How to survive the school summer holidays with your kids

[organiccarrotcake]

and other animals.

We've all seen the articles - or the links to articles - about random ways to "get through" the summer hols.

I just wanted to say that I'm immensely enjoying these summer hols. Having the time to spend with my 6YO (who goes to school for now, we're considering HE) is so precious, and my trial of HEing over the summer is going amazingly well and we BOTH are finding it an absolute revelation. The concept of having to work out ways to "survive" now seems utterly appalling.

So. Here's my top tips to surviving the summer hols with your kids:

1. You have kids - but not for long. Enjoy them, cherish them, spend time with them. Learn from them.
2. See (1).

That is all.

:) Organic you made me smile!

One thing to bear in mind though - the thrill of being a newbie at home ed does wear off both as a parent and as a child....................

But HE is still the best thing for me and mine (and hopefully you too!)

I home ed two of my dcs (mostly enthusiastically ) but find there is a world of difference between having one or two at home to having three

LauraIngallsWilder: "One thing to bear in mind though - the thrill of being a newbie at home ed does wear off both as a parent and as a child...................."

LOL, I was going to say totally the opposite - that if you think it's good now, wait till you've done it longer and it gets even easier.

A lot of people find it really really hard to adjust back and forth between school and holidays and that is why parents may get so stressed during the holidays. It isn't that they don't want to be with their kids, it's only that they aren't used to it. If ever they had much longer than six weeks together, they'd make the shift, but they never get the chance. I definitely find it a big adjustment having my dh underfoot spending time with my dh every time he's off work for a week. (He's self-employed and sometimes has a break between contracts.) I know many couples have a rocky start to their retirement for the same reason! There must be some holiday camp where I can send him...

Some families seem to find it easy to shift back and forth between school and holidays, and always enjoy their holidays. I don't know why some families find it easy while many don't.

Or 4, SpringHeeled.
There are days when I'm trying to talk through fractions with 1, fragile friendships with the next, how to make a rainbow with the 3rd whilst the 4th paints the dog.
(But it's still better than when they were at school!)

"A lot of people find it really really hard to adjust back and forth between school and holidays and that is why parents may get so stressed during the holidays"

Agree! Particularly if you work the holidays end up a succession of increasingly stressful childcare arrangements to string together. Your only 2 weeks off work is also the 2 weeks you don't have childcare, so breeding a resentment that you don't get to do what you wanted to do. Perhaps you even have to add in additional children to pay back for a childcare arrangement you had in previous weeks, so you now have to entertain the next door neighbour's kids on top of your own while getting through the ironing that you let go because you'll all be back at work/school soon and you'll need those uniforms looking shiny and pressed again. You'd love to take them all swimming, but frankly the idea of adding to that pile of laundry just doesn't appeal, and in any case you are now waiting in for the gas man because it's the only day you could be in because you are normally at work.

Put that way, surviving the holidays seems appropriate. Surviving the holidays without getting fired for having nowhere to send your children while you go to work and without having performance lapses while you are worried about your children! Actually being at home with the kids compared to having to find them somewhere to go is a doddle, but it depends just how much you have to squash into those few weeks.