Off for the Holidays

Late last year, I was going through a bit of a rough patch. I was stressed-out busy and my sweet little three year old was giving me a very hard time. That all changed over the holidays and peace was restored to the Butler household. So, I decided this year to not work too much. I love my writing work and my blog, so I decided those two things could stay, under strict time management conditions, but I let every thing else go. And so, this year has been lovely so far. I write while Ed is at Kinder and I spend the rest of my time being a relaxed, in-tune, happy mum (well most of the time anyway). I have to say, I'm really enjoying myself and I'm happier than I've been in a long time (and my sweet little three year old has returned!)

So, in the tradition of my new found peace, I'm going to take the school holidays off. I'm going to enjoy having my 2 children around for 2 weeks without having to worry about getting some time on the computer. I have a deadline for PP to manage, I'll probably check my emails from time to time and I'll be back with a quick link when the Practical Parenting website goes live (things that can all be managed while the kids are resting), but apart from that, I'm going to have a break writing about play so that I have time to play with my children while they're around. Here are some of the things I plan to do:

1. Some Art and Craft

As I mentioned last year, I love doing a structured "art and craft" activity at Easter time. I was tossing around between decorating eggs and making easter baskets, but after I read Liss' post over at Frills in The Hills, the baskets won hands down.

I also want the kids to paint a couple of canvasses for their bedrooms so I've got these ones ready to go. We're going to experiment a bit with paints too.




2. Out and About

I always try to take the kids on a couple of outings through the holidays. Last time we went berry picking and it was such good fun. We're just in time to catch the end of the season, so we'll head off to do it again. If berry picking might be your thing, you can visit to find out what's available in your area by visiting pickyourown.org



I also plan to take the kids on a minature train ride to keep my little train-spotter happy. Here in Melbourne, we like to visit the Diamond Valley Railway

3. Play time

I'm hoping to leave a few days for some home-play time. As I've mentioned earlier, school is running in my lounge room and that has been going on for months. The play has evolved to include a staff room and an office and the kids play in this area drawing, talking and learning every single day. I might take them on a special shopping expedition to get some more supplies.

In my banner above, there is an elephant standing in some grass. I've been thinking about growing grass with the kids again this year. Ed confirmed it the other day when he asked "Mum, can we do that elephant in the grass thing again?". So, we will through the holidays. I'm going to grow the grass in lots of different sized meat trays this time so we can use them as different play spaces. I'm going to be writing to about growing grass for play spaces for PP in the coming months, so I'll keep you posted about that.

Ed has a new found passion for dressing up at the moment. He did it a lot when he was two, but hasn't really enjoyed it for about a year. Then, just yesterday, he was a lady bug, a dragon, a "girly-boy" (?!) and a builder in the space of about an hour. I'm going to encourage this new interest over the holidays too, because it's a great way for him to expand his learning and development.

4. Jet setting

The kids and I are off to Adelaide for a few days too. It's only an hour flight and the kids are pretty seasoned travellers, but I don't want to be complacent about the need for them to be kept busy. So far I've got some small activity and colouring-in books that came from Big W for just $2. If I combine these with a pencil case of new textas each, some Littlest pet shop toys with some plastic conatiners as houses, some matchbox cars and some foam roads, and some tasy snacks, I should be just about set.

I'm really looking forward to the holidays and I'll be back in just over 2 weeks to tell you all about it. Hope you enjoy your holidays, wherever you are, too.

Travelling with Kids

So, about my road trip. I drove the 800 or so kms back to my sunny home town of Adelaide, on my own with my 2 kids. Once we got there, we did lots of hour or so trips visiting family and/or sight-seeing and then drove home with mum via the Great Ocean Road. It was fantastic, we had a great time, but we did spend A LOT of time in the car.

The kids weren't too bad, given that all up we did nearly 2000 kms. I put a lot of thought and planning into what i would pack to keep them busy and entertained and i have to say, they never complained about being bored in the car (although there were a few "Are we driving again?! comments from my 5 year old)

So, what did I take?, I hear you ask, well my attack (or maybe my defence??) was multi-layered.

The first was that they absolutely love art and craft and drawing, so I set up 2 separate plastic containers with a blank note-book each, several small blank drawing pads, gluesticks, stickers, post it notes and a pencil case full of brand new textas. They each had their own containers and each container held pretty much the same items except Eds had a car/farm theme and Em's had a fairy/animal theme.

Putting the same items in both containers was absolutely deliberate and the fact that i packed 2 of everything was also deliberate. I think the key to eliminate (or at least reduce) fighting when you're in a confined space like this is to minimise the need to share. Sharing is good and children should certainly learn how to do it but not when mum is alone in a car and travelling at 110kms per hour! In this case, sharing is bad, very bad if it leads to fighting and so I tried to make it so they never had to do it.

The next thing I packed for them was a bag of toys. I just used a basic back pack, but i stuffed it as much as i could with building/thinking and imaginative play toys. Ed of course had his cars. I put them in a separate zip up bag so they were easy to find and keep together. I made some easily-transportable roads by getting some A3-sized pieces of foam and cutting them into long strips that were wide enough for 2 cars to drive down. I also added a new bag of plastic farm animals from the 2 dollar shop, some rocks, jar lids and buttons, as well as some small pieces of plastic building equipment.

Em had some tiny plastic babies i grabbed from an educational toy store and some little matchboxes from Riot Art and Craft to act as their beds. I also included some small squares of material. She also had the plastic animals and bits and pieces as well as a small puzzle.

To make sure they had a sturdy place to play and draw on I took a couple of lap trays we got from Target a few years back. They have the beanie stuff on the bottom kind of like an old "Stable Table" (which you can still buy in Big W)

I also got them each 4 work/colouring books. Ed loves stickers so he had a couple of sticker books while Em had more activity/puzzle books. I put the books and trays in the pocket behind the front seats. I made very sure that they could reach and have access to everything before we left. The containers went in the middle on top of each other, the bags went at their feet. For Ed I put them on top of a small case we wouldn't need until we arrived at our destination.

The next part of my plan was food. Little bits of it in small containers and plastic bags, hidden in the containers and toy bags. I used food that it would be difficult to choke on (for obvious reasons) and also things that are not eaten quickly - small crackers, sultanas etc. As a treat, they had a lollipop and a packet of mini M&Ms (or nemmy-nemmy's as Ed likes to call them). But i have to say the lollipop ended up in the pocket of Ed's car seat, which was a little yucky, because apparently he was too busy to eat it (good for me, bad for the seat!).

My in-case-of-emergency items were the portable DVD players my Mother-in-law bought for the kids. I was not a huge fan of these when the kids first got them, but they have won me over with their ability to soothe the kids just as i think their heads are about to explode. They really only used them on the extra long trips we took and only ever in the last hour or so when they really had done well to amuse themselves with what was going on around them.

Em even used hers as a CD player which is where my last, and perhaps most important as it turns out, purchase came in very handy. Some Fisher Price headphones. They cost me $29.95 and of course I got 2 - no sharing remember. They saved mum and I the experience of listening to John Farnham's "You're the Voice", over and over and over again as we drove the Great Ocean Road. After the fifth rotation of that song, those little headphones became worth their weight in gold.

My last line of defence was to stop drivng and we did that every 2 hours while I was driving alone and every 3 or so when mum was with me. I stopped in Horsham over night during the trip over on my own, because I thought expecting the children to be in the car more than four to five hours was asking a little too much of them - especially given I had no-one with me to help them if they needed anything while I was concentrating on the road. When we stopped, I made sure we had fun, we had a treat and ran around and it gave them something to look forward to. Now that they're a bit older, even the promise that we would stop soon, bought me a little time.

It was a great trip and I would absolutely do it again but not without raiding two dollar shops and packing those headphones first!!