What Do You Do With Your Wailing Children?
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR WAILING CHILDREN?
“I’m bored”, they all wail at varying pitches.
Followed by a slow exhale from me I say, “You’ve got so much stuff, how can you be bored?”
“We just are”.
This can’t go on for the entire holiday, I think to myself. 4 bored kids simply won’t do.
Just letting kids be and not having anything scheduled so they can just relax is well intentioned, but sometimes kids need some gentle nudging. There really is something to said for routines.
So I devised a cunning plan. The whiteboard in our kitchen that is usually used for reminders during the school year has now become the activity board. Every night before I got to bed I’ve started to write an activity for the kids to do the next day.
These are the activities I’ve come up with
- Draw the tree outside
- Choreograph a dance
- Play the musical instruments for 20 minutes
- Write a story
- Read a story to each other
- Clean your bedroom (that’s my favourite)
- Bake a cake
- Create a game
- Play a board game
- Learn some Italian words (hubby is Italian)
- Play backyard soccer
- Build a cubby house
- Cook a meal
- Do something nice for each other
As you can see they’re not time consuming activities and you can keep them on rotation.
My kids so far have enjoyed doing them. It’s given them something to look forward without taking up their whole day. And because silly things like school and homework aren’t getting in the way, they really are doing stuff that they normally don’t do during the school term simply because of lack of time. And they’ve even come up with their own variations.
My eldest is 10 and my youngest is 2 so I’m lucky I don’t need to supervise all the time because my two older kids help the two younger kids.
But God help me if I forget to write an activity on the whiteboard. Back off kids, I’m on holiday too.
My name is Maria Tedeschi and I am a work at home mum who moonlights as a freelance writer. I am a former high flying corporate marketing guru who gave it all up for daytime television and tracksuit pantsŠ.oh and to raise my children. My husband and I have four children; tween right down to toddler.On my blog I am reflective in my approach to topics; from my own perspective but also from the perspective of other members of my family; my husband, my children, my parents, my siblings, the family pet.
I follow news developments regarding parenting and am not shy to voice an opinion.
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Jolene
Jolene enjoys writing, sharing and connecting with other like-minded women online – it also gives her the perfect excuse to ignore Mount-Washmore until it threatens to bury her family in an avalanche of Skylander T-shirts and Frozen Pyjama pants. (No one ever knows where the matching top is!) Likes: Reading, cooking, sketching, dancing (preferably with a Sav Blanc in one hand), social media, and sitting down on a toilet seat that one of her children hasn’t dripped, splashed or sprayed on. Dislikes: Writing pretentious crap about herself in online bio’s and refereeing arguments amongst her offspring.
