After School Activities {The Ordinary Moments}
Now that the children are both at school it feels like we don’t see them as much or have as much time with them. There are no more lunch and movie afternoons with Little Man and LP’s preschool days are way behind her. So this year I decided that the time we do have together – the children and I or us as a family – we would spend it doing more fun things and making it into quality time rather than a few hours spent in front of the TV or on tablets.
At the start of September we carried on our routine of baking once a week with LP picking what we’d make the following week. It’s a tradition that they have grown to love since doing it before the summer holidays and we have made some lovely cakes in the process.
Another day after school the children have swimming lessons and Fridays is our designated park day – if it’s not raining we’ll go to the park and they love running around and starting the weekend off by doing something fun.
But the other three two days of the week the children get to pick an activity to do. It may just be Lego or drawing but sometimes it’s painting, Play-doh or other equally messy activities that I used to hate but now embrace as I know how much they love it.
We’ll do an activity until they get bored of it, most of the time an hour or so and then they’ll do something else before dinner. They’ll play with their toys, watch cartoons or read and it’s lovely to just watch them enjoying being at home.
Having more structure to our afternoons gives the children something to really get excited about. They love planning what we’re going to do that afternoon before they leave for school in the morning and it’s the first thing they mention when we pick them up. I love the new routine we’ve settled into and they children are definitely enjoying it too.
If you have an ordinary moment this week, come and link up – I’m looking forward to reading the moments that you share and will comment and share them on Twitter through the course of the week. Thanks so much for taking part!
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It is hard to fit in all the things you’d love to do when there is school, etc. Well done on finding a balance x
I love this because I think this is what life will look like when both of mine are at school and whilst I am dreading that and not wishing it away I’m really excited about this bit of time too. Sounds like a perfect balance you have x
Ah how lovely Donna, it’s so nice to schedule in time like this for the kids to unwind. I find when we do crafty stuff, we often just sit and chat more together, it’s a really lovely time x