To schedule school holidays like a school day

[TAMumof3]

Am finding school holidays with 3 children really difficult.

I just don't seem to know what to do with them.

I'm a Teaching Assistant during term time and can only think to schedule their time like a school day - have just informed them that after on-line German practise this morning we'll be having PE by jogging along the roman road at eh back of our house.

I thought this was a nice plan but children very unmotivated, 12year old playing computer game, 10 year old setting tanks up all over kitchen floor and 8 year old listening to audio book.
I can't seem to get any of them up and on the go.

Save the German and running for when they are wailing "i'm board"

Chill out. You are being too controlling of them. They need a bit of independence from you.

Hell no, part of the pleasure of the summer holidays is not having a routine. I don't have a clue what day of the week or date it is normally and I don't have my watch on; it's lovely escaping from the rule of the calendar and the clock.

If it works for you and your child though then go for it, it's not unreasonable.

Setting up tanks on the floor and listening to an audio book both sound like great fun and are educational in their own way. Leave them to it. Better stil, join in: get an audio book of your own or get some tanks of your own and start a (play) war with your child's tanks on the kitchen floor! Make sure you have a holiday too.

Kids need to learn to be bored, how to entertain themselves, and how to be happy in their own company doing nothing. Relax!

Depends what you mean by unstructured time. We all like the thought of nice little games of Lego or dollies quietly entertaining them for hours, or fun times in the garden making up games that go on all day, but the reality isn't often like that and as previous posters say there are a lot of people who get to the start of secondary and wish they'd had a bit more discipline and less electronics earlier on.

I think a mixture of days out, friends round and lazy time is good.

Useful to have few ideas up your sleeve. A hour of online German is fine if they're bored. I wouldn't timetable them to the hilt though, that's not a holiday op!

Today mind are currently in pjs on the sofa watching telly. When they start fighting I will drag them out to the park. Plan b if it rains is library visit. They're doing the reading challenge over the summer.

I think it might help to create some structure for you. We all brainstorm a list of what we might want to do over the hols, and DH and I whittle it down to what we can afford, ensuring everyone gets something they want. Then we have a planner and we schedule things onto days. DS likes to know his friend is coming over on a particular day etc, and we fill the blanks with swimming, park etc. It's a bit like when they were babies really, and I scheduled in groups for me more than her. But personally I think constructing a school timetable is taking it way too far. Schedule in one or two things a day to help your sanity and ensure they get some stimulation/exercise, and let them play the rest of the time.

Getting them to help prepare meals etc is a good way to "teach" life skills. Even if it's just sandwiches. I realised yesterday I'd omitted to teach my 8 year old to operate a tin opener.

I decided to teach DD chess this holidays and took her to Pompeii and we are watching a lot of Dr Who. All appropriate learning experiences I think ;)

I have 2 of a similar age to your younger 2 and one teen. The only thing I try to do is make sure they go to the park once a day for some exercise (otherwise they'd be glued to screens all day). My oldest is doing Latin GCSE and would not be amused at the thought of doing the Cambridge Latin Course in the school holidays as 'entertainment'.

You don't need to find things for them to do if all three of them have found perfectly good things to do on their own. They're on their holidays, it's fine for them to mooch around and do their own thing. Structured activities every day aren't every kid's thing. They get enough of that at school; the holidays are meant to be a break from that.

Are you sure you aren't just bored op? Your kids sound content doing their own thing at their own pace. You sound more like the type of person who likes to get through a list (I might be projecting at this point). Maybe you could start your own project, learn a language that interests you, you never know, maybe your kids will get swept up by your enthusiasm?

I'd save your ideas for when they complain about being bored, or start winding each other up. Unstructured time is incredibly important for children so letting them have as much of that as they can handle (i.e. not so much that they start winding each other up!) is a really good thing to do.

I would limit electronic time though, as we all know how much time that can suck away from you (says the person who has been on the computer for four hours so far today). Maybe even make it contingent on doing some learning things like the German practice. But let them be free to play with tanks or listen to audiobooks.

Mine are sitting playing on their tablets at the moment..shoot me.

We're going to visit my mum after lunch and I will be taking them to the park later on too.

Let them enjoy the holidays without forcing things on then.

We all love the holidays for the very reason there is no school. I'm gutted it's so close to September. As far as I'm concerned, this is their six week break and if they want to do fuck all for a day or two it's fine. Education is really full on. It's demanding and tiring. Surely you must realise that as a Year 5 TA. Latin, German and PE? You're pulling our legs.

I'm sure parents would be shocked to see just how little their children learn each day.

I know what you mean, I've done voluntary work in schools and there seems to be very little general knowledge learning going on; it's all learn how to do this to a text and then do it over and over again until you are sick of it or constant going over the same maths stuff. I've only been in during the morning sessions though, I've no idea what happens in the afternoons.

This summer we have done bugger all in terms of education; my youngest has done a little bit of English homework but other than that we've been camping for a couple of days, we went to Italy and saw some Roman ruins so I guess that was educational. Apart from that they have been out with their friends, read a few books if they chose to and have watched whatever they wanted on tv whenever they wanted and done a bit of swimming, oh and a couple of factory visits for something that they are all interested in. We don't have any structure at all - meals are when we are hungry, going out is when we want to go out and so on.

Could you tell me more about the Latin thing please OP? Is it costly? DCs are quite interested (for term time though :o they are HE but we are on summer break anyway)

We do something every day - I'd show you our timetable holiday calendar but it's too specific. Imagine a 7x6 grid each with one thing in - mine are younger so sometimes the thing is a park or a playbarn, other times it's a local place of interest eg ruins, or a craft activity at home.

But in general we do stuff in the afternoon and they do unstructured in the morning and evenings. Best of both worlds?

And they need you even if they're ignoring you. They just need you in a different way.

I think 12 in particular is too old for a very structured holiday.

Pinterest is great for cheap/free ideas for school holidays. Science experiments dressed up as games, that kind of thing.

Also stop putting so much pressure on yourself. It's a weird change as they don't need you so much but honestly it's a good thing! The fact they are able to entertain themselves etc. It's a natural part of growing up and the fact they aren't overly dependent on you for entertainment is great :)

I used to have plans when mine were younger and I think they learned a few things too but there was never any formal learning as such. we'd have topics and would incorporate a trip or two,some crafts,a dvd or two and whatever else I could loosely tie in. So for mini beasts we'd go to the zoo, go bug hunting (taking a picnic) in the local woods,watch "It's a bugs life" and some animal planet documentary, paint butterflies,make grasshoppers and spiders from loo rolls and pipe cleaners, bake spider's webs from cheese straw dough and go to the library to find some books about insects.
We'd do a different topic when we ran out of ideas or when it fit in with what was going on free locally or to fit in with a planned trip somewhere. So ocean life would fit round a trip to the seaside, transport would fit around a trip on a train.
We had a lot of fun tbh and I really miss those days but by the time they'd hit senior school they had their own interests and ideas and so had to go with he flow.

Thanks everyone, (children are mightily relieved to hear Jog is off the list this morning now !)

Re Latin : I will try to pop a link on, basically the secondary school use a website that we use too for free, anyone can use.
It is Cambridge latin and takes children through from no knowledge to GCSE. The whole course is delivered through a narrative story about a Roman family. All words are translated and vocab is tested throughout. I found that when my eldest started secondary last September he was behind already as children coming from private schools had already studied some Latin.
The child who loves it the most though is my middle son who is 10, he likes history and for him it's a way of enjoying learning about Romans.
clc.cambridgescp.com/stage/clc/2

www.clc.cambridgescp.com/stage/clc/2