Community Corner

Working Moms, The Kids Will be Alright

Spring Break in NYC: Six ways to keep your child productive during spring break

Working moms, it’s that time of year again: It’s Spring Break! The New York City public school system has released your kids, like ether, back into your care. Great for them. But… (let’s admit it), kinda sucky for you. They’re the only ones vacationing; you still have to go to work.

Five… four… three… two… here it comes, the barrage of “I’m bored! I’m bored! Mom, I’m boooored." Then, there's the dreaded moment you walk into your house after work, and the kids are just lying around, watching TV. Meanwhile, the house looks like a hurricane hit it.

Well, here are six inexpensive things you can do to keep your child’s mind stimulated during spring break, while also give you peace of mind:

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1.    Go to the library!!! Take the kids to the library in the evening, get them a library card (it’s free!), and then let them pick out five books! They may grumble about going to the library in the beginning. But trust me, once they get there, they will feel like they hit the lottery! There’s nothing more exciting to a child than a really good book. Sometimes it can take them a minute to get them into the feel of perusing the shelves. But once they do, their hearts will start racing. Okay, now, there’s a catch. Once you get them home. Tell them you want book reports on all of the books by the end of the week. Be firm. A book report is a great way to stretch their writing and analyzation skills. Click here to find the list of libraries close to you.

2.     Assign chores for money. Take post-it notes and assign to them a dollar value (really, amounts like 25 cents, 50 cents, 75 cents, the max, $1). Then, put them around the house on the furniture on the walls, the closets, etc., and tell them these are the areas of the house that need to be cleaned. By the time you return home from work, if they have cleaned those designated areas to your satisfaction – and only if you agree it’s a job well done -- they can earn that amount in dollars (up to $5 in one day)! Suggested price list: dusting the furniture (25 cents); making up the bed (50 cents); doing the dishes (50 cents); cleaning the refrigerator inside and out ($1); cleaning the toilet ($1). Trust me, the tactic is so tempting, because the kids begin to think about how the money adds up. Also, they learn the value of completing a task in a satisfactory manner for a monetary exchange.

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3.     Let them flex their creative sides. Let them make storyboards. Buy poster boards and glue. Tell them to create a themed board, like our good friend Ludwig Jones. Give them recent newspapers or your old copies of fashion magazines. Tell them that “mommy needs a makeover,” and encourage them to go through the magazine and pick out shoes that would best fit you, the best jewelry, dresses, suits, makeup; cut them out and paste them in a creative way on the board. Or tell them that you would like a storyboard of a different news item every day. Then after you've returned home from work, discuss with them their storyboard.

4.     Help them write a letter. We’re so tech-obsessed with emails and Facebook, no one writes letters anymore. Yet, to this day, receiving a handwritten letter is as valuable as gold. Tell the kids to write a letter to someone they haven’t seen in a long time, a cousin, a grandparent, an aunt. Or tell them to write a letter to you, if there is something they want to tell you. When you return home from work, go through the minutia of letting them see you put the letter in an envelope, address it and put a stamp on it. They need to see the entire routine, as writing a letter is a dying art. You can tell them that each day, you expect to see a different letter to a different person. Go ahead, tell them. Remember, you’re the boss.

5.    Encourage them to make a book of poems. Mother’s Day is coming! Tell them that what you would really love for Mother’s Day this year is a book of poems. Go to the dollar store and purchase one of those 50-cent black-and-white Memo. Let them decorate the outside anyway they’d like. Tell them that, throughout the week, you want them to fill up as many of the pages of the book as possible with love poems. Poems about nature, kindness, sharing, moms, dads, family, pets. Let them know that the poems do not need to rhyme. Tell them that as long as the theme is love, you are satisfied. Make sure they know that this will be the most special Mother’s Day gift to you, and that it would mean so much if they really took their time and thought deeply about what the subject means to them. Additionally, a book of love poems from your child will be a keepsake that you will cherish, always.

6.    Make them stretch and exercise daily. The kids are cooped up in the house. But, of course, you don’t want them outside unsupervised. But it’s important that they move, stretch. So, why not buy them a kids yoga DVD, and insist that they do the DVD at least twice a day? Sound like a real snore and very dictatorial? Don’t worry. Kids love yoga. Kid’s love a challenge more than we give them credit for. And remember, you're the boss (when you consider today's outside forces, a little dictatorship is not a bad thing). The Yoga will help with their circulation, teach them something new, and also give them a calm and relaxed sense of well being. You can pick up a kids yoga DVD from Target at the Atlantic Center.

Final tip: Bored kids eat. A lot. Unless you want your cabinets ransacked of essential food items, be sure to stock up on a lot of fruit: Lots of oranges and apples and bananas and grapes. Trust me, they will eat all of it.

Happy Spring Break! The kids will be alright.


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