Winter break is hardly a break with kids at home 

It’s the time of year when you hear the song, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” more times than you want to.  But, if you also have little ones, you may find yourself applauding the line that says ‘Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again’, each time.  

The holidays are meant to be a joyous time for family, fun, and festivities. But that dream can turn into the Nightmare before Christmas if the kids have nothing to do. Think aimless, bickering kids creating new ways to terrorize each other and you, coupled with hours of mindless, or worse still, inappropriate screen time. This week, we generously share some tactical tips to help make sure that winter break doesn’t break you… or break the kids. 

We all miss our familiar schedules when there are short breaks

It’s an accepted truth that structure in kids’ lives makes them feel secure. It would seem like structure goes against their childlike instincts to explore but ironically, the structure actually encourages kids’ independence and risk-taking.  

So grownups, it’s not just you. Kids too miss the structure of school days during these short breaks.  They miss their friends, they miss the predictability of how their day will go, and yes, they even miss using their brains intensely. So for peace, love, and joy over the winter break, bring back some structure and ways for them to exercise their brains. 

First things first: Give names to blocks of time

If you hate schedules, you’ve come to the right place. Giving names to blocks of time doesn’t require you to plan a schedule of daily activities.  

It’s not for nothing that different periods in school have names. Even kids as young as 3 understand that Circle Time has its own level of comportment, Recess has a more let-loose feel, and Nap Time, well, it’s in the name. 

Having names for blocks of time clues the kids into how the time will go. Choose whatever names suit your home but make sure they are somewhat indicative of what you expect from the kids.  TV time, Go Crazy Time, Aneta Time (aka Tablet or Computer Time), Reading Time, Craft Time, Coloring Time, etc. You can then declare according to your whims (and the kids’ needs, of course, we’re not monsters) what Time it is. You can make an entire morning Lazy Time for instance.

There are IRL activities. For everything else, there’s Aneta

With the basic structure of the times you can have, let’s dig into Aneta Time.  And if you need IRL ideas, that’s a different blog. But despite family visits, holiday shows, holiday lights, and numerous festivities, there will be times the kids are still home … and bored!  

Craft time …Made easy by Aneta

Whatever your family celebrates, you can task the kids to make crafts in the symbols and themes associated with it.  The fact that it is for a particular purpose and season may make even ornery crafter oblige. But what if you’re no crafting wizard yourself. Or you don’t have crafting stuff at home. Ah, we are so spoiled in our digital age. There are YoutubeKids or youtube channels where someone has solved this problem. Stick a channel like Createfulkids or ArtforKidsHub or KidsCrafts in Aneta and let the kids go to town. 

The step-by-step instructions mean the kids make beautiful art you actually want to display. Plus it gives the kids a lot of excitement and pride to see their work displayed and for a purposeful function. 

Boogie time…Made easy by Aneta

It’s especially gratifying to see kids move when they do screen time.  It’s the proverbial two birds with a stone. You can have two left feet and still feel proud that you got your child through the dance steps of their favorite song. Let the kids be guided by the experts. You’re an expert for knowing the experts too! CosmicKidsYoga, GrowwithJo, and some of the videos on MihranTV and on GMDanceCentre

Podcast time… Made easy by Aneta

Podcasts are special because they are screen time without screens. They are especially wonderful when you need the kids to be chill but heavily entertained.  So put on some Podcast Time and use some of the incredibly entertaining AND educational kids’ podcasts like WowintheWorld, MillionBazillion, ForeverAgo, and BrainsOn. 

Enlightenment time…Made easy by Aneta

This could be called Math Time, Language Arts Time, Science Time, History Time, Coding Tim etc. There is no limit to productive content that we now can access for free on the internet. And you can put the resources in Aneta so your kids can explore on their own. A couple easy ones you can put in Aneta and comfortably leave the kids with are OperationOuch, PreschoolPrepCompany, ScienceMax, MrDemaio and many others!

There you have it. Go forth and be the boss of the winter break.