As published in The Florida Villager.
School Year Trips and Tips
For all you AAA type personalities and uber planners, this article will probably not add much but for all those that aren’t, take heed! As parents, the start of the school year is met with mixed emotions. We love it because it brings back some semblance of a routine for the kids, but we cringe because it creates more planning on our end. There is homework time to be meted out, buses to catch, after school activities and the list becomes exhaustive. And then there are the long weekends, teacher workdays, Spring break, Thanksgiving and Christmas break to plan for. These are what I want to discuss and give a few helpful tips on.
- Sit down and make a calendar and highlight the days the kids will be at home.
- If you have older kids, call a family meeting and discuss some activities or trips they would like to do during the year.
- Take those ideas and see how they integrate with your schedule and finances and plug them to those highlighted spots.
- Yes, downtime in jammies is a nice way to spend a day home from school and by all means give them that flexibility but also take advantage of what your local community offers.
- Spend some time researching the area. We are creatures of habit and tend to gravitate towards the same park, stores, etc. Branch out. Find new parks, new attractions that might have opened, a puppet show that came to town or even an ice cream shop you haven’t taken the kids to.
- What is close by that could warrant a nice day trip? What tourist traps, I mean attractions are near you, but you have never graced them with your presence? I remember I took the kids to one in the Everglades, with much apprehension and turns out, we had the best time!
- Perhaps on a long weekend you want to get out of town, and I don’t mean heading to Great-Aunt Lucy’s house. Plan something out of the ordinary. Talk about it way in advance of the departure date to get the kids excited with anticipation.
- Don’t wait till the last minute to set up a playdate. Remember, all the kids in that school are off too. Talk with moms and perhaps plan something where the moms are all together as well as the kids. Now it’s a fun time for everyone.
- And most importantly, plan ahead; give it some intentional thought. Nothing is worse than hearing, “I don’t know” when you ask the kids, “What do you want to do?” That my friends is called instantaneous stress.
#School Year Trips and Tips, Travel Articles