a bit of our holiday time in ways that will take the pressure off later down the track. We're doing two weeks of intensive swimming lessons, which I'm hoping will remove the need for yet another structured after-school activity. The kids are loving them and look forward to them each day.
I'm also trying to encourage them to do things they don't normally get to do enough of during term time as well - riding their bikes, playing a bit of netball or cricket, writing a journal or a piece of creative writing (thanks Rory's story cubes!), plus stuff we need to anyway like speech pathology, by making up a grid of activities tailored to each child and encouraging them to choose from that when they're looking for something to do. Half an hour of one of their 'activities' earns them a point and once they get to a certain amount of points they get a reward. It's working well so far.
Rebecca enjoying one of the less structured activities of the holidays - nursing an injured Sylvanian family mouse back to health!
Lydia, meanwhile has kept us all on our toes and like her big brother has learned to crawl before she can sit still. I remember the period between 6-12 months was quite intense with Jacob, and I'm wondering if that's what the next 6 months will hold for me with Lydia, since she reminds me a lot of him!
How about you? If you are on holidays, how are they going?
PS. Ally's blogging through some fun ideas on her blog which I'm keen to try as well.
4 comments:
Half way through holidays! I wish.
Our kids have one week and two days left.
I have to start next Wednesday.
Love the photos of Bec & Lydia!
All of mine, every single one, crawled before they could sit. I didn't know it could be done any other way.
I exaggerate.
It's very intense, isn't it? On the bright side, it forces you to baby-proof the house while they are still very young.
Except we never managed to do that with the last one. The other children sort of made it too difficult.
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