Help, it’s almost winter break!

We are just a couple short days away from Christmas break here in Oregon. And frankly, that brings me both feelings of excitement and panic. On the one hand, I am excited to break free from the everyday hustle and bustle of making lunches, school drop off, karate practice, and dance lessons. But at my house it can also mean two weeks of boredom, cabin fever, and a sense that everyone is getting on each other’s nerves. I don’t think I am too far off in guessing that my kids share some of my same sentiments..this I can gauge from the fighting and the complaining that starts usually within the first 72 hours of their new-found freedom.

I typically end up not being a very good planner for breaks like this. My lack of planning usually comes back around to bite me in the rear faster than you can say “baby, its cold outside.” However, the other day we were at lunch and I happened to see a local newspaper geared specifically towards parents. I snatched it up on the way out of the restaurant without giving it so much as a glance until 3 days later. What I found in the back pages was pure gold. The brilliant people that publish this newspaper enclosed a calendar  listing activities over the break, and most of them are free or very low cost. This then got me thinking about planning some crafts to do at the house. Pinterest, here I come!

One final thought I have on Christmas break is to not  throw out your schedule entirely. For one, I think it makes it so much harder to get back into the routine, and secondly I feel that when we (our family) throws out the routine the expectations of behavior and responsibility usually tend to disappear as well. This can lead to tons of fighting and uncooperative kids.

So here’s to trying to employ some strategy for the upcoming break and for keeping the season merry and bright!

Here’s a short list of crafts & activities we will be doing: Ninjabread men, homemade snow globes, a hand wreath, free and inexpensive events in our community (story time, matinee movies, etc).