summer holiday wobbles
Today is the beginning of the Scottish summer holiday. We delivered teacher's presents (elderflower cordial) and collected missing jumpers and gym bags from lost and found. We said good bye to teachers and some friends and brought dozens of jotters, hundreds of pieces of paper and art home.
The summer holidays! It was eagerly anticipated by the offspring but I am not sure if I should cry or laugh. Seven endless weeks ahead to fill with fun and purpose, 3 very different age groups to cater for.....not to mention the unreliable Scottish weather. I think I am going to bury my head in the sand until the weekend. This year we'll be going back to Cornwall for our family holiday but we won't be visiting Switzerland and spend time with family there. The children are disappointed not to visit Granny, Mo-Granny and uncles and aunties, swim in Granny's pool, the river or any other outdoor pool, and be spoilt all around but have promised to be good as long as I offer as much fun as granny does. A tall order! Wish me luck!
What are your plans for the summer? Am I the only one daunted by the sheer eternity of the holidays?
Lay low, endure the heat, pray for cooler weather and take off to England for a couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds just perfect.
DeleteI understand. If it's any consolation, our summer break is a ridiculously long 12 weeks. It feels like a sentence some days. We keep pretty busy, though. We have plans to have lunch and play on the slip n slide at a friend's house today, with maybe the library after that. Tomorrow a different library for a musical event. Yesterday was a haircut for the boy and a trip through the car wash. And so it goes. I hope you have a good summer. Hang in there. :)
ReplyDelete12 weeks! I will stop moaning this very minute. :) Our days shape up pretty similar just now.
DeleteI can see how daunting it could look, but I also remember just how exciting it was to break up for the summer as a child. It felt like such freedom. Could you find a project or new skill for each of them to work on over the summer? For filling in odd moments and as a response to the classic, "I'm bored"? Plus you can go to the library to find out about Cornwall and get books out and stuff. Some of our best summer holiday days simply involved picnics in the park.
ReplyDeleteGood luck and I hope you enjoy it!
We all love walking and picnics in the park. When the weather is good, all is well. It is the rain that makes the holiday so long. So far it is going all right!
DeleteI love the boys being off, but I aim low! Just being off, out the usual routine and without the pressure of school should sometimes be enough in my opinion! One boy is doing a week's sailing school, one a week's swimming school, and we have 2 weeks in Wales to look forward to. Apart from that, books, dog walks, some TV, seeing a few pals and the odd cinema trip is about all I offer! My reply to 'I'm bored' is 'No problem, what would you like to do? Hoover or empty the dishwasher?'
ReplyDeleteWe aim low mostly, too. We can get tickets for various fun places (zoo, science centre etc) through my husbands work. This breaks the endless days spent just pottering, which we mostly enjoy. My guess is Bardowie Loch for sailing? We are doing a week of trampolining and a week of football/basketball, organised by the council.
DeleteGorgeous bottles of elderflower cordial by the way!
ReplyDeleteLuckily with only one babe to entertain, summer is the easiest time of year because we can now be outside most of the day. The cordials are a great gift - lovely presentation.
ReplyDeleteWe spend as much time outside we can. Scotland is not famous for continuous good weather unfortunately.... Thanks for the compliment.
DeleteDid you make the cordial Christina? We have elderflowers in the garden but I never use them.
ReplyDeleteI kind of dread the long holiday as I can never entertain them enough (and cheaply), but the plus side is that they lay in & get the right amount of sleep and there are no packed lunches to make!
I did make the cordial. Mine is a simple recipe that uses citric acid, which makes the cordial last. I made elderberry cordial last year. Once the bad smell dissipates from the house, it is really enjoyable. Cheap entertainment is key with me not working now but before we spent my salary on childcare to get through the summer so I feel quite smug. My girl has barely been seen since Saturday, visiting friends and having sleepovers. That just leaves three boys. With the good weather, they are quite happy running wild in the garden or park. I so hate making lunch boxes!
DeleteThe cordial is a great present! I am sure that the teachers enjoyed getting something a little bit different from the norm. I am sure that you will have a great summer, whatever you do or not, just being can be great fun! xx
ReplyDeleteJust settling into a routine of enjoying the good weather, long may it last. I insist on homemade gifts for teachers, it is much cheaper and more personal. Last Christmas we made soap (from fat and lye!), which was fun.
DeleteI loved the summer holidays - like Penny, I aimed low and made the children play outside a lot. We never went away because that's the busy time on the farm, but one summer we pretended each week to go to a different country. A quick trip to the library to find about the food, some phrases and customs and hey presto. One of my daughters still talks about "flying" up the stairs to bed and coming down the next morning to land in a different country.
ReplyDeleteI like your labels.
What a good idea Anne! We usually go to Switzerland to see my mum but not this year. Maybe we'll visit some other countries in spirit. Peru comes to mind. Or maybe the British Virgin Islands.
DeleteWe are week one of 3 weeks winter holidays, hope you find lots to do.
ReplyDeleteI would be weeping if we had such a long winter holiday. The Scottish winter is just dreich. Wet and wetter, grey and dark. We are just settling into a nice routine, all the panic was not warranted :)
DeleteOh, those bottles of cordial look lovely!
ReplyDeleteI hope your holidays go well. Sadly I can't offer much advice as I don't have much experience (Joe's only one)... Playgroups tend to close in the holidays and last half term I was literally climbing the walls - bad weather and nowhere to go!
I remember my summer holidays as being mainly spent outdoors having little adventures. Maybe your boys could set up a campsite in the garden.
Fingers crossed for you and the Scottish weather!
Sarah x
PS I'm sure Annie would enjoy camping outdoors too. Apologies, I'm in 'boy mode' having just visited CJ's blog...
DeleteFunny you should suggest camping in the garden Sarah, it is on the list of things to do. Hope the weather stays nice until we actually get our act together. Boy mode works fine for us! Annie is the most adventurous of my children, an excellent hill walker and climber (indoors and outdoors), she sets an example for the little boys. She would probably not get enough thrills out of camping in the garden....
DeleteEnvy your children's teachers - those bottles of cordial look lovely. Just me and the grumpy girl for the hols though we have a few weeks to go yet. It's not so hard with just one teenage girl and there's a lot of hanging around in pjs til lunchtime. But I find the things she does want to do always cost money. So this summer I'm going to see if she can find some jobs or babysitting for neighbours etc. to fund her own cinema and shopping trips.
ReplyDeleteTeenagers! I quite enjoy pjs until lunch time myself.... Yes, mine have costly tastes also. I usually ignore them. I just upgraded my teenagers phone in exchange for chores. Keeps him busy and gives me time to read blogs....
DeleteI know exactly what you mean. And I'm not sure it gets any easier as people get older. H having finished his GCSEs is now on holiday until September and I am worrying about how to juggle work and trying to ensure that H leavens "screen time" with other activities for what will be a ridiculously long summer holiday of two and a half months. It's not easy and most of my suggestions get rubbished! I take heart from your wise commenters" policies of "aiming low" - I think this is probably the answer for the sanity and survival of all concerned! See you on the other side! E xx
ReplyDeleteAiming low is good but unfortunately my teenager thinks this equals extra minecraft time..... whilst I think it is going for walks and spend time in the garden. We are doing fine just now, the weather is unusually un Scottish and we have filled the paddling pool, which even entertains the teenager. Good luck for your summer! xx
DeleteWhat fabulous teacher's gifts!
ReplyDeleteLuckily for me those long summer holiday days are behind me, or rather once they reach uni age they get even longer holidays but also summer jobs. That said, two of our four were home educated so summers were never quite like other folks here. But I do remember the long haul through til the nights started to draw in again. Good luck x
We are settling into our little summer routines with gusto, I am surprised! We always make teacher presents, cheaper and more personal. We made soap last Christmas (from scratch), sometimes it is jam, or pickles.
DeleteHey Christina,
ReplyDeleteI love your gifts. So thoughtful. And lovely topped up with some Prosecco I would imagine! I am alays daunted by the long summer holiday. Even though my elder two please themselves now, I still feel duty to bound to provide fun on a daily basis. And the weather is a huge factor in how we enjoy ourselves here too. We get a lot of rain. I find myself slipping into slothdom myself if I'm not careful. Pottering in my pjs and the like.
Are you anywhere near St Ives when you visit Cornwall? I would love to meet you if you were.
Leanne xx
Oh yes, prosecco and elderflower cordial is a divine mix. Must pack some for our holiday. I am trying to be kind to myself and don't offer as much fun as my mad personality thinks is good. So far I am doing ok with a paddling pool for all and chores for the teenager. We are about an hour away from St Yves, no distance at all. I would love to meet you, too. xx
DeleteWhat great gifts for your teachers! I bet they went down well. Every year I think about making something for ours, but I always leave it too late and rushing out to the shops to buy something! You finish school so early in Scotland! We have until the 29th July, it feels like forever. :( We haven't got any plans yet, we kind of just go with the flow and enjoy not rushing around so much. I do have some time off work though and a certain boy's 7th birthday to look forward to. I hope you have a great summer break Christina, and lets hope it's a dry one so you can do lots of outdoors things with the children. :)
ReplyDeleteI have a 7th Birthday to plan for. My James is 7 next week and he wants the world wrapped in glossy paper. I really enjoy the current great weather, makes life so much easier. The 29th of July is ages away, we'll be almost back to school then!
DeleteBrilliant teacher's presents. I'm sure you will all have a good summer once you get into the rhythm of things.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right Gina, it is going just fine so far!
DeleteWe still have another 3 weeks to go. I am counting down the days, my two are so tired. I'm sure your holidays will whizz by and you'll have a fabulous time. x
ReplyDelete