Our Holiday!

Busy Busy Busy!

Dizzy  and Bear have made the most of the time off school with lots of activities!

Easter Baking and Easter Cards 🐥 Cheap
Rainy day play
We delivered our cards and baking to our our neighbours which delights Bear especially as he loves to share and he loves chatting to adults.

Garden Play 👢 🐛 Free
Wellies and coats on both children but especially 5 yo Bear have been out playing in the rain. They've collected and washed rocks, used the climbing frame, bug hunted and made ramps to launch the little tykes car off!

Wheely good fun ⛸ 🚲 Free
My two love being allowed 'out the front' in our quiet cul-de-sac to play. Bear likes to ride his go kart and fix it with real tools. Dizzy likes to roller skate. They pick up good social skills as they end up having lots of chats with our neighbours and road safety skills are practiced and observed by us.

Bowling 🎳 Costly
This is an expensive one but Dizzy has only been 3 times and Bear twice. We went to Hollywood bowl and they had colouring whilst you were waiting for your turn which was very useful!

Trip to London 🚍 moderate
Using our friends and family rail card 💳 (thank you Tesco points) we spent under £20 on rail fares and won free tickets to The Winnie-the-Pooh Exhibition at the V&A. A whole day of fun!

Cinema 🎭 costly
This was a birthday treat for me. Usually we do kids cinema for around £15 including the tickets and kids popcorn. We paid full price for Peter Rabbit as I used my birthday money from my grandmother!

Church Holiday Club ⛪ cheap
This happened to be at our church for 2 days but in other holidays other local churches run them also. My kids come back very energised from these sessions.

Rock Painting 🎨 cheap
We spent cold rainy days painting the rocks and then slightly better days hiding them in the local parks! I bought some Posca pens and we used rocks we found in our garden behind the shed!

Forest School 🌸 moderate
This was our favourite activity. We left the kids with their teacher who let them run around her woods digging holes with her dog and finding waist deep muddy puddles. This was a paid session but well worth the fun that was had.

Local Farm 🐽 cheap
We are lucky that a small farm near us opens Sundays and school holidays and does activities. This year they did an Easter Trail £1, feed the animals £1, rock painting £1 per rock and a watercolour workshop £1.50. They sell lovely cakes and their own fruit juices. Entry is free. We just did the watercolour workshop and visited the animals and walked through the countryside there and back.

Knitting 🐑 cheap
This cost me about £10 in wool. My son has wanted to learn to knit to make his teacher a scarf! I can't knit and can barely crochet but since both my children can make loom band bracelets I assumed they would pick up finger Knitting quite quickly. I've managed a scarf in less than an hour using a good chunky wool. Bear hasn't got quite so far but has made a good start and has got quite quick already. Dizzy is still going having not been keen to join in initially but she's enjoying how quickly her scarf is growing!

Annual Tickets 🎟 Free (sort of)
Every year we have an annual entry to something. This year we have it for another more touristy farm. They have a soft play which is great in itself as soft play places are expensive. They also had shows, Easter trails etc as holiday extras. We have made a couple of visits to Kent Life to see the baby animals (goats, pigs, sheep, chicks, ducks and guinea pigs!).

Play dates free 🏞 🏡
My kids will have had 2.5 weeks without their mates. Dizzy has had a few playdates (two here and one at a friend's house) and we have met one of Bear's friends at the park and had some family friends for lunch a couple of times. It's been nice for me to have some adult company too!

Spring Clean 🛏 free
We had a spring clean of the bedrooms. This took a couple of afternoons. Yes they are dumps again now but at least they were clean for a while and we found some hidden toys!

Siblings

There is almost three years between my children. Whilst I grew up very close to my cousins (a year and 4 years younger) I had no siblings until I was secondary school age.

Sibling fighting is something quite new to me. I never really had an option to complain, or physically attack my siblings. I was an adult. I went to university when the older of my siblings was the age my daughter is now. The other still a baby.

I'm led to believe the physical fighting, the he absolute foul way the bigger treats the little, and the way the little cries at the slightest thing for maximum impact and punishment of the big one, is normal.

I worry how I will explain the injuries they give each other to professionals. I had to explain a black eye at my daughter's first parents evening (brother threw doctors kit at her from height) and my daughter was in close proximity both times my son broke a bone.

This holiday has been a lot of "I hate him" "she hit me" "he's annoying" "she said this" "he touched that" over and over with the odd thud and slap of skin on skin.

All day long. Every, single day. We are only half way through the first week!

Bedtime is a different story. They are suddenly best friends and gang up on their terrible, strict and mean parents. They can't possibly be separated. They must play, read and sleep together.

Then the cycle starts again.

Girls can do anything!

International Women's Day was last week, Mothering Sunday and Aspirations Day at Dizzy and Bear's school was this week. Lots of celebrations for women.

I was reflecting on how we treat our daughters.  100 years on from getting the vote we have come a long way.  Women are able to be financially independent, meaning they can escape abusive fathers and husbands. My grandmother says she married to get out from her father's controlling nature. Her name wasn't allowed on the mortgage of her first marital home. This was only 50 years ago.

Women now work. Most jobs will have women doing them, even if they are in the minority. The glass ceiling still exists, with women generally earning less than men and less likely to be in senior or leadership roles.

Has fighting for equality made us lose sight of some of the wonderful ways women are different to men? Of course women can be pilots, engineers, fire fighters and mechanics. What about the things that only women can do?

Women grow babies, make food. Their bodies are made to nourish and respond to their children. It's biology. Working women are great. Working mothers are amazing (I did it for 7 years).

Women and mothers are important in their own right though. It would be sad if we didn't teach our daughters that they can be anything, and that choosing to be a wife and a mother is just as important as being a chief executive or an astronaut.

So inspire your sisters, daughters and nieces to be who they want to be. They should be valued as much as men. Support them to break through that glass ceiling if they choose their path. Inspire them to be the best wives and mothers and to be proud of being a woman and enjoy the amazing way they are different to men.