Our children’s elementary school celebrates reading month in March, complete with fun activities every Friday. Spring Break rides the coattails of that fun experience, giving the kids a week-long break from school to regroup, coming back refreshed and ready to finish the school year strong.
That got me thinking – This year, instead of making Spring Break mundane and ordinary, with hours of watching TV, lots of “I’m bored,” and arguments over getting chores done, I am going to host our first ever “Family Spirit Week.” Even though I will still be working while my children are home from school, I think I can make the time more interesting and less boring by interspersing some creative and fun activities throughout the day that they can do on their own, together as siblings, or with me participating when available. This should be a nice change from our normal routine.
Every day will be a different activity for the kids to participate in, maybe even a different theme. It will give us all a chance to use our imagination and get creative. In addition to outfits they get to create, we will have time for various fun activities. Who doesn’t like the chance to be silly (trust me, there is nothing sillier than watching a Just Dance competition that I am in), work on family values in a fun way (any type of competitive activity is a great lesson in sharing, turn taking, and being a gracious winner and/or loser), and participate in things that normally would be off limits. I will be pulling out past favorites that are saved for special occasions like: Dessert for dinner, Skipping your least favorite chore, and our kids’ all-time favorite, Chore Free day. In addition, we might add new things to try such as Backwards day or Opposite day being possibilities. If I ask, I am sure my kids will come up with some even better themes. This year, I think I might turn it up a notch. One day might be “Volunteer day.” That day will focus on doing something for others expecting nothing in return.
All of us, whether stay at home moms or moms that work from the home or outside the home, we are all busy, so Family Spirit Week does not have to be some huge, detailed, “every minute scheduled” project. I am envisioning a week where every day there are a few fun things to look forward to. What I am thinking about involves dressing in a different themed outfit each day, one fun activity (either for the children to participate in by themselves or with the addition of mom), one chore to be completed, and one family value that is talked about. There will still be plenty of downtime for the kids and time to get our work done as moms.
I do not know exactly how the final product is going to look yet, but I am
excited about this opportunity to reinforce in a fun way some of the values that we have been working on for years. I am sure there will be some kinks to work out, but if it goes really well, Family Spirit Week might become a yearly tradition to look forward to. Of course, we will have to finish the week with a huge celebration of sorts – maybe a family movie night or a family-friendly competition either outside or with board games. We could always do our new favorite pastime which is taking a bike ride together. Whatever it ends up looking like, if we are together, it will be fun.
What about you? Is there one thing that you can do purposefully this Spring Break with your kids to help create lasting memories while enforcing some family values in a fun way? If everyone gave one comment about what your particular family enjoys, then we all could add to our resources and create different, fun family memories than we have in the past.
Last summer I declared a “Backwards Day” at our house. I remade the children’s beds, so that the pillows were where the feet normally would be. We ate dessert first at the meals, of course. (and, I THINK we also ate breakfast food for dinner) They spent much of the day thinking/talking about how to make things backwards. It seemed to spark a lot of conversation. They had a blast, and have asked me several times for another “Backwards Day”. Which tells me that the memory has stuck with them! I think we will have another “Backwards Day” over this spring break- thanks for the inspiration! (I’ll be reading comments, for even more ideas.)
What a great idea! I’m excited to have a “Backwards Day” at our house now. I never thought about remaking the beds to sleep “backwards” too. Thanks for the idea…can’t wait to try it out.