As weeks three and four of the summer holidays are rapidly coming to a close, today I’ve been reflecting on what we’ve been up to in preparation for writing this post.  Once again I’m astonished at how much I’ve learnt – about myself, about my kids and about life.  Here are my thoughts:

1.  Time really does fly when you’re having fun

A cliche, yes.  But mainly I’ve been amazed at how quickly the time is going.  Since Easter I’d been getting increasingly quite worried about 6 whole weeks of having to entertain the girls, having to keep them occupied, having to find things for them to do.  And then I realised that that’s what having kids is all about.  Entertaining them shouldn’t be a chore – it’s a privilege.  It was with that realisation the Summer of Fun list was born and the holidays have been transformed from something to endure to something to enjoy – something out of which to squeeze every ounce of fun that we can.  And because we are having so much fun, the time is flying by.  I’m actually a little bit sad that there are only two weeks left (and that is something that I never thought I’d hear myself say).

2.  It’s ok to have lazy days

I am the queen of being busy.  I HATE having nothing to do.  Actually, I’m going to rephrase that, because there is always something that I could be doing.  I hate having no purpose to the day, of not having a plan of action.  I really hate having no structure, no routine.  What I’ve realised over the last couple of weeks, as the initial warm sunny weather turned to a chilly drizzle and my emotions started to settle after the craziness of weeks 1 and 2, is that unstructured days, with no concrete plans, are ok.  Just seeing how it unfolds, letting the girls play and taking it as it comes has actually been…refreshing.  For all of us I think.  They’ve not really asked to have the TV on, preferring instead to dress up, or play hide and seek, or to play in the garden (in between downpours).  I’ve pottered about, playing with them, reading with them and doing things around the house that I normally don’t ever get round to doing.  I feel more relaxed, and they don’t feel overwhelmed.  They’re also using their imaginations far more than when I frogmarch them from playdate to day trip and back again.

3.  Having no voice = a blessing in disguise

I’ve had a bit of a cold for a few days – nothing major by any means, but enough to make me feel a bit ‘bleurgh’.  It always hits my throat the worst, so I end up feeling like I’m swallowing knives and my voice disappears into non-existence.  Then comes the dreaded cough that leaves my ribs feeling bruised.  I’m not after the sympathy vote here (really, I’m not!).  Mainly because the big benefit of not having a voice has been that I can’t actually shout.  Our house can be pretty noisy – when the girls are having fun, they are inevitably rather… loud.  As an only child myself I find this quite hard to deal with, and usually end up shouting at the top of my voice just to make myself heard.  Not being able to do that for a few days has meant that I’ve had to find other ways to be listened to.  I’ve had to go to each of my daughters in turn when I’ve wanted to tell them something – and really look them in the eyes so I can communicate with them rather than just shouting up the stairs.  I’ve felt so much more connected to each of them over the last couple of days, and it’s made a fairly significant difference to their behaviour (calmer, less shouty at me in return and, interestingly, more connected to each other – playing together rather than fighting all the time) so it’s something I’m going to try and continue even when my voice does eventually return.

4.  Take into account everyone’s model of the world

Everyone experiences their world in a different way to other people – we all have our own unique model of the world (MOTW).  What might seem like a really fun thing to do in your world might not correspond with that of your children.  That’s when you end up with a model of the world mis-match – resulting in grumpy, stroppy, tantrumy, frustrated children and an equally bewildered parent.  Then you’ve got to take into account that each child has an individual model of the world too.  My advice – ask them what they want to do and try and incorporate something for everyone each day.  Makes life much easier!

So, here’s what we got up to:

We’ve been doing what I call ‘rainy-day crafts’:

We’ve been to an awesome indoor soft play area (‘Come into Play’ in Stone):

We visited the library:

We’ve done some baking (a birthday cake):

We’ve celebrated two birthdays –  a 3 year old and an 80 year old!:

We’ve had playdates:

and we’ve had a trip to Amerton Farm:

All in all we’ve had a lot of fun.  Here’s to the next two weeks! 🙂