It’s that time of the year again! Summer holidays! For many parents it’s kind of like…. OMG what am I supposed to do with the kids now!! We start looking for Summer camps and various classes to keep our kids busy. We start packing their schedule like school days so that they are kept busy.

I think it’s nice if we can teach them a new sport or a musical instrument… something. But I don’t believe in packing their schedule. Maybe 1 class a day which can keep them busy for a couple of hours. I feel let them also feel that it’s holidays. Let them think of activities to keep themselves busy at home. Let them be at home through the holidays so that they also know what holidays really means. Let them be bored! It gives them time to think. To reflect. Of course i guess only kids above 7-8 can do that. But it can be nice.

For me I actually don’t have too many days here. Firstly P’s school has shorter holidays than other schools. 1.5 month. Out of that 3-4 weeks are spent in Nani house in Mumbai. The balance time we try to take a short trip somewhere. Maybe bua’s house in Gurgaon with some place else. So we have a week of traveling ahead , then 1 week in Bangalore and then 3 weeks in Mumbai. By the time we get back it will almost be time for school to re open. So we r kind of sorted 😃

Although there are a couple of things which I think should be regular holiday activity. First should be clean up of play room and second clean up of kids room. Their clothes and toys. Donate what you don’t need. Especially school supplies. Coz with the new academic year ahead, I’m sure there will be kids who will need that stuff. (I like to donate it to Goonj) I had that in mind when holidays were starting but we made a sudden travel plan so I guess it’s kind of on the shelf for now. Although P is keen. So let’s see. Might do it in one of the days in the week in between.

For P’s age I can find some activities and put her in. But what about A’s age? She is only 3. It’s quite difficult to keep them engaged at home. We have to be on our toes all the time to do something with them. I know people at this age are also tempted to put them in summer camps so that they can be out for 2-3 hours and their schedule is set. Personally…. I’m not a fan of putting them in summer camp so early on. I prefer if they can go on play dates or we take them to indoor play areas or simply let them play at home. I know it’s additional work. But try na… Camps after 4-5 years of age is ok. The little ones need to be at home.

If you run out of ideas to keep them busy , u can just go to Pinterest and look for ideas. That’s the best treasure trove of ideas. I see so many people picking up ideas and then posting them as their own 😉 and then people go like WOW!!! How creative! But seriously you can find some really really interesting stuff there.

The best thing you can do of course is take a family vacation. It’s such a lovely time for parents and children to bond. Or even extended family like grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. Once kids are 7-8 years of age they kind of start forming memories. Now is the time they will start remembering things when they grow up. These are some of the best memories I have of my childhood. All the lovely places my parents took us to.

So start off now! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! (And eat lots of ice cream in the heat!)