Entertaining your Family on Spring Break

Spring Break can be a hectic time of year for any family who has not planned a vacation, or saves their family vacation for the summer break. So, what should you do to entertain your children while they are home from school on Spring Break? Here are seven ways to entertain your children to keep them busy, and out of trouble.

Invite Friends Over. Allow the children to have a group of friends over for the night. If you have more than child that do not have a mutual circle of friends, allow each child to have a night with friends. This will give them something to look forward to, and something you can use as leverage if necessary. It may cause a headache for you, but it will be worth it, especially if the child’s behavior warrants a reward.

Have a Family Movie Fest. Make each night special by watching a movie as a family. If you cannot spread the movies out over the week, try watching several movies together on one night of the week, as this will leave the rest of the week open for other plans.

Host a Barbeque. Use the newfound warm weather as an excuse to get together and celebrate with friends and family. Enjoy the time with food, drink, and social activity. The kids will be occupied with all the company, and you can engage them for help in the kitchen or on the grill. Plus, it gives you an excuse to catch up with the people you do not keep in touch with often.

Arts and Crafts. Take the kids to a craft store and let them pick out things that will spark their interest and give them something productive to do while you are away at work. For instance, you could try cross-stitching, painting, building a model car, coloring a poster, etc.

Spring Cleaning. Though this is probably the least appealing activity on the list for the children, you could certainly use their help, as they help mess up the house, right? You can use this as motivation for other activities, like letting their friends come visit overnight.

 Go Shopping. This activity will certainly go further if you have daughters, but everyone can use shopping as a great excursion, and there is something everyone wants to buy. It will keep the kids busy for the majority of the day if you want it to, so it will be a great time killer, and can provide some great quality time.

Re-Decorate. This ties into the cleaning activity a bit, but you can allow the children to re-decorate their bedrooms, or help you to re-decorate a common area of the home. The possibilities here are endless, and you can allow the children’s imaginations run wild. By now, you should have a good idea of what you are going to do to entertain the children over the spring break. Do not stress the break too much, because soon enough they will be back in school. But, use it for some much needed family and relaxation time, and you all will rested, and relaxed.

What do you do to keep the children occupied on breaks?  Share your thoughts and ideas below.

Photo Credit of: SD DSS