I love the school holidays. I love spending time with my little darlings (are you getting the sarcasm here?), no really I do love spending time with Mini and Maxi, they are actually becoming great company and are fun to be with and I miss them once school starts again. So I try to make sure I spend quality time with them once the school term starts.
Do not overschedule kids
This is my biggest tip. The boys have two out of school activities a week, Cubs and Football and I am a huge believer in not filling up kids free time with activities. Children need to have freedom and time to unwind after the regimented school day.
Screen free time
We have a rule that screens are turned off at 6pm until the boys bedtimes (apart from movie night). This gives us quality time for reading, listening to music, gardening, walking, baking, playing games, jigsaws, arts and crafts or just chatting.
Cook together
One of the times that I love most is when me and the boys or one of the boys spend time in the kitchen together. I cook at least one meal a week with each of them, more and more they are taking charge and I am just directed by them as to what to do. We menu plan together too.
Eat together
This is one of the most important parts of parenting in my opinion. We eat together as a family as often as we can. At the moment that is five nights out of seven and we also have breakfast together too. There are so many benefits to sitting at the table together without interruptions (we have a no electronics at meal times rule). We have conversations, debates, chats and tell stories. Even one night a week makes a big difference. Make it special.
Insist on family time
This is easy for me as my boys are only eight and nine, but when I was growing up at least one day at the weekend was designated family time. We have continued this tradition and spend the weekend as a family. We try and go out and have an experience one of those day.
Family Game night
One night a week is designated as family game night. As soon as the dinner plates are tidied away the games come out and we have competitive fun until bedtime.
Family Movie Night
We also have family movie night one night a week, now this might not always be a movie, it could be a TV show that we all want to watch, but the thing is we watch it together. We turn off electronics and grab snacks and cuddle up together.
Family Dog Walks
Since getting Alvin we have walked together more as a family. We get outside together more, even if it is just for a ten minute walk. We aim for one short walk a day, this can either be all together or one adult with one child. It gives us one on one time with the children and enables us to have a good chat.
I have had this post in my drafts and then KC Edventures posted a fantastic post about how to spend more time with the kids during school and I have to share it too.
I have always insisted we eat together as a family. It’s the only time we can properly catch up with everyone’s day.
Some good ones but do like to have time with just me and my parter well chance would be a fine thing lol .x
I like the sound of screen free after 6pm x
Love all your tips – best bit is they are all free!
This is bang on time for me Jen, we already do a lot of these – but I’m paying particular attention to the one about not over-scheduling.
Thanks for all your advice to today too – much appreciated x
Great tips, screen free time after 6pm is a brilliant one. We always eat together as a family too.
Great tips. We always eat together for at least one meal a day. It can be hard to find time to spend quality time together when the evenings are a rush of homework. We also limit the after school activities to 2 each a week, even that can be a struggle when activities clash with each other.
Great tips, all free and will make such a difference x
Really good tips. We always fall in the trap of lounging around in front of screens because we’re all so tired.
great tips for spending more time together x
Great tips thanks for sharing, James has just started school and we have been looking at how to spend more quality time together so I will definitely be taking these on board! xx
Some really great tips here and we need to spend more time together when they are back at school as I feel like it is always a rush once we are home to get it all done before bedtime.
Great ideas. I wish we could eat as a family more often, but we only manage it at weekends as my OH gets home too late for the boys, so they eat earlier and me, the teen and the man have ours later.
A post that talks a lot of sense Jen, thank you. We try not to overschedule, to sit together to watch a film, and always eat together. But sometimes we need reminding of those little things that make a big difference.
Some great ideas, we have fallen into the trap of too many after school activities before and have learnt our lesson
What some great ideas, I always remember eating together as a family as a child, definitely made some memories. x
We try not to cram too much in after school but the activities are starting to creep up already
Me and you are opposite ends of the structure spectrum. I really really need to learn from you, as Aaron would benefit from this approach. I will stay tuned, and I MUST add my back to school post to this linky xx
We enjoy a weekly family film night too. It’s my children’s treat for getting through a busy week of school and I love it. I totally agree about eating together as a family too. It can be hard for us because of the hours that my husband and I work, but we try to do this as much as possible.
I must cook more often with the boys, that’s something I have been meaning to do. Our kitchen at the moment is not practical, especially with most of our stuff in a container, but I need to sort it out to do more cooking with them. Actually I never really thought of doing it one on one but this just makes sense!
The other thing I want to start doing consistently with them is no screen time for a couple of hours before bed.
You are an inspiration, I think your kids will look back and think their mum was just awesome while they were growing up!
Great Post. I am a working mommy also trying to figure out ways to get the benefits of both worlds, spending as much time with my little one, while working a 10 hour day job!