How to prepare for school holidays
Last Updated on November 15, 2024
School holidays can feel stressful and long, but if you prepare for school holidays before they start, the holiday period can be somewhat less stressful, and even enjoyable.
If you’re looking for ways to prepare for school holidays, here are some things you can do to get the most out of them, and also incorporate some downtime into them so your kids are ready to head back to school.
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Set a budget
School holidays can be expensive, so setting a budget for how much you want to spend on activities, camps, and days out, can help you decide what you can and can’t do, and how much you want to spend on certain activities.
Think about having a school holiday routine
Having a school holiday routine can help your kids know what to expect during the school holidays.
Some things you may like to incorporate into your school holiday routine include:
- Setting times your kids can wake up, or go to bed
- What times you’ll have meals
- How much time you’ll spend outdoors
- What time you’ll leave home for days out
Create a summer bucket list
Creating a summer bucket list is a great way to prepare for summer, as well as to prepare for school holidays, as it provides you with a list of things to do when you don’t have the energy to think of something.
You can create a summer bucket list by sitting down with your kids and brainstorming some ideas to add to the list, which can include things like weekends away, days out, or things you’d like to do around the house.
Once you’ve finished making your list, ask each of your kids to choose a couple of activities that they’d really like to do, making sure they include some cheap school holiday activities.
These will be the activities that make the final summer bucket list.
Any activities from the brainstorming session that didn’t make the final list, can be added onto future bucket lists.
Book activities
Once you’ve created your summer bucket list, or have an idea of some activities your kids would like to do over the school holidays, book them as soon as you can, before they sell out.
Book appointments
Something you may like to do to prepare for school holidays is to book any appointments that you find hard to get to during school time.
Schedule your days
Schedule your activities, appointments, work commitments, home days, and any other plans you’ve made, or would like to make, into your family calendar, or a family planner, so you can see what days you need to fill, or when you may need to organise a babysitter for your kids.
When scheduling your days, don’t forget to schedule alone time, school holidays can be stressful, and making time for self-care, and taking time out can go a long way towards preventing mum burnout during the school holidays.
Get some educational resources
If you want to keep your kids in a school frame of mind during the school holidays, getting some educational resources that are fun, may make going back to school easier.
Some ideas include:
Stock up on art supplies
If you’ve scheduled home days into your school holidays, one of the activities you could do are some kid friendly crafts.
Here are some craft supplies you may like to stock up on to help with this:
- Beads
- Blu Tack
- Boxes
- Chalk
- Crayons
- Drawing paper
- Feathers
- Glitter
- Glue
- Googly eyes
- Markers
- Masking tape
- Outdoor chalk
- Paint
- Paintbrushes
- Paper
- Paper cups
- Paper plates
- Pegs
- Pencils
- Pens
- Pom poms
- Scissors
- Staples
- Straws
- String
Stock up on snacks
Another thing to stock up on during the school holidays are kids snacks, snacks for mums, and even road trip snacks, because for some reason everyone seems extra hungry during the school holidays.
Screen time
There are many things we feel mum guilt towards, and the amount of screen time our kids have is just one of these things.
During the school holidays your kids may have more screen time than you’d like, but I like to think of the time my kids are on screens as downtime, which we all need.
If screen time is something you’d still like to manage as part of your school holiday preparation, then set some screen time limits, and try not to feel guilty if your kids have more than usual.
Get organised for back to school
Getting organised for back to school may not be something you think about as part of preparing for school holidays, but doing this early means you won’t be stressed getting ready for school at the last minute, and you won’t be faced with out of stock school supplies.
How to prepare for school holidays – a recap
Preparing for school holidays can help lessen the stress you may feel towards them.
Some things you can do to prepare for school holidays include setting a budget, which will help you decide what activities to book, or implementing a routine, which could include setting bedtimes and meal times, and thinking about what part of the day you’ll leave the house for activities.
Creating a bucket list with activity ideas, and then booking chosen activities as soon as you can, as well as scheduling your days, appointments, and work commitments in to a calendar, will enable you to enjoy your days without overthinking them.
Lastly, making sure you have art supplies, snacks, and even fun educational activities on hand, will help make home days enjoyable, as will not being hard on yourself if your kids have more screen time than usual.
I hope you’ve found some ways to prepare for school holidays that will make your school holidays less stressful, and more enjoyable.
What do you enjoy the most about school holidays?
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