What shall we do in the holidays?

Parents often wonder, 'what will we do with the children in the holidays?'. There is often the worry that you need to be 'on' and providing children with ideas to occupy them all the time. We want to reassure you that you don't have to, and it's in fact better if you don't! We've got some reassurance about how to balance the time to save your sanity and also ideas for activities that won't break the bank or take hours to plan.

What to do when you hear the dreaded 'I'm bored' from your child

It may sound bizarre, but as a parent, my reaction was often 'Fantastic. What an opportunity to come up with somethign exciting to do!' Coming up with something to do is directed to the child, rather than you. It's important that children understand that there needs to be a balance of the time you do things together and the times when you are together, but doing things separately. When we're given time to be bored, we are given space to be creative. When we're at our wits end, its tempting to give in and entertain, or to give into strategies that we migh prefer to avoid, like lots of screen time. While there's nothing wrong with these options from time to time, it's good to have reassurance that we can help children to help themselves - after all, this is what Montessori is all about!

At school, we spend lots of time providing children with opportunities to practice making choices, finding an activity that interests them and setting up an environment that allows concentration. When we give children the idea that they are capable people with the skills to make choices to find enjoyable activities, they will generally step up to the expectation. Initially, it might take some time for children to adapt to this, but it is absolutely worth putting in place.

Balance is the key, and being mindful of the amount of time that's reasonable to ask them to occupy themselves without you. Even if they can manage 15 minutes of being independent, that's enough time for you to recharge and them to build confidence. It's great to slot these opportunitis in throughout each day.

To establish this, perhaps you could create a plan (or use the one we have created) with children at the beginning of the holidays. They can draw a pictorial schedule of the days ahead (or write if they are up to this) to give a visual understanding of what they will be doing. You could slot time into the schedule that shows when it's their time to choose. This way they can then see the activity time with adults and the activity time where they are responsible. When we unload the expectation from ourselves and children understand the boundaries, it is really amazing what children can come up with what to do independently. Having a routine of a regular 'you choose' time will help to establish a habit and less push back.

If you're stuck for some idas of what to do in the holidays or children would like some ideas, we have a starter list for you!

• Tape some A4 printing paper together to create a giant piece of paper for drawing. A popular idea is to draw a car track to drive matchbox cars with scenery. Maybe it can be what they see around their home on a drive.

• Blanket forts over chairs or a sturdy table are always a hit.

• Pitch a tent in the living room for 'indoor camping' - great fun if it's rainy weather.

• Cook dinner together or afternoon/morning tea. This can be combined with a shopping trip to get all the ingredients with children.

• Go on a nature walk and collect leaves to stick on a piece of clear contact. Place nother piece over the top to be able to keep the artwork.

• Go on a trip to the library to get a selection of new books to enjoy. Park the car further away or go on public transport to create an opportunity for a walk or an adventure.

• Watercolour paint palettes are cheap and easy to get (often sold at Woolworths for about $3). Kids can enjoy painting a picture without the big clean up.

• Create a rainbow salt tray/drawing station. You can stick/glue a child's colourful painting on the inside lid of a shoe box or other suitable sided tray or box lid and then add normal table salt to cover the painting. Children can use their finger or a blunt stick to draw, practice writing letters or numbers and enjoy the rainbow revealed as the salt is drawn in. You can buy economical bags of salt in the supermarket.

• Bubble wands are often inexpensive and can give lots of entertainment. You can refill the

  containers to be environmentally friendly.

• Make play dough together. It is very cheap to make (much more than the ready made variety) and you get a much bigger quantity. You can experiment with colours, add glitter or essential oils to your mix. Add tools like cookie cutters, feathers, seashells, sticks etc to play with once it's made.