Making a plan for the Easter holidays

I think one of the hardest times for me last year was the Easter holidays. School closed very suddenly leaving traumatised children, both had been suffering from mild coronavirus symptoms, there were food shortages and there was just so much anxiety and uncertainty to cope with. Proper online learning was yet to be set up, and a return to school after the holiday was looking more and more unlikely. With all our fixed and potential plans for the holiday cancelled, along with far too much screen time and late nights, things didn't go well.

This year things are very different of course. The anxiety has lessened greatly now that it feels as though everything is finally on the right track. And hopefully from the 29th of March we will be able to meet some friends and family, albeit outside in smaller groups.

However we are still left with three weeks to fill, as won't be going out and about too much. I'm also quite busy with work at the moment, so it would be nice if I could find things to keep the children occupied while I get a few hours done each day.

To help me, I've printed out a blank template for the three weeks that they will be off. It's completely empty at the moment, but I'm busy trying to arrange a few meetups with friends and family. We are lucky to have big beaches close by where there is plenty of space to spread out even when it's busy, and along with toilets and ice cream vans it's an ideal place to meet.

In terms of things to do around the house, I'm planning on delving into the toy cupboard and pulling out some things that haven't seen the light of day for a while. Harry may be growing up fast, but I think he'll still have fun playing with the Duplo and the Hot Wheels for a bit! He's also not too old for den building and picnics in the garden (or living room depending on the weather) and I'm teaching him to bake me lots of treats.

Photo credit Haley Owens via Unsplash.

They both have lots of crafty things to get on with. My Mum bought them each a big paint by numbers kit which they've made good starts on, and with a bit of time each day they might be able to get them finished. Mia has several diamond painting kits to complete, and we have buckets and buckets of Hama beads that are crying out for some attention. Mia and I will write in our journals together and hopefully there will be lots of reading.

With a bit of luck we'll be blessed with the same lovely weather as last year, and I can continue my start on the planting of seeds for the vegetable patch and plant pots. The garden furniture will definitely be coming out of the garage, and I'll be dragging the children out for walks around the neighbourhood to get some fresh air and sunshine.

It will still be difficult to try for a reasonable bedtime when they don't need to get up early in the morning, but if I can keep them away from screens before bed at least then I think that will definitely help. There will still be lots of screen time I'm sure, as for Mia in particular playing games online is the way that she socialises with her friends. But hopefully I can steer the screen time mainly towards something more productive, for example Harry is quite interested in coding at the moment and is teaching himself Python.

Fingers crossed we can have a lovely Easter break!

Photo credit Ashley West Edwards via Unsplash.

What do you have planned for the Easter holidays?