School Holidays Are Coming

It's not long now.  Today is the last day of school and the Summer Holidays will be upon us.  I know that many schools have broken up already, but Little Bird's finishes today and  I haven't really done any planning for them this year as yet.  I will probably have a look at the websites of some of our favourite museums and libraries see what activities are being organised, and make a note of any events or workshops that sound interesting. 

When Little Bird was younger I used to take a much more regimented approach and plan the whole six weeks more or less, but these days I'm a lot more relaxed and go with the flow a bit more.  To be honest, a bit of boredom never did anyone any harm.  I can remember feeling bored sometimes during the school holidays and actually looking forward to going back to school by the end of them.   I used to spend most of the holidays going a play scheme at our local school every day and making new friends and doing different activities, as both my parents worked full time.  It is a great shame that more is not available at affordable prices in this regard these days, particularly for working parents.  I guess we are lucky in that it is not necessary for her to attend these and as a consequence she is a little reluctant to, but I always enjoyed them myself.

This year if all goes to plan I think my daughter is having some friends for a sleep over on the last night of school which will be a fun end to the school term for her.  I may take all of them for a swim  the following day.  For the rest of the week we'll probably spend some time at home and walking the dog in the park.  Nothing too onerous. 

Quite often families head out of London for most of the 6 weeks of the summer holidays to holiday homes, on holiday or to visit family elsewhere in the country, so there is no guarantee that Little Bird will see many of her friends in the holidays.  She is used to this by now and we make the most of it by spending lots of time together doing different things.

The first few days are always about winding down from the school year just passed, so I don't tend to plan anything and we just allow ourselves to enjoy the freedom of having no routine.  It's great to just please yourself for the first few days and relax.  We have tickets to an event in the newly re-opened Olympic Park for the first Saturday of the holidays so that should be good fun.

By the first full week I start to add a few planned outings into the week.  Maybe one outing to a museum or the local library with activities going on, a swim together at the sports centre or a trip to the shops to get a pre-holiday haircut or do a last minute bit of holiday shopping. There are often workshops or activities going on in local parks which I try to look out for.  We may visit a fruit farm which is an hour's drive out of London, which we enjoy.  I do tend to do this later in the holidays though when the sweetcorn is ready and we pick lots of cobs as well as fruits which I freeze and use over the autumn/winter when they becomes much more expensive and tend to be imported from far afield.

We also start to get ourselves ready for our holidays and clothes washing, ironing and packing, etc. will be an on going theme when at home.  I can sometimes persuade Little Bird to come to the allotment with me on our bikes, but this is a rare occurrence I'm afraid.  If the weather is bad we may  have an impromptu baking session where I will lightly oversee her making some buns and decorating them or a craft session.  If I have enough money and there is a good film on at the cinema we may do a cinema trip too, but we tend to take our own homemade popcorn, drinks and treats, to cut down on the expense.

With having a full membership at the gym and it being inexpensive for children to swim during the holidays, swimming is often a cheap option and sometimes she will sit and watch my exercise class and then we will go for a swim together afterwards, followed by some time in the park nearby.  She has in the past taken part in holiday courses for a week in different sports at the leisure centre, but as she does quite a lot of activities in term time, it is quite good for her to have a break from these in the holidays, so I don't insist on it.  It can be quite expensive too, especially if you have more than one child, so might not be an option depending on finances and quite often they get booked up early.  We may all go down to the tennis courts in the park some days and play for a while, which costs nothing.  This year we have our puppy and hopefully she will get lots of walks during the summer holidays to get us out of the house.

We're going away for a couple of weeks this year and then when we return it will be a case of getting ready to go back to school whilst still enjoying the freedom of the holidays.  There may be a long weekend staying in Yorkshire visiting family and friends, before starting to get whatever we still need for the new school term.  I quite like the countdown to the new school year beginning, I used to enjoy it as a child too, and loved to shop for my new bag, pencil case, etc. so I was ready for the new term.  It is a bit sad when the holidays end as I do love having Little Bird at home, but it is also nice to get back to having time to do my own thing once again and for her to see all her friends again.