The Summer Holidays are upon us! Here are my top five tips to getting you through.

1: Sit down with the kids with a giant piece of paper and write down our Summer Bucket List!

We do this every year, and every year I am amazed with the things they come up with, last year Olivia said she wanted to learn how to make friendship bracelets and Isaac said he wanted to learn how to cut out circles ?! I’m going to get them to put down 5 places they want to visit, 5 people they want to play with, 5 craft activities they would like to do and then anything else they come up with. We usually try to spread the days out over the holidays and use our reward jar system to remind them that they only get the bigger treats or days out if they are being good! For more ideas on a Summer Bucket List Check Out Ours Here

2: Create a tick list of things we need to do each morning for the day ahead

i.e. Make Your Bed, Clean Your Teeth, Tidy toys before we leave the house, they can mark them off as they go along each day. I am just one of those people who likes to leave the house tidy-ish so I don’t dread coming home again, plus it helps the kids to understand that they need to help me out otherwise we don’t get out as soon as they would like to!

3: Make a boredom jar!

image sharizook.com

Super easy to make and if your children are old enough to write, even better! Get them to sit down and tell you the things they love to do at home (don’t tell them why you’re doing it) and you or they can write them down on individual pieces of paper. Ideas might be, make something from lego, do some colouring, play a game etc etc. Pop all the pieces of paper into a jar folded up and on those days when you’re having a chill out day or its a rainy one, the moment you hear ‘I’m bored’ get them to take a piece of paper from the jar and they have an activity idea.

4: Don’t feel the pressure to do activities every day!

Children don’t always need days out and stimulation, sometimes as parents we feel the pressure to pack the holidays out with fun activities and days out, but it’s not realistically sustainable for 6 weeks! At least one day a week I plan to stay in our pi’s till at least 10am and plan not to have a plan.

5: Meal plan!

It’s not till the holidays come around that I remember just how expensive it is to have two children at home for three meals a day! My two eat like actual ravenous beasts when they’re at home. I have no idea how they cope all day at school and nursery without food every ten seconds. In the holidays, especially if you’re on a budget, it find having a weekly food plan is essential! This year I am going to try and have a meal a day where they help me make it… I am not sure how well this will go, but I’m thinking I can’t go too far wrong with a pizza base and some toppings? Most days for lunch we will probably have sandwiches, I prefer to take a bag with some sarnies in rather than paying extortionate amounts for the same thing where ever we go. I’m sure there are loads of meals the kids can help to create and it will use up some time, preparing and cooking it and I’m thinking I stand more chance of them actually eating it if they’ve helped to prepare it.

I have created a Pinterest Board here with lots of ideas on including most of the above, check it out & follow me there as I’ll be updating it regularly!