Hooray for the holidays!

The long-awaited summer holidays are here and we can finally enjoy a bit of relaxation, sunshine and family time. You may already have some trips or vacations planned. And if you’ve shared your holiday plans with your little ones, you’re surely faced with the question “when are we going there?” several times a day.

Younger children don’t realy know what to imagine if they get the information “in two weeks” or “on August 5”, so they ask “when? when? and when?” over and over again. If you are familiar with this situation, and with all your patience you find yourself having enough of those endless questions about the same thing, this article is for you.

Countdown calendar

We have a simple tip for these cases. Inspired by the advent calendar, which helps us to imagine when Santa Claus will arrive, we make a countdown calendar before each such event. The children have fun making it and then every morning they look forward to the fact that the holiday is a little bit closer again. A visual demonstration will help them understand how long they have to wait and they won’t be asking “when?” every half an hour. Although we don’t guarantee that they won’t ask at all :).

How to do it?

The countdown calendar can take different forms, it depends on your creativity and possibilities. We choose a cut-off calendar every year.

Cut-off calendar

It is the most successful with our children and they ask for it themselves every time they know that a significant event is coming up, whether it is a holiday, birthday or Christmas. They will have fun making it and they can do it almost by themselves. You must remember the paper strip chains that we used to make every year at school before Christmas or as a decoration school parties.

You will need just colored papers, but you can also do it with plain white ones, glue, scissors, ruler and pencil. Draw as many 2 cm strips as you have days left until your holiday on the paper, number them and let the children cut them out and make a chain. Those who already know the numbers can sort them themselves from one upwards. And you’re done. Just stick the chain to the wall with painter’s tape and cut off one ring every morning. Those who like to create and can stay at it longer can complete the chain with a smiling face or a picture of an airplane or a beach, for example.

As you can see, we don’t have much left to cut 🙂

If creative activities are not your thing, you can make it easier. Just cut out one long strip of paper, which you then divide into the required number of pieces with a pencil or marker, which you will then cut day after day.

Activity calendar

You can combine counting down the days with activities for the holiday days at home. Prepare as many cards as you have days left until your holiday adventure and write a simple activity on each card according to your child’s age. 

 

What activities choose for the task calendar?

These can be creative activities such as ‘paint the pavement outside your house with chalk’ or ‘make a holiday card for a friend’ or ‘draw what you are most looking forward to the holidays’. Or come up with practical activities for the children to help you around the house. One task for each day, and when they complete all of them, they get a reward in the form of a holiday. It doesn’t have to be anything big, they can help with the shopping, dust their bedroom or bake a cake with mum. But the most interesting will surely be the mix of different activities where you combine fun with helping around the house and relaxation with your family, such as watching a fairy tale together, reading a holiday book, playing a board game or having a family barbecue. 

But be careful not to take the whip to yourself when devising tasks. Choose activities that you will definitely be able to accomplish.

We have prepared some cards for you too. Just choose the ones that suit you and add them to your own. The cards are deliberately unnumbered so that you can adapt them to your time and fit around your commitments.

Printable PDF cards can be found here:  https://www.babuka.sk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Letne-ulohy-pre-deti.pdf

Let your imagination run wild when inventing tactivities. Let them really enjoy the summer. Let them be covered from head to toe with flour, wet or muddy, let the colour be everywhere. Let them remember the best experiences. Just in case, we have cute aprons for you that are waterproof so you don’t have to worry about stained clothes.

Our extra tip

Summer read

Do you know the read summer? If not, we definitely recommend you to check it. We get involved with the kids every year and they enjoy it at every age. Every year, the clever women of the Land of Readers come up with themes for each holiday week and book tips for all ages. And that they know what they are doing we have verified, their recommendations have never failed. We always add to new books the ones we already have at home and fit the topic. Often these are books that children have forgotten about.

We got the library ready for the first three weeks and started with a week about the stars. We read the story about the little star Rosemary ( several times – as I say, their book recommendations are really good), we talked about space and the night sky, my daughter is now fascinated by the subject and one evening we made an exception and allowed them to stay up late so we could watch the night sky. We were lucky, we also saw a shooting star. You can also find their brochures in libraries every year. This year in the form of a memory book, where children can write or draw the best experience of each day and where you can also find tips for various activities with children. So also it will definitely help while waiting for the holiday. For more information, please visit their website www.precitaneleto.sk or visit the Krajina čitateľov instagram profile.