R.E.A.D.

The school holidays. Some moms (parents) cannot wait for schools to close, for their children to be at home and for the routines and rhythms to slow down. Some moms (parents) dread the holidays, are anxious about how to keep their children occuppied while they continue working and start counting the sleeps until school re-opens the moment the holidays begin!

Here in South Africa, we are enjoying our winter holiday. A three week break for the children and teachers to re-group, re-fresh and re-juvenate. It’s also a three week break for us as moms (parents) from the early morning hustle of getting children ready for school. A break from the rush of getting them out the house and to school on time. A break from the daily grind of making lunch boxes.

At present, I find myself in an amazing position. As a teacher, I get the best of both as I also have the school holidays to enjoy all these things in complete reality and I get to enjoy time with my daughter too. She is now an almost 12 year old young lady, has a beautiful mind of her own, makes wonderful decisions and now also has a say in options for the day. I was wanting something to ground our days on and so gleaned some wisdom from Kendra Adachi of The Lazy Genius Way. She speaks of a principle termed “decide once”. In short, its to decide once about something and build around that foundation. I have tried to decide once about some of our days, for example, Mondays we are keeping free with no set plans so we can be lazy and enjoy a slow day. It also means if something comes up, we can jump at it!

As I was thinking of each day more, I considered what I would love to have time for each day, what we could do together each day, as well as carving out some alone time for each day, and I came up with this acronym – R.E.A.D.

R. READ.

I can hear some of you thinking, but my child can’t read yet or my child does not enjoy reading. This is not limited to reading. For us, this includes reading, writing, journalling, scrapbooking, crafting. Something with books or paper that could be a kind of quiet activity. We have enjoyed lying in the beautiful winter sun reading and have also enjoyed curling up in bed with a book! You could build a fort and read inside, or create a cosy corner with cushions and blankets and snuggle up there to write some thoughts. Make it a special time, whether you are reading to your children, or each reading on your own, or creating something together, make the moment into a memory. You can even include your fur family members too.

E. EXPLORE.

Get outside, discover something new, explore your bedroom or garden or neighbourhood. Head out for an adventure, or just a playdate with friends. Enjoy time with people – whether just those living under the same roof, or those in your friendship circles. Get tickets to the theatre or a movie or go for a picnic. Hike a trail, or take a walk through a forest. The options are endless.

A. ANTICS.

Laugh, laugh, laugh. Have fun. Play a game. Do something silly or crazy or wild. Get up to mischief together. Enjoy the lighter side of life and perhaps learn to laugh at yourself again. Board games are a favourite in our house and we roared with laughter over a game of Balderdash together with the grandparents the other night.

D. DOWNTIME.

I find this so important and it’s rubbing off on my daughter (yay-small squeal of glee) She is learning to realise that her mind and body and soul and heart need time out. She is begining to understand that rest is just as good as running and both are needed for a full and wonderful life. For us, this includes time to do something of our own choice. For me it’s often a cup of tea and possibly an afternoon nap. For her, its listening to music and sometimes choreographing dance to it. We are including this as much as possible and making the most of the unlimited time available to us to enjoy downtime over the holidays.

So there it is. We are trying to R.E.A.D. everyday this holiday and enjoying the slow rhythms and routines that this time of year brings.

Would love to hear your holiday hacks or ideas you have found to bring life and simplicity into your holidays.

Sending lots of love from my home to yours.

xxx

All images are obtained from Pexels.com.