Three children in the summer holidays

[Sarah62]

Starting to panic about the summer holidays, I’ll be on my own with the kids for 6 weeks. What can we do? They are age 8, 6 and 2. Most things the older kids want to do such as climbing, bowling, trampolining, cinema cannot be done with the 2 year old. I don’t think I could manage a beach day with all 3 of them on my own.

Unfortunately I don’t have anyone else to team up with as my friends are working throughout and sending their kids to clubs every day.

We’ve done all our local parks and national trust places to death during lockdown, similar with crafts, baking etc. Any suggestion of going to a park/national trust is usually met with groaning and whining from the older 2 which really grinds me down!

I find taking all three children out on my own very stressful. Obviously the 2 year old will need constant adult supervision, the older children would go off and play at a park for a short time but it’s stressful trying to keep an eye on all of them especially when it’s very busy.

I’m looking forward to spending more time with them but I’m absolutely dreading the holidays. What can I do???? We’ve only got a very tiny garden too. Can’t afford to put them in clubs/nursery any extra hours.

Invite a friend for one of the older children, send the other to their friend and then do a swap the following week.

Get them training for the family olympics. They can help make up the events. Include lots of running around and being timed by a stop watch (kids freaking adore being timed and ‘watched’). You can have little ceremonies (there’s a fun episode of the US The Office where they do this).

You could drag it out a bit each day through the whole holidays.
Silly things like throwing scrunched up paper balls into a bucket. Racing back and forth in the park in X amount of time. You can do events that the year old can participate in in whatever basic way they can (I don’t know, like how many blocks they can collect before the timer goes). Older kids tend to be pretty generous letting babies win their ‘events’. And you can have a score board and fudge events as needed so everyone’s strengths are played to. As the Olympic committee the kids can also prepare all their medals in advance (silver foil is your friend).

Basically give otherwise silly/ordinary activities a theme and some rewards for everyone to look forward to.

my kids love building tents everywhere: garden, bedroom, living room.
once we had a weekend of takeaways & eating out so they built a tent in the kitchen🤣

give them lots of blankets & cushions and let them get on with it.

also obstacle courses, especially if mashed with the floor is lava!
you can make them anywhere, with anything. brilliant to encourage creativity.

you know how you draw outlines of a hand or foot?
do the entire child! get some really cheap rolls of wallpaper and draw their outline. they can then either colour "themselves" in (good fun for the 2 yo) or if more ambitious you could teach the older ones about where body parts & internal organs are. start with obvious stuff the little one can join in with (eyes, mouth etc).
honestly it's so much fun.

we have a dark sense of humour here so we did CSI style chalk outlines on the patio last year - they had to pick the most awkward positions they could manage. we laughed so much🤣

you can do it @Sarah62, you'll get through it. be strong x

This has brought back bitter memories of the summer mine were 12, 8, 1 and newborn.

A couple of days out in local woods near a stream were good similar fun to the beach but more manageable.

We did two city trips on the train and went to museums.

We watched a couple the cheap kids club films and sat somewhere where I could easily take the little ones out if they got noisy.

If your DH is home in the evenings the older two could do some activities then with either you or him.

also let them watch films or tv.
it's fine

Do you all have bikes? I got a cheap Hamax toddler seat on FB local selling site, it is was a great investment of £25.

I get my older child to make a picnic (snacks, drinks, basic sandwich) in the morning. That takes her an age. Then we all go on a bike ride together, I have a picnic rug in my backpack so we can stop and eat in a park. Kids are worn out from the cycling, and happy to play quietly after lunch while toddler naps. You can do that a few times a week, and it teaches the kids how to cycle better too.

Also don't worry if the kids whine about being bored. Let them come up with some games. At 6 and 8 they should love playing together. Building dens or making an obstacle course around the house or whatever.

On hot days, get them to wash the car or the front door, or something like that. It doesnt have to be complicated.

Re: the beach day, get the older two to carry a rucksack with their swimming stuff and picnic bits. Look at the hamman towels - like big tea towels, but they dry quickly, fold up small, double as sun shades, for changing under and sitting on .

I think it was mentioned already, but yes yes to matching coloured T-shirts. I had one child who was forever trying to slide out of the corner of my vision; putting him in a bright yellow T-shirt helped a lot.

Has anyone mentioned Pokémon Go and/or Wizards Unite, as well? We’ve spent many a happy hour on those.

I mentioned Pokemon Go. But tell me about Wizards Unite? What's that?

(Have you heard of Muzzy? - I've never done that but my daughter has with her brownies a couple of times)

Wizards Unite is sort of best described as Harry Potter Go - another Niantic game with significant overlap in terms of gyms/fortresses, Pokestops/inns. There’s a story arc to it, special events. Easier to level up in than PG. I am quite fond of it, good for HP fans.