Love your family summer!

The power of the pause.

After every parkrun, every race, every sprint (oh my gosh, my references are ALL running-based – what have I become?) we rest, to take a breather and let our minds and bodies recover. Our children have spent a term learning bucketloads of STUFF, getting up early and trying to sleep in this heat. It would be good to let them pause a bit and let their brains ease into the holidays, particularly in the early part.

Schedule some boredom.

Learn to trust that boredom is not your enemy. So many of us fly into a panic at the very thought that our child doesn’t have a full schedule of activities, play dates and learning each day, but really… allowing your child to be bored gives them the opportunity to think about what they would like to do – or not do.

Let the experiments begin.

And when your child gets bored, what happens? (okay, after the whining bit) They get thinking… that’s what. And thinking leads to all sorts of creativity! Yes, okay so some of the experiments with washing up liquid, lego and play-doh are the stuff of your worst nightmares, but if part of the deal is that they have to clean it up afterwards, you may find they learn to rein it in a bit. I cannot tell you how many hours I spent making rose perfume and mud pies in the summer holidays – the perfume smelled of composting dung and the pies were never going to give Mary Berry a run for her money, but my goodness it was fun. And don’t get me started on fairy houses…

I love a good list.

I really do. We have a set of wet day/dry day lists in our house that are stashed away in a notebook and come out every holiday. This list has been added to over the years and now is preeeetty long. It’s great to dip into when you are looking for a spot of inspiration and it may be worth starting your own list (after all, every family is different and “visit Aunty Jill for a day of puzzles & games” may not be on yours). Our list includes everything from the very simple (e.g. DVD and popcorn) to that which needs a bit more planning (e.g. design a treasure hunt). Don’t feel you have to cover everything straight away – just remember to add new stuff to it when you think of it!

Practical learning is fun! No, really…

It is normal to worry a little that your child may be missing out on 6 weeks of precious learning and tempting to buy all number of summer holiday workbooks for the summer holidays - but just think of all the other things they could learn about! How to read a map on a walk, how to follow a recipe, how to plant vegetables, how to load a washing machine… you’d be surprised how much fun kids get out of learning ‘grown up’ practical skills that you just don’t learn at school.

Are you up for a challenge?

A recent addition to our household is Challenge Day and it is as simple as it sounds. At the beginning of the day I set a challenge and they/we have the day to tackle it. Our next challenge day is to hike the Hangers Way up to Selbourne, have a picnic, then get back – in a day. They have been allowed extra time to think about this one and have worked out that it is about 6.5 miles from our front door to our destination, the picnic will need to be light and portable, and we will need enough water for the outwards journey (there is a little shop where we can refuel for the return journey). The challenge could be anything: redesign your bedroom layout, create a veggie patch in the garden, build a fort, plan a party for friends that evening…

This is your holiday too.

Give yourself permission to relax and think about your own fun. There, I said it. Remember, for any moment you are not working over the summer holiday, this is your holiday too. Depending on the age of your kids, make sure you include things that YOU like to do too. I love running and hiking (see Challenge Day!) therefore will aim to rope the kids into as many activities that involve running or hiking as possible – parkruns, picnics, hikes to new places. We play a game whereby we take it in turns to decide which way to turn at the end of each path on a hike… in the past we’ve ended up both going round in circles and totally lost before, but it’s always fun. If you like dancing = make up a dance show, if you like eating cake = bake a cake, if you like drinking Prosecco = nope, can’t think of one for that ;-) – but you get my meaning.

Slow it down.

Have you ever thought about the word “busy” and how often we use it? “Busy” creates a feeling of anxiety all of its own. Busy suggests panic. Busy suggests late. Busy suggests rushed. You may have lots of plans for the summer holidays but think of them as individual things rather than one big melting pot of blind panic. Each one may be calm, interesting, fun, adventurous, action-packed, creative or gentle. Allow yourself to relish the calm so you can refocus, rebalance and re-energise.

Who cares what others are doing.

It is so easy to compare ourselves to others (thank you Facebook) and feel that we are ‘failing’. There are always a few families who appear to be doing EVERYTHING. Literally, everything. They are happy, they are sorted, they are perfect. But I’ll let you into a little secret – they are no different to the rest of us. Remember, Facebook is like a film trailer – a glimpse into the best bits. We don’t generally see the tantrums, the shattered parent/s and the daily arguments about Fortnite. But they happen – of course they do. Focus on what makes your family summer special to YOU and try this: think back to your own childhood – I bet your favourite memories don’t all revolve around expensive holidays, do they? Now get out there and have some fun with mud and sticks.

And finally… scrapbook these memories!

These summers won’t last forever and before we know it they will be off to Uni and vomiting tequila on an 18-30s holiday without us. I know this is easier said than done, but savour and record these precious moments of childhood. Whatever you get up to this summer, buy a cheap scrapbook or re-use an unfinished school book and turn it into a thing of beauty – collect fallen petals from a walk, drawings done together, sweet wrappers from a picnic, tickets from things you’ve been to see… add notes, snippets of conversations, ask everyone to add to it and don’t be too structured. It may look like a mess, but it’ll be your mess of memories and I bet you’ll treasure it forever.

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