What Are You Doing For Spring Break?

Today is probably your first day of Spring Break (or else next week or the week after it will be).  And while today might not be anything hard, just a day full of pj's and movies, tomorrow or the next day it's going to get rough.  You know what I mean.

The house is a mess, because all the routines, including chore routines, are out the window.  The kids are bored and probably bugging each other all day.  The weather might be nice, but it also might be pretty lousy still, so you're heading for a big old case of cabin fever.

Wow, sounds fun, right?

I've been there.  I've had the bored and bugging kids, I've had the messy house.  I've looked around on Thursday afternoon and wished we were on some fun week-long vacation.

But with a little, and I mean a very little planning, this doesn't have to be you, and it doesn't have to be me.



Sometimes it's fun, and there's room in the budget, to take a trip.  Sometimes there's not.  But staying home doesn't have to equal bored kids and frustrated mom.

Here's my secret.  Sit your whole family down, and make a list of everything that anyone thinks sounds fun.  Be sure to explain ahead of time that just because it goes on the list, doesn't mean it will for sure happen.  But write everything, everything down.

Then every day, choose a few things off the list to do.  You can be the boss of the schedule for the week, or you can mix it up and let your kids choose.  You can give each kid one day to be the one in charge.  You can let them have free rein, or you can impose monetary, time, or distance limits.

It's so easy.  And so fun.

Are you wondering what kind of things to put on the list?  Really, anything goes!  Here's a sampling of some of our lists over the years:

-make cookies
-play with playdough
-go swimming at the rec center
-follow the sidewalk at the "under the road park"
-Air Force museum
-go to the "green park" (are my kids the only ones who rename parks like this?
-stay up late
-library
-make caramel corn
-watch family movie at home
-no chores for one day
-shoot baskets at school playground
-dinosaur museum
-go to Sam's Club/Costco/BJ's and eat all the samples
-visit cousins
-play with friends
-buy ice cream cones
-visit the Necco factory
-follow the Freedom Trail
-go find the pretty bridge we see when we drive into Boston
-ride the T
-science museum
-buy pizza
-make pizza
-Boston Common
-bonfire on the beach
-drink root beer
-go to the "park with really fast slides"
-walk all the way around Point Shirley

We haven't made our list for this year.  But it's going to be a good one!

Kate