School's out!!
So, school is out. For 3 weeks!!! It will actually end up feeling way shorter as we have our annual, AMAZING church conference this week so that leaves only really 2 to fill with fun.
Holidays and I have a love hate relationship. My affections closely mirror my kids relationships, I've come to realise. For the most part they get on well but admittedly there are points in the holiday where I wish we had the structure of school and being able to separate 3 little people who are living in each others space ALL day. O well, nothing like holidays for kids to learn conflict resolution and team work...and patience...and cooperation and the list is endless of life lessons you hope they take out of the situations they find themselves in daily.
I find my best, most successful school holidays are the ones where I have a plan! Usually a loose plan (because God forbid it rains and you cannot stick to the plan which three little people will hold you to, mercilessly).
I like to describe our school holidays as structured spontaneity, as much as it sounds quite impossible.
If I am going to have three little people for 24 hours a day, together, I need a plan. We don't necessarily have to follow the plan, but the plan is there should we need it.
I have learned what works and it is that I will replicate these holidays (also I may add, I am always gleaning or should I say 'stealing' other people's ideas when it comes to managing kids, especially during the holidays and creating memories).
However, this is what I have found worked and hence, why I found myself up late Fri night with markers and cardboard... So, if you want to be a little more planned and copy some ideas that I myself have read about or observed somewhere along the line.
So, if you too want to take the 'stress' out of what should be a rocking family holiday, here's what I found worked!!
Firstly, make reward charts.
I cannot stress how helpful these are. I must admit I am not organized enough to carry on rewards charts throughout the year, I usually start them at some inspiring point in the year and carry them on until kids start sneaking stamps onto charts for eating breakfast or picking up a toy off the ground and other such ridiculous, expected things. I find bringing out something novel, short term and 'new' for the holidays works a treat (no pun intended). And yes, I am one of those mums who rewards the kids with stuff. I have read a few articles/ blogs on both side of the spectrum. One side being that kids shouldn't be what is borderline 'bribed' to display good behavior. I like to sit in the middle and reinforce good behavior with things they actually want and don't usually get. We don't do pocket money in our house. If there is something the kids want when it isn't Christmas or their birthday they can earn money by helping around the house over and above expected chores. But that's about it. So to have a chart where you can 'earn' stamps and after 6, get $2 or get to choose a sweet treat (neither of which they would have otherwise) is novel and proves incentive enough not to kill each other or drive me insane - win-win!
So yes, totally do up a big, dramatic, Pinterest-worthy star chart. It will bring out the good behavior in your kids by helping them focus on goals because if you're anything like me, you've observed how little inner drive kids have to do this out of their own. Unfortunately!
Secondly, write lists of all the cool places you may choose to go to on a rainy or sunny day.
This turns into a fun activity in and of itself and can take up a good morning of brainstorming which will usually turn into reminiscing about previous holidays. Our sunny day lists usually include free stuff like specific parks the kids enjoy, outdoor walks or activities. To make it more novel, because it is school holidays after all, I will usually attach a (small) treat to the activity. So if I put down , "Bike ride and scooter at the skate park at Browns Bay" I will say "and ice-cream afterward". If I put down "library day" I will usually say "and hot chocolate/fluffy date afterward". It is amazing how setting an expectation from the get-go eliminates whining and whinging throughout the day for things they want. They know the treat you've agreed to and are usually pretty happy to stick to the plan. Usually (big disclaimer here).
Thirdly, use a draw-card activity. maybe one that is the most expensive like movies or an indoor playground, as leverage sorry, I mean as 'rewards' for good behavior. I will usually plan fun activities that cost money at the end of the holiday that I can use to bless or reward the kids if they have treated each other kindly and been well behaved when we have been out, generally speaking.
There are so many great things to do during the holidays and so much is free! Unfortunately most of the free things work better on sunny day but with a little planning, it is totally do-able to plan around this. Here are some of our favourite activities (around Auckland, that is).
Ferry and Viaduct
Catch a ferry from Devonport to the City and go have lunch at Silo Park
(If you have kids slightly older who can handle a bike OK, you can let them cycle, the bikes across and hire yourself a bike from stations dotted all around Quay Street for $2 an hour. The viaduct is the perfect place to cycle and there are boats to watch, a playground to play in at Silo Park, a cool lifting bridge to sit an watch and go over as well as great fish and chips at the fish market. It's literally one of our favourite activities).
Transportation Day
(this can include a bus ride from home to anywhere. There is a cool transport pass you can get which is so cheap for kids and not bad for adults that means you can ride any transportation in Auckland; including the ferry the bus and the train. We have previously done the bus to Devonport, the ferry to the City and Britomart train to Ponsonby for a coffee and a shop and then home again. The kids loved it and you really do feel like a tourist for a day).
Park and Playground fun
- we are spoilt for choice with the most amazing parks so close by. Some of our favourites are Mairangi Bay Park (hello, it's fenced!!! ) It also has a hill my kids love to tear down on scooters, Onepoto Domain (it has an actual bike track that goes around the park, a playground and a duck pond so lots to do),
School visits
- School's out so we go exploring! School playgrounds are (generally) fenced, have basketball courts where kids can scooter or ride bikes and great playgrounds! Some of our favourites are Pinehill School (that also has a great sandpit and three levels of play areas for the kids) and Long Bay Primary where they have recently redone it. Long Bay Primary has an awesome hill leading onto their field which my kids will hoon down for some extreme entertainment!
Op-Shop hunting
- I may give the kids a few dollars and we do an op-shop crawl. Browns Bay is fabulous for this, with Op-shops for Africa. Literally. I like to buy books from them but usually the kids will pick up a board-game for $2 or a novel toy that was used and now really cheap and for under $10 you can buy a morning activity (that you actually enjoy) and they will play with their 'treasure' for at least the rest of that day, depending on how great a find it was. These exhausting but rewarding trips can usually be celebrated with a coffee at a child-friendly coffee shop nearby! The celebration of kids NOT breaking the glass valuables as you squeeze your brood through aisles so narrow, is definitely an achievement worth celebrating!!
Treasure Hunt
Now this may seem a drag of a thing to even contemplate planning but it can be so simple. My tips are, don't set yourself up for failure. Don't tell the kids you're planning one until you've done it. And assess your achievement levels over a cup of coffee on a free morning. If you have time and are feeling like it's achievable, then get out some paper and pens and plan something fun! I do such an easy version. I write out 8 - 10 clues and keep them all. So no hiding clues at locations and all that - way too hard! I make things like " Head to the park in the Bay that is named after a Colour and climb to the highest part you can for your next clue". What's awesome is, if your kids are at the right age, even menial stuff like climbing the net at the playground will be a blast, because they're in a race! Against themselves! One clue will often involve making a chain that cannot be broken and buying something red, blue and green from a shop (make it so each kid gets to pick something their colour). And the end prize is usually ice cream or something cheap and simple but you can be as extravagant as you like!
Gavin and I felt adventurous about a year ago and took our lot on a treasure hunt to Rotorua! Man, that was the BEST car trip ever. The usually 3 hour LONG journey was broken up into 45 minute segments with challenges along the way and the excited kids were focused on the treasure hunt and forgot all about asking when we were going to arrive at the location (because they didn't know where we were going) and fighting, because we were all working together! Great memories.
Minute to Win-It
This is up my sleeve for these holidays coming up. 'Minute to win it' ideas can be found by Youtubing the name. You can get ideas for easy, no fuss competitions to do with the kids that can cost hardly anything and most of the items can either be bought at a $2 store or you could find them around the house. There are things like sucking m&M's with straws and transferring to bowls with hands behind your back, trying to wrap someone with toilet paper (like a mummy) and finish the roll in 1 minute...just so many great, EASY-PEASY ideas. The kids have a blast and you can make a big score board and tally up points. Winners can pick the night's movie or something.
Crafting
This is not one I attempt too often, mainly because I'm not particularly crafty. But I'm always surprised at how long the kids will do the crafty activities. Things like buying a few packs of glue, getting a few scissors (all of which I found at the Warehouse for $1 each). You can give them each a piece of paper, or if you're really splashing out, cardboard! Get them to cut out pictures of the magazines you have around of things they like and make a story out of them or just make a cool collage.
On that note, another favourite for me (and the kids) is getting them to sit with a catalogue of some of the toy shops and to circle things they like, for Christmas. Mine will usually sit for ages doing this. It kills two birds with one stone! Firstly, you're getting indicators of what they want for Christmas (yes, this early on in the year) and secondly, you can make a coffee and flip through the junk mail catalogues too so it's a win for all involved! This does however come with a disclaimer to tell your kids they will NOT be getting everything they circle...
Spring-Clean!
Ok this sounds like I've saved the worst for last or lost the plot. But seriously, this is one of my favourite things to do with the kids! Why you ask? Well it's pretty much the same as going shopping. Toy-box clear outs are great. You end up with a big bag of stuff to donate to the op-shop (another excuse to go to the op-shop, mum win!) and the kids will without a doubt find toys they forgot they had AND you end up with a clean(er) house. These days do need some breaking up so I suggest building the kids up to it with a family reward for doing the clean-up. Maybe pancakes for afternoon tea or a ice-blocks (yes most of my treats are sweets and no that's not ideal).
'
Needless to say, I'm more inspired than slightly daunted by the looming holidays ahead! Sure, Summer Holidays are a LOT easier to handle with a daily dose of Vitamin D almost guaranteed. However, if you embrace Winter, there really are a bunch of memories waiting to be made.
For some reason sometimes allow other mums, other kids or what we observe around us shape what we do with the kids. We feel guilted into spending money on expensive outings or having to spoil the kids rotten. Like our kids may miss out. My biggest encouragement is this. That life for kids is simple. Adults complicate it. Kids love spending time with us and kids love creating memories with us. Next time you head to the park, have a turn on the flying fox. Throw some food at someone and start a food fight (at the beach, NOT your house, that's a terrible idea). Race the kids on your walk. Get silly and get them laughing. In the end they will not be able to remember the level they got to on the game on their ipad or how much money you spent on that toy at Toy World... It will be moments with YOU that they will cherish and that ultimately lay the foundation for all the hard work we put into raising the kids the rest of the year.
Happy holidays!!! :)
Holidays and I have a love hate relationship. My affections closely mirror my kids relationships, I've come to realise. For the most part they get on well but admittedly there are points in the holiday where I wish we had the structure of school and being able to separate 3 little people who are living in each others space ALL day. O well, nothing like holidays for kids to learn conflict resolution and team work...and patience...and cooperation and the list is endless of life lessons you hope they take out of the situations they find themselves in daily.
I find my best, most successful school holidays are the ones where I have a plan! Usually a loose plan (because God forbid it rains and you cannot stick to the plan which three little people will hold you to, mercilessly).
I like to describe our school holidays as structured spontaneity, as much as it sounds quite impossible.
If I am going to have three little people for 24 hours a day, together, I need a plan. We don't necessarily have to follow the plan, but the plan is there should we need it.
I have learned what works and it is that I will replicate these holidays (also I may add, I am always gleaning or should I say 'stealing' other people's ideas when it comes to managing kids, especially during the holidays and creating memories).
However, this is what I have found worked and hence, why I found myself up late Fri night with markers and cardboard... So, if you want to be a little more planned and copy some ideas that I myself have read about or observed somewhere along the line.
So, if you too want to take the 'stress' out of what should be a rocking family holiday, here's what I found worked!!
Firstly, make reward charts.
I cannot stress how helpful these are. I must admit I am not organized enough to carry on rewards charts throughout the year, I usually start them at some inspiring point in the year and carry them on until kids start sneaking stamps onto charts for eating breakfast or picking up a toy off the ground and other such ridiculous, expected things. I find bringing out something novel, short term and 'new' for the holidays works a treat (no pun intended). And yes, I am one of those mums who rewards the kids with stuff. I have read a few articles/ blogs on both side of the spectrum. One side being that kids shouldn't be what is borderline 'bribed' to display good behavior. I like to sit in the middle and reinforce good behavior with things they actually want and don't usually get. We don't do pocket money in our house. If there is something the kids want when it isn't Christmas or their birthday they can earn money by helping around the house over and above expected chores. But that's about it. So to have a chart where you can 'earn' stamps and after 6, get $2 or get to choose a sweet treat (neither of which they would have otherwise) is novel and proves incentive enough not to kill each other or drive me insane - win-win!
So yes, totally do up a big, dramatic, Pinterest-worthy star chart. It will bring out the good behavior in your kids by helping them focus on goals because if you're anything like me, you've observed how little inner drive kids have to do this out of their own. Unfortunately!
Secondly, write lists of all the cool places you may choose to go to on a rainy or sunny day.
This turns into a fun activity in and of itself and can take up a good morning of brainstorming which will usually turn into reminiscing about previous holidays. Our sunny day lists usually include free stuff like specific parks the kids enjoy, outdoor walks or activities. To make it more novel, because it is school holidays after all, I will usually attach a (small) treat to the activity. So if I put down , "Bike ride and scooter at the skate park at Browns Bay" I will say "and ice-cream afterward". If I put down "library day" I will usually say "and hot chocolate/fluffy date afterward". It is amazing how setting an expectation from the get-go eliminates whining and whinging throughout the day for things they want. They know the treat you've agreed to and are usually pretty happy to stick to the plan. Usually (big disclaimer here).
Thirdly, use a draw-card activity. maybe one that is the most expensive like movies or an indoor playground, as leverage sorry, I mean as 'rewards' for good behavior. I will usually plan fun activities that cost money at the end of the holiday that I can use to bless or reward the kids if they have treated each other kindly and been well behaved when we have been out, generally speaking.
There are so many great things to do during the holidays and so much is free! Unfortunately most of the free things work better on sunny day but with a little planning, it is totally do-able to plan around this. Here are some of our favourite activities (around Auckland, that is).
Ferry and Viaduct
Catch a ferry from Devonport to the City and go have lunch at Silo Park
(If you have kids slightly older who can handle a bike OK, you can let them cycle, the bikes across and hire yourself a bike from stations dotted all around Quay Street for $2 an hour. The viaduct is the perfect place to cycle and there are boats to watch, a playground to play in at Silo Park, a cool lifting bridge to sit an watch and go over as well as great fish and chips at the fish market. It's literally one of our favourite activities).
Transportation Day
(this can include a bus ride from home to anywhere. There is a cool transport pass you can get which is so cheap for kids and not bad for adults that means you can ride any transportation in Auckland; including the ferry the bus and the train. We have previously done the bus to Devonport, the ferry to the City and Britomart train to Ponsonby for a coffee and a shop and then home again. The kids loved it and you really do feel like a tourist for a day).
Park and Playground fun
- we are spoilt for choice with the most amazing parks so close by. Some of our favourites are Mairangi Bay Park (hello, it's fenced!!! ) It also has a hill my kids love to tear down on scooters, Onepoto Domain (it has an actual bike track that goes around the park, a playground and a duck pond so lots to do),
School visits
- School's out so we go exploring! School playgrounds are (generally) fenced, have basketball courts where kids can scooter or ride bikes and great playgrounds! Some of our favourites are Pinehill School (that also has a great sandpit and three levels of play areas for the kids) and Long Bay Primary where they have recently redone it. Long Bay Primary has an awesome hill leading onto their field which my kids will hoon down for some extreme entertainment!
Op-Shop hunting
- I may give the kids a few dollars and we do an op-shop crawl. Browns Bay is fabulous for this, with Op-shops for Africa. Literally. I like to buy books from them but usually the kids will pick up a board-game for $2 or a novel toy that was used and now really cheap and for under $10 you can buy a morning activity (that you actually enjoy) and they will play with their 'treasure' for at least the rest of that day, depending on how great a find it was. These exhausting but rewarding trips can usually be celebrated with a coffee at a child-friendly coffee shop nearby! The celebration of kids NOT breaking the glass valuables as you squeeze your brood through aisles so narrow, is definitely an achievement worth celebrating!!
Treasure Hunt
Now this may seem a drag of a thing to even contemplate planning but it can be so simple. My tips are, don't set yourself up for failure. Don't tell the kids you're planning one until you've done it. And assess your achievement levels over a cup of coffee on a free morning. If you have time and are feeling like it's achievable, then get out some paper and pens and plan something fun! I do such an easy version. I write out 8 - 10 clues and keep them all. So no hiding clues at locations and all that - way too hard! I make things like " Head to the park in the Bay that is named after a Colour and climb to the highest part you can for your next clue". What's awesome is, if your kids are at the right age, even menial stuff like climbing the net at the playground will be a blast, because they're in a race! Against themselves! One clue will often involve making a chain that cannot be broken and buying something red, blue and green from a shop (make it so each kid gets to pick something their colour). And the end prize is usually ice cream or something cheap and simple but you can be as extravagant as you like!
Gavin and I felt adventurous about a year ago and took our lot on a treasure hunt to Rotorua! Man, that was the BEST car trip ever. The usually 3 hour LONG journey was broken up into 45 minute segments with challenges along the way and the excited kids were focused on the treasure hunt and forgot all about asking when we were going to arrive at the location (because they didn't know where we were going) and fighting, because we were all working together! Great memories.
Minute to Win-It
This is up my sleeve for these holidays coming up. 'Minute to win it' ideas can be found by Youtubing the name. You can get ideas for easy, no fuss competitions to do with the kids that can cost hardly anything and most of the items can either be bought at a $2 store or you could find them around the house. There are things like sucking m&M's with straws and transferring to bowls with hands behind your back, trying to wrap someone with toilet paper (like a mummy) and finish the roll in 1 minute...just so many great, EASY-PEASY ideas. The kids have a blast and you can make a big score board and tally up points. Winners can pick the night's movie or something.
Crafting
This is not one I attempt too often, mainly because I'm not particularly crafty. But I'm always surprised at how long the kids will do the crafty activities. Things like buying a few packs of glue, getting a few scissors (all of which I found at the Warehouse for $1 each). You can give them each a piece of paper, or if you're really splashing out, cardboard! Get them to cut out pictures of the magazines you have around of things they like and make a story out of them or just make a cool collage.
On that note, another favourite for me (and the kids) is getting them to sit with a catalogue of some of the toy shops and to circle things they like, for Christmas. Mine will usually sit for ages doing this. It kills two birds with one stone! Firstly, you're getting indicators of what they want for Christmas (yes, this early on in the year) and secondly, you can make a coffee and flip through the junk mail catalogues too so it's a win for all involved! This does however come with a disclaimer to tell your kids they will NOT be getting everything they circle...
Spring-Clean!
Ok this sounds like I've saved the worst for last or lost the plot. But seriously, this is one of my favourite things to do with the kids! Why you ask? Well it's pretty much the same as going shopping. Toy-box clear outs are great. You end up with a big bag of stuff to donate to the op-shop (another excuse to go to the op-shop, mum win!) and the kids will without a doubt find toys they forgot they had AND you end up with a clean(er) house. These days do need some breaking up so I suggest building the kids up to it with a family reward for doing the clean-up. Maybe pancakes for afternoon tea or a ice-blocks (yes most of my treats are sweets and no that's not ideal).
'
Needless to say, I'm more inspired than slightly daunted by the looming holidays ahead! Sure, Summer Holidays are a LOT easier to handle with a daily dose of Vitamin D almost guaranteed. However, if you embrace Winter, there really are a bunch of memories waiting to be made.
For some reason sometimes allow other mums, other kids or what we observe around us shape what we do with the kids. We feel guilted into spending money on expensive outings or having to spoil the kids rotten. Like our kids may miss out. My biggest encouragement is this. That life for kids is simple. Adults complicate it. Kids love spending time with us and kids love creating memories with us. Next time you head to the park, have a turn on the flying fox. Throw some food at someone and start a food fight (at the beach, NOT your house, that's a terrible idea). Race the kids on your walk. Get silly and get them laughing. In the end they will not be able to remember the level they got to on the game on their ipad or how much money you spent on that toy at Toy World... It will be moments with YOU that they will cherish and that ultimately lay the foundation for all the hard work we put into raising the kids the rest of the year.
Happy holidays!!! :)
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