Anyone else’s kids get burnt out at this point in the school year?

[MaGueule]

I always have the dream that the last half term of the school year will be a time of long, sunny days, joyous sports events and fetes, weekend evenings in the gardens with friends. In reality, I’ve got two kids (now 12 and 15) who are pretty burnt out. They are tired, grumpy, need a break from their friends and are so ready for a break from school routines. DS12 has finished the school play and exams last week, is now counting down the days until he finishes, and has lost enthusiasm for any extracurricular interests. DD15 apparently plans to ‘commando crawl like a wounded soldier’ through her maths and chemistry tests today. It’s like this at the end of every school year. I feel we are just dragging our sorry arses to the end of term! The only thing getting me through is that we’ll be loading up the car with the tent and driving to the coast as soon as the last prizegiving clap ends.

Anyone else got burnt out kids and feel pretty ragged themselves? Any tips for making it through?

I was going to say the opposite but I think our school front ends a lot of content to autumn and does chill this term. My children (primary) were both utterly broken in the last week before October half term. It was a real struggle to get them out of bed and the head said that week was one of the worst weeks of behaviour and tiredness he’d seen across the board.

At the moment both seem to be quite happy but they seem to be doing a lot of sporting stuff, trips and random enrichment things. Give it a few weeks into July and I’m sure we’ll see the change but for now we’re managing because the focus seems to be more about fun.

DD seems to be ok, she's autistic and her out of school time is very low demand at the best of times. Rugby has finished for the season and preseason training doesn't start untill the holiday so other than school extra curricular she hasn't much else on at the moment.

We also live by the beach and I WFH which is great as I can prep a picnic dinner at lunch time and we can chuck the wetsuits on straight after school and it (almost) feels like were on holiday. Waterproof seat covers mean we can travel home wet and straight in the shower so don't even have to get changed there.