It's over and we thrived - two weeks of spring break. Since the corporate world doesn't support 6 weeks of annual vacation and my husband and I both work full time, we spend significant effort planning for extended school vacations. We are exhausted, but it was a success. Our trick is regular reinforcements.
In truth, our community had a camp available for the second week, but we didn't take advantage of that simplifying option. We jam packed a lot of family and a lot of travel without incurring a ton of PTO.
First, we spent the opening weekend skiing in Tahoe. This is one of our favorite family activities - outdoor, athletic and full of smiles. Combine that we did it with my sister's family and we have extended family fun - and more playmates for everyone.
Survival Tip one: Find people you like who have children your children like.
Second, we hosted my brother-in-law's family for five days in our home. We shared two Passover seders and their family explored San Francisco and our town - bringing our boys along as tour guides. Most of the time, the kids just enjoyed free play around the yard and neighborhood. We worked, the kids and in-laws played.
Survival Tip two: Invite out-of-town families to visit. It's fun, special and the kids create their own entertainment.
On the weekend, we rested. It was Easter weekend and our wedding anniversary - blissfully, we had no plans.
Survival Tip three: Down time calms everyone. Schedule some.
The second week we went to camp grandparent. A non-stop flight across the country and then it's fun in the sun. Grandma and Grandpa have a pool and live near tennis and golf. Everyone can relax, splash, play without lots of programming. Thankfully, it didn't rain.
Survival Tip four: Change the scenery and encourage free play.
At the end of the two weeks, I found that my kids and I really liked each other. We had enough space apart while being together because we sometimes explored different recreation and sometimes didn't.
Survival Tip five: Roll with it.
Our return flight was delayed three hours on the ground and we didn't get home until 2am on a school night. The kids slept on the plane and at home...and everyone kept their cool.
What are your survival tips for extended school vacations?
The New York Times reports that 1 in 4 parents link autism to vaccines inspite of the consistent scientific evidence that there is no such link. Autism diagnoses are up radically in the last 30 years and it's reasonable for parents to want to know the cause of this increase. Because of the timing of vaccination and the timing of autism diagnoses (and often onset), it was a reasonable hypothesis that the two are related.
There's just no science to support it.
In the New York Times Motherlode, a reader posed a question regarding how to handle a situation where two 4th grade girls, who were excluding her daughter, were instructed by their parents to "ban" the girl when she told the teacher she felt excluded.
Been there. Felt that.