Now that the dust has settled I can reflect on a much better holiday period than we have managed before.
I think we can attribute our successes to the following:
1) lighten up on food
We let them eat their advent chocolate straight after finishing breakfast and were less strict on Christmas Day etc about what they ate and when. It is only for one day so they had what they wanted on their plates and the only rule was that if they took it from the serving dish then they had to eat it unless they didn't like it. Some meals didn't even happen - they were asked if they wanted something to eat and if the answer was 'just a biscuit; then that it what they got especially when larger meals had already been eaten.
2) Alternate activity days.
One day out, one day of calmer things so they were taken bowling, to a theme park, to a soft play centre but never 2 days in a row. We broke activities up with at home days of craft activities and things in the garden. Doing thank you letters, going on bug hunts and colouring in are great quiet activities that seem to work for us.
3) Keep the bed time routine as much as possible.
We have worked out that routines are the backbone of coping and it is when the normal routines are gone that havoc ensues. It also worked during the day. Instead of asking them to go catch up on sleep we let them take their brains out in front of a film on the sofa or had some long story times.
4) Let them find their own space.
I think sometimes I expect too much of them, especially when there are people everywhere and things are a little bit different so this holiday I let them have extra time on their tablets, I let them them run around the garden when it was reasonably practical for me to let them do so, I let them be alone when they wanted to be and gave them one to one time when they asked for it.
It does feel like that they have a better idea of what to expect so there was a lot less anxiety surrounding what was going on around them.
Hopefully next year will be even better!
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