Planning for the Summer Holidays

We are now two weeks into the summer holidays and despite the cries of “I’m bored”, coming home from work to a mess every day and the cost of keeping the kids busy, there are some things I am enjoying about the holidays. I don’t have to get anyone ready in the morning for school, I don’t have a pile of uniforms to iron on Sunday evening and homework and reading records are already forgotten.  

That said, I always want the summer holidays to be a nice break for the children, with everyone getting both rest and some fun things to do. As per every year, we break out the calendar and my beloved Filofax and some coloured pens and pencil in some fun things to do. This year was a bit harder as the older children are losing some of their enthusiasm as they get older and often just want to stay at home.

This year bowling, the Dunstable Downs kite festival, some day trips out and Eid all featured in our planning. The next step was to share with my siblings and see if there were any occasions we could either go together or if there was something they wanted to do and we could join them.

Between us, we managed to fill up most free weekends with something fun to do, even if they are visits to the park for the little ones or the little ones’ first sleep over.

So far, we have been to the kite festival, been bowling for the first time as a family and returned to Capel Manor Gardens because we liked it so much the first time. To come is a visit to the Natural History Museum, a visit to Greenwich Park and observatory and trip to Bournemouth with extended family and of course Eid-ul-Adha insh’Allah.

Do you have a process for planning your summer holidays? For those with older kids, do you find it harder to get them interested? Are you doing anything fun this summer?

You can find more suggestions for activities in this post here.