School's finishing up this week, so we've printed out "homework" to keep everyone from going mad. School holidays are fun, but my work doesn't go on holiday and Finnlay is too little to even understand what holidays are ... so we stick more or less to the schedule and keep kids busy!

Isla loves homework. It's in a special folder, has special "homework-only" stationery, and is really very fun. We do activities together when Finnlay is napping / playing with blocks / racing cars around the house, and often she will sit and get on with things all by herself too.

I've started printing off free activity sheets that you can get online, and then laminating to use with dry erase pens. That means you don't have to worry about making mistakes, and you can use the same activity worksheet time and time again. It also helps when other children want to get involved and they can sit and colour in without wasting any of the activity sheets. In fact, I'm fairly sure that the laminator is the single most-used piece of equipment in our house (besides the kettle, of course).

We love this "build a burger" activity from Mother's Niche which is the most popular choice out of the homework bag. Isla quite likes pretending to eat her burger after building it, too, and deliberately not sharing with anyone else. Another popular activity worksheet are these I Spy games from And Next Comes L. You can generate worksheets at Education.com like this we've used:
Thanks to these ideas, we managed to survive a 32-hour transit with both kids as we traveled from our home in Essex, England to Cape Town, South Africa (and back again, phew). They help for creating "quiet time" as well. I've started a Pinterest Board for Keeping Kids Busy (link here) - there are so many great ideas out there! Fingers crossed, that means that there will be a lot of fun and laughter in the coming weeks.
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