Our kids start fall break this week and even though I know it is in October every year, it still came up quick! Each year the months go by a little bit faster and it really doesn’t seem long ago that we were at the beach for summer vacation. So to think about planning for fall break just did not dawn on me. At the school our older kids go to they get a full week of school off for break then three days of the following week due to parent/teacher conferences. So it is almost two weeks off for them.
I will say that on one hand we are ready for break. Their school does not take too long to drive to but it does feel like a nice break from the morning drop off and afternoon pick up for us all. I also think they both will appreciate the brain breaks they will get over the next few weeks. They are still expected to read each day and have some things to do for projects however I think we all will appreciate not needing to worry about homework for a little bit. Our kids love learning and do very well in school but I can tell when they are needing a little bit of an ease on the gas to refresh. On the other hand I thought “Oh goodness, how will we occupy that many days off?”
I was talking with my husband last week and told him I felt guilty that I had not planned ahead for fall break! I meant that by saying I hadn’t though to make extra room in the budget for going to some fun places or planned any special activities. We have a few playdates that we are excited for but I had not planned much other than that. Then it hit me that there is plenty we can do that will be exciting and don’t require too much budgeting or planning. So I am going to lay out some affordable and fun things that can be done over fall break! I mean really these can be adapted over any break and just adjust some details based on the season.
- Make and set out fall decorations: our neighborhood goes crazy over the Halloween decorations. We have multiple 12’ skeletons and inflatables all around us. I am not a fan of Halloween decorations and especially because in the past few years they have gotten really creepy. But I will do fall decor and our kids love decorating so last week I took the older kids with me to find some fall decor. You can find my previous blog post here on how I made our fall garland which is very fun. But we also got a bale of hay for the front with a small owl and bunny. We plan to add some decorated pumpkins and will be making fabric pumpkins this week for indoor decor. Once we got home with the decor for the front and I saw even more Halloween things going up it made me want to go to the store and get more for our yard, but I’ll have to figure out when to do that. So for now we are going to use what we have.
- Visit a local library: before 2020 we used to go to story time at the library all the time! I loved it, the kids loved it and we often met friends there who loved it too. However so much has changed since 2020 that I don’t go to story times as much. But in general we don’t visit the library as much as we would like. The kids all love going to one and some libraries in our area have kids spaces that are really fun to play in. Even the libraries that don’t have as much play and is more focused on books, the kids enjoy because Jack and Eva can read so they get to sit and explore tons of books. And the twins enjoy either looking at pictures or having me read to them. I have shared in the past why I love reading to my kids so much and the library really just gives us a space to feel that even more. I also fell like its just a nice feeling for all of us to go to a place that has a calm environment centered on books.
- Schedule some play dates: I don’t know about you guys but when my kids are in school we get behind on play dates! Our weekends are typically pretty busy so that makes it hard to get a play date in and during the week the older kids are in school. Sure, they get to play with their friends at school but they are not always in class with their friends and its a shorter period of time. Once our kids started school I also realized how important it is for me to know the parents and siblings of my kid’s friends which is why I enjoy scheduling play dates. Many of the families have multiple kids all within the same age range as our kids so we can get all of the kids together to play and it’s just all around enjoyable. We also have some friends who home school so their schedule is just opposite ours. Typically morning play dates are easiest for our family and they are doing school then so fall break gives us more wiggle room to work in an afternoon play date on a week day when we are usually doing pickup.
- Bake together: Again, days can get so busy so quickly and if you are like me baking special things can get pushed off longer than you like. Last fall I made this recipe from Farmhouse on Boone for sourdough pumpkin scones that are so good. I bought all of the ingredients a few weeks ago but have yet to make them. I’ve baked other things but since these aren’t in my normal rotation they haven’t been made yet. It will be fun to bake these with the kids this week. The reality is baking with kids is not always easy and it is usually messier. If your kids are like mine, they are all asking “can I pour that in” even though I have explained multiple times that we are taking turns. All in all the process takes longer and requires more patience, which makes it good to do on break.
- Go on hikes and nature walks: Our kids love doing hikes, in January of this year we started taking Saturday morning hikes with them. Over the summer when it was very hot we stopped but now that it is cooling off again we are all excited to start them back up. We will definitely be going on some hikes this week and I’ve seen this idea online where you take clear packing tape and wrap it around their wrist with the sticky side out. Then as they are on the hike they can stick flowers and twigs to the sticky tape creating a bracelet. What a fun idea and I am so excited to try it out this week. Here is another simple action that goes a long way, I am going to do it WITH my kids. It is so easy to join them in the activity but I am often busy thinking about water bottles, snacks, shoes, etc that I do not join them in the little things.
Over all I think my biggest take away as I approach this fall break is that I don’t always have to have something extra special planned. We don’t have to have budgeted tons of extra money to go places. What my kids want the most I time with me and my husband, our older kids want to experience what the twins get to do with me while they are at school. They want to bake with us and go on walks with us and go the library with us. They want us to read them extra stories and sit on the floor to play with them. Don’t get me wrong, fall breaks that have special trips planned are awesome! But I don’t need to fall into a mom guilt spiral because I didn’t do any of that. We will decorate for fall and they will get joy each time we pull up and they see the pumpkin they decorated on the bale of hay they bought with me and will get excited seeing the decorations set out inside that we made together. My prayer is that whether you planned big for your break or kept it simple, you will enjoy the extra time with your kiddos. Our oldest is only eight and I am already fully understanding that it truly does go by so quickly. So let’s slow down and make memories and remember to build joy with our kiddos on these extra days during the school year.
