The school holidays...fun, or weeks of chaotic behavior in the home? This should be a time when we get to spend lots of enjoyable, fun and special quality time with our children, however, it is not always going to be that way. Unfortunately for me, my children spend a week on with their father and the other week with me, the good thing is that I get some quality time to spend with my two year old, which of whom comes from another father, but also get a well deserved break from the constant demands of older children. Their behavior however has worsened in the last few weeks, they have been misbehaving a little more than usual and I have raised my voice a little more than usual. I can barely hear myself speak, let alone anyone else for that matter, something in which the kids take great delight in, mmm....I wander why? One would like to be hopeful in the fact that they would listen when spoken to normally, yet in a harsh tone. So, I have come to the conclusion that the christmas holiday break is too long, here in Australia the holidays are six weeks over the christmas break, six whole weeks, well in my case it is only three if you include the time they spend with their father. Then they are in vacation care as he works full time and never sees the kids anyway, so they may as well be with me for that time.

How do we, as parents, keep our children entertained? The budget doesn't allow too much when it comes to taking them on outings, the computer is boring, the PS2 is boring, even fighting with each other becomes boring, so therefore we need to come up with ideas to keep them happy, occupied and entertained for as long as we possibly can. Lets face it, kids are not going to always do their own thing, they need structure in their day, they need to find a sense of achievement, just as we do. At the end of the day it is such a good feeling to know that we have achieved a goal, no matter how small it is.

Being on a tight budget I decided I was going to plan their days, come up with something fun we could all do together as a family and and have fun in the process.

Each morning I gave them all a chore to do, each with a reward. The reward was that for every chore completed they would receive a token, each token being to the value of fifty cents, or more if the finances allow. I would then take them for a walk to the local shop, stopping at the park on the way home to enjoy their reward, as we all know, kids like to buy lollies or anything that is not good for them.

I put together a fun little treasure hunt for them, in our backyard of course. I gave them each a list of items to find, which contained a map of the yard and clues to where each item could be found, along with an empty ice-cream container(always handy to have). The objective was to see who could find the treasures on the list first, there were prizes for all of them though of course. Even the littlest one could take part in it, with help of course.

In conclusion, the school holidays, even the weekends do not have to be as difficult as we make them out to be. There are lots of fun activities that can be done with your kids, just be creative. Your kids will love it, no matter what it is, because they get to do something fun while spending quality time together as a family, and thats whats important. You get a break from them fighting, their eyes aren't glued to the television and it also teaches them to get along with each other.

Tags & Keywords : kids,school,fun,behaviour,holidays,games