Summer Holiday Countdown - CareforKids.com.au®

Summer Holiday Countdown

Yes it's that time of year again when suddenly this term is going to fly by and before we know it we'll be into the long summer holidays. For those of you lucky enough to have children at child care centres that don't close in the school holidays, apart from the few days over Christmas and New Year, then getting organised now is very important because places for vacation care programs and services go FAST.

With most working parents only getting the standard 4 weeks holiday per year, vacation care is a necessity, but often hard to come by.

Make it easy on yourself by doing a Vacation Care Search on our website now to find services nearest you that offer OOSH care and run vacation programs. Search by Service, Postcode or map area.

Out Of School Hour Care Centres: Generally only provide care for children who are at least 5. Check with individual centres on their minimum age requirement.

If your child attends a school that has out of school hours care facilities, you may be lucky in that most of these services also offer Vacation Care. These services are also usually open to children who don't go to that particular school in the term time registering with them, so it's worth making enquiries with out of school hour centres in surrounding suburbs.

Many working parents don't have family to fall back on, and if vacation care is hard to come by in your area or budgets are tight, an alternative to formal vacation care is to share with other parents.

Make sure you talk to your children's friends' parents about the potential for sharing the duties over the summer holidays. Most parents are happy to entertain the idea whether it's for the whole holidays or just a portion of them to alleviate the need for unpaid leave, expensive vacation activities.

Kids get to amuse each other and play with their friends all day and parents get to save some money on formal vacation care and save some of their leave entitlements.

It's win-win, as long as you follow some key rules. Here are the seven steps to harmonious vacation care sharing:

Ensure your children actually like each other and get on!
Try to match up ages and keep numbers even to avoid bickering and odd ones out!
Set time boundaries in advance with the other parents so you all know just how far you can or cannot push the friendship!
Agree on daily or weekly allowance costs of activities or treats.
Try to share with parents who have the same parenting style as you and agree on any discipline measures!
Make sure you have adequate booster seats. Sounds obvious, but so easy to forget and you will be liable for prosecution if you're caught making that quick trip to the supermarket with any child without the correct car restraints.
Have a daily or weekly list of activities or a vague schedule and some emergency "pull it out of the bag" ideas in times of need!

Holiday activities:

You don't have to spend a fortune on entertaining the kids. There are loads of things you can do over the holidays that will keep them entertained. Try to remember all those things you used to do as a kid to occupy your time. There are loads of ideas on the web and you can also get some great books with ideas to keep the kids occupied.

Simple activities can be things like:

"Cinema" days (at home or at the local cinema)
"It's a knockout" or sports day type competitions
Arts and crafts – making boats, painting, finger knitting, volcanoes, and puppet theatres…
Country themed day – kids have to pick a country to dress as and learn about, bringing some facts about their choice
Disco days and design your own disco ball
Dress up days – or make your own costume
Nature trails – great for an all day learning and fun experience in a local nature reserve
Outdoor pool days to the local outdoor pool
Park and picnic outings
Rockpool excursions to the local beach
Science experiment activities (like making sherbet or slime! – easy to look up on Google!)
Treasure hunts – either things you've hidden or simply a list of things to find like –"a dead bug", a hair brush, a pink flower etc etc.
Write and present a play

Whatever you choose to do over the school holidays, just make sure you get sorted early!

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