Easter, holidays, and the joys of single-tasking
- Sophie
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
We are one week into the two-week break from school for the kids, and I am happy to report its been going really well, even though Al and I are not off for most of this time. I had the Easter long weekend (Good Friday to Easter Monday) off, Al only worked Sunday out of those days, and I then I also took Friday 10th off, to have two long weekends in a row with the kids. In addition to our days off, we've had a mix of paid vacation care and extended family (grandparents, Aunty), taking the kids for various days, and its worked really well. Importantly, we haven't had to try to juggle working with both kids at home, which I am VERY grateful for. Before we had relatives live nearby, we always had some days trying to work with kids at home, and it was counter-productive on both sides! So really appreciating the joy of single-tasking this time around. Some highlights:
My big brother came to visit for the Easter long weekend! He flew up from Melbourne, and stayed with my parents 10 minutes drive from us from Thursday - Wednesay. It was so lovely to hang out for him for few days. The kids loved seeing their Uncle, and we had such great chats. We ate yummy food, spent time in the pool, did some exploring of our local area, and one day my parents and he took the kids to the beach for the day while Al and I worked. So nice.
O doing some exploring on one of our long weekend adventures It was Al's birthday last week! We celebrated with my family, and then we had an adult's lunch at a local pub with our friends and my brother. It was a lovely afternoon, everyone got along great, the weather was lovely, and we even walked back to our house after lunch to continue the festivities there. Fun times, and the kids were with Al's parents living their best lives too!
The kids spent the Saturday night of the long weekend with Al's parents, so Easter Sunday morning spent at their house. The Easter Bunny found them there, and they had a great Easter Egg hunt. This was the first Easter that the kids did the Easter hunt without us there, and it was nice to give the Grandparents a chance to enjoy it. Plus, we didn't end up with mountains of chocolate in our house, which has been good for everyone's health!
Easter Egg hunting E has started reading graphic novels to herself at night! While I'm reading stories with O, she takes herself off to bed with her novel, reads until she's tired, and then falls asleep! I guess I knew it would happen sometime, I wasn't going to be reading her bedtime stories at 15, but she was definitely in no rush to read on her own, so this progression took me by surprise. It’s lovely to only have to focus on reading to one kid now, and to see E getting into the joy of reading .
Staying on the literacy theme, O is OBSESSED with literacy and numeracy. His favourite TV shows are educational ones that teach the alphabet and numbers, and he is always spelling out words, trying out maths problems, and making letters with magnatiles, etc. It’s very cute, and I'm glad he has a natural love for these topics, as it makes school easier for sure! E was not into this kind of learning (she was much more creative), so we had a lot of "homework battles" in the early days of school. Funny how different siblings can be.
The weather has been spectacular this past week! Sunny, warm, not unbearably humid. There have been swims, walks (I'm trying to do Elisabeth's Cool Bloggers Walking Club), and even a bit of gardening. Our really nice weather season is on the way, and I'm here for it!
View on my recent walk. Lucky to have such pretty spots close by. I had to accept that with only 3 days of work last week, and some off site activities (even some radio interviews!), I wasn't going to make significantly progress on my paper writing, and that was OK. This coming week I have five days in the office, and the kids are staying with Al's parents for a few days, so there will be a chance for longer work days and some protected writing time. Always reminding myself to view things over a longer time horizon.
I've been having fun doing some seasonal and monthly planning as we transition from my Q1 to Q2 (my quintiles are the kids 4 school terms, plus summer), and further into April. My next post will be a planning focused one!
Anyone else doing the CBWC? Is it a nice weather season where you live?
I am not doing the CBWC since it is yet another thing to add to my plate and keep track of. I decided to stick to my regular exercise at the rec center.
That picture of your daughter reading is so precious!!!!!! I also read with Lyra and it is so sweet and special .
I have been terrible about walking! I’ve done it of OTF classes and I walked a ton in NYC last week but I have not done a lot of walking in general. It has been cold here but the weather is improving. I did so well last October but I was on a LOA for the fire accident and walks were like therapy for me!
I am glad you had help to get you through a 2 week break. It seems like school just started! Our only 2 week break is over the winter holidays and the kids have childcare for about half the days luckily.