School Holiday Ideas

School holidays are fast approaching so I'm trying to get together some activities to do with my family so that we can make the most of this chunk of time we have together. I absolutely love school holidays; no morning rush, no homework, no assignments, no lunch-making (although MR S does that and I'm so thankful!), no washing uniforms, no notes to sign ... instead long days spent reading and drawing, baking and visiting parks, exploring and laughing ... I'm getting carried away, sorry! 

Something that I've wanted to do for quite a while now, is have 'Around the Globe' dinners. One night a week (or two or three or how ever many!) we'll choose a different country to explore. I thought of creating a menu complete with entree, main and dessert that would be authentic to the chosen country. From start to finish we're going to do these nights together. Creating the menu's, writing the shopping lists, going shopping and decorating!

We'll decorate the house a little bit with A4 laminated place mats of different images relating to the country; flags, maps, costume, entertainment, currency etc. Then, I also plan on browsing the web for free music from that country as well. That should really set the atmosphere! And I'm not sure if all the members of my family will appreciate this next idea, but I can just see it in my mind and I think it will be so much fun! I'm going to try and make or buy very cheaply the traditional hats worn in the chosen country! Oh, I can just hear the groans of disagreement now, but I think they'll secretly love it! Mr S collects coins so I'll add some of those from the country probably down the middle of the table. He also has a love of languages, so I'm going to ask him to write out basic phrases such as, 'please', 'thank you', 'I love you', etc onto cardboard and they'll be stuck onto the walls as well. I'll also ask Mr S to write out some place cards with our names in the countries language and then we'll have to work out who name is who! I'm going to keep brainstorming and see what other ideas I can think of too.  

I literally just thought of one country that would be amazing, right now, as I'm typing! I'm going to do a traditional Hebrew meal, and set the table like a scene that would be found in Bible times! I think I'll get some air -drying clay and make some bowls for the center of the table, some jugs and maybe have everyone dress in sheets instead of hats! Now I'm really getting excited! My Great Aunty gave me her Bible encyclopedia set so I will use them as a reference and maybe put some of them around the house too, open to pages with Hebrew information.

For one or two of these nights I plan on sending out some invitations to our friends so they can join us for the meal as well ... and they'll have to come dressed to suit the country!

Can you guess where the first country is that we are visiting on our 'Around the Globe' dinner? ...

I'm really looking forward to making the most of these holidays. I love being able to make memories that will last a life-time, on a shoe-string budget and having an amazing time doing it! I have thought of other tings to do too ... I'll share these with you in another post.

On that note, I think I'll go visit some op-shops today and get started! 

Have a fantastic week!