School’s out for Summer!

Well my older two son’s finished school for the Summer today, a whole week earlier than usual thanks to extra day’s given for the Royal Wedding in April.  It seems a bit strange to me as they were on their Easter holidays at the time so teachers were off as well!  So this means the boys are home for seven whole weeks this Summer.  Seven weeks, Six weeks is bad enough so who knows how we’re going to survive Seven!

I’m wishing for good weather so we can be outdoors as much as possible.  That way the boys can let of steam and hopefully sleep at night.  Because let’s face it thanks to the hot weather we’ve been experiencing coupled with the light nights sleep is the last thing my older two have been doing at night!   So there will be lots of walks in our local wildlife park and hopefully trips to some of the fantastic beaches we have locally.  I’m sure there will be den’s to be made,  as well as bike’s to be fallen off.  Then there’s the painting, playdoh, Lego, baking and what ever else I can think of along the way.  

I’m having some time off at either end of the holidays so will get to lounge around and have DVD days and indoor picnic’s with the boys.  Then in between the usual trips to dentists, I’m hoping to take the boys to the local agricultural show, River and Food Festival and what ever else I can find.  

To be honest I think that the Summer holidays are too long for younger children, my six and five year old really struggle with the gap in their routine and after the first three weeks are usually desperate to get back to school.  Admittedly this is sometimes to see their friends more than anything but nevertheless they want to go back.  I can see for the older children the Summer holidays are fantastic and time to relax from the pressure of exam’s but is there really the need for them to be so long?  For many parents the long summer holiday’s brings issue’s of childcare and additionally expense.  I’m lucky to work from home as a registered childminder but I have previously been faced with this issue.  I try to be as flexible as possible for the parent’s I childmind for as I know how difficult it is for them but I still need to take into consideration the needs of my own children.  Before I childminded my holiday’s were governed by the childcare I used which sometimes meant having all my annual leave used up at time’s I would have preferred to work.  

I would love to know how you keep your children entertained during the long holidays?  How do you manage childcare during this time?  I would love to hear how you cope.

4 thoughts on “School’s out for Summer!

  1. I haven’t had to deal with school holidays yet, as nursery continues through holidays.

    Have you seen http://www.science-sparks.com though? lots of things to do on there! x

  2. welshmumof3 says:

    Thanks for that, I keep meaning to go have a look at science sparks. The boys love learning how things work and how to make rockets etc. Though my dad’s a science teacher so he does bits with them x

  3. Snow_Bunny says:

    They are rather short in UK! Did you know that in Russia, for example, children break at the end of May and return to school only on the 1st of September? That MUST be tough!

  4. welshmumof3 says:

    Wow now that is a long holiday!

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