Keeping kids occupied these holidays

Christmas comes and goes in a flurry of functions, family and typically short-term fun with new presents.

Then the summer school holidays stretch endlessly ahead and the work/family juggling act begins.

There’s no school lunches to pack or sports gear to find. No last-minute homework assignments or permission slips to fill out. But the reprieve from the school term routine is replaced by a far trickier situation – how to keep the kids amused for two months!

Especially towards the end of the holidays the “I’m bored” stuck record is played on repeat and as the energy of parents is sapped one more excursion to the pool or skate park or playground seems all too hard.

School holiday programmes organised by local councils and community groups are fantastic and great for a week or two but they don’t suit everyone’s budget.

A beach or bush holiday is traditional for many families – especially between Christmas and New Year’s, and besides the effort of packing up to go and unpacking afterwards they’re a lovely, carefree way to spend quality time together.

New friends are made, new areas explored, a few fish are caught if you’re lucky and no-one ever seems to get bored.

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If you’ve never attempted camping with kids before give it a go – tents are not expensive and you can beg or borrow the essentials. There are always lifelong memories to come out of these trips.

For inspiration take a tip from one of the three mums featured above who are experts at busting school holiday boredom.

Caroline Williamson, after watching ABC TV’s War on Waste series, has been dedicating school holidays to educating her children on how to reduce waste and recycle.

“We learned that approximately one third of what we throw out to landfill is kitchen food scraps which don’t compost readily in landfill as there are no worms in the rubbish,” she said. 

“Instead they rot and release methane which is a poisonous greenhouse gas.

“We bought a worm farm from Bunnings and set it up – that kept the kids amused for days – and we started recycling our soft plastics too.”