Easter school holidays are the perfect time to seek out some local activities organised within your community during the term break. School holiday camps and programs are offered by local city councils, art and dance studios, sport organisations, nearby farms and zoos and parks. Here are some tips and ideas to keep children happy and busy during their Easter school holidays…
Activities for home
When you factor the sugar-buzz of all that available chocolate into the mix, Easter school holidays without a set plan can be a trying time! If you put a little time and effort into doing activities with your kids, you’ll often find that the payback is several hours where they’ll play quietly by themselves. There are a lot of Easter school holiday activities that can be done at home at little cost.
Making bunny footprints
If you have younger children, they’ll love creating decorated ‘bunny footprints’ that will lead to the locations of their hidden Easter Eggs on Easter Sunday! Alternatively, make the footprints yourself and set them out to lead to the hidden egg locations.
Making coloured Easter eggs
There are several ways you can do this. For a no-calorie activity, blow real eggs by making a pinprick in either end and gently blowing through the top hole until the white and yolk has all dribbled out the bottom. You could also melt white chocolate in a double-boiler; add different colours of food dye to different batches, and set them in Easter egg moulds to make your own coloured chocolate eggs.
Painting blown egg shells and filling with liquid chocolate
Combine two wonderful activities by first blowing your eggs, then filling with liquid chocolate. Make sure you rinse the blown eggs well for this activity – a small syringe (with a needle – grown-up help needed!) is ideal for getting water into that tiny hole for rinsing, and then for getting the liquid chocolate in. If you’ve used the two-hole blowing method, plug up the bottom of the egg with Blu-tac, and wait til the chocolate is set before removing the plug and painting.
School holiday programs and camps
Some kids just crave the company of many other kids – these early social butterflies can be best occupied by an Easter school holiday program. These may be run by a local library, a council, or a sporting organisation. Your kids might enjoy movie days, try-a-sport days, craft days, etc.
Sometimes there is a charge associated with the programs … sometimes you just need to book really, really early! Check with your program that you don’t have to remain with your kids for the activities – this might be required if they are under a certain age. It would kind of defeat the purpose, too for Easter holiday fun activities.
Balancing work and family during the school holidays
Even once kids are well past the stage of wanting to stick things in powerpoints and the VCR, there is a lot of trouble they can get into while home alone. While it is temptingly easy to leave older children at home alone while you go to work, it isn’t always safe … for your carpets, your kitchen, or your kids! The general advice is to wait until your child is 12 before you consider assessing whether they are able to stay at home alone.
Make sure you book your Easter school holidays’ annual leave well in advance as it is always a popular time to have holidays. If you cannot take annual leave and the children are not old enough to stay at home, arrange for the children to be looked after by a responsible friend or relative or send them to a school holiday camp (see above) to be looked after in a fun, safe and nuturing environment.
Easter school holidays can be an opportunity to have fun with your kids, for them to make new friends and try new activities, and even for them to start establishing their independence. Book your annual leave early and prepare activities in advance to give them a safe and enjoyable school vacation.