School Holidays on the Inside

Love them or loathe them, the winter school holidays are here.

For many parents who still have to go to work, it means a lot of shuffling kids around to grandparents and calling on favours from friends, and for those staying at home with their kids, it’s sleep-ins, non-existent routines and by the end of the second week, breaking up fights.

The winter school holidays can be the most challenging if it’s a particularly wet winter when the kids spend most of their time inside and come down with a severe case of ‘cabin fever’. Keeping idle hands busy becomes an understatement if parents are to survive indoor school holidays!

Coming from a household that was not computer games friendly meant that the technology my school holidays entailed were watching TV holiday programming such as Round the Twist, The Littlest Hobo, Huckleberry Finn and his Friends, Pugwall, Henderson Kids, Secret Valley among others. In between watching TV (in our pyjamas for the entire morning), we would make a mess in the kitchen doing some sort of baking, creating cubby houses made of blankets and kitchen chairs, writing letters to our pen pals, making mixed tapes, and using our imaginations in general to pass the time. 

My parents never entertained the wining of “I’m bored” complaints, instead ignoring us until we found something to do. I remember telling Dad I was bored once, and the next minute he had me washing the walls in the kitchen in preparation for painting. I learned not to whinge at him again pretty quickly after that! 

As much as it can be very annoying, it is a good thing for kids to experience boredom, and I am told that one of the worst things we can do as parents is to try to find things to entertain them rather than letting them use their initiative and imagination as it’s so important for their development. 

If, however, you don’t have the patience to let them work it out for themselves, here are my handy hints to keep them occupied if they’re stuck indoors these holidays:

Sorting of the dreaded bottom kitchen drawer.

Colour co-ordinate the clothes pegs.

Refold all the towels and colour-code them in the linen cupboard.

Alphabetise the herbs and spices on the shelf.

Untangle the necklaces in the jewellery box.

See how many pieces of Lego they can find behind shelves, under beds and stuck in carpet throughout the house.

Flick the fluff out of the window tracks.

In other words, utilise their lack of initiative to get things done around the house, which is the epitome of boredom. After all, that’s why you haven’t done them; they are the most mundane household jobs imaginable! You won’t hear them complain again!