My Raisin Family

Welcome everyone! Well, the Christmas/Summer holidays are in full swing here and I thought I would share with you some of the cheap or free activities for the kiddos we have done or planned! #1: Our favourite books! We all spent the morning in our pj's and read our favourite books! Then we had some conversations about the books we read, asked questions like 'Why is this your favourite book?' and 'Who was our favourite character and why?' etc. This was a great way to start our summer holidays as it allowed everyone to relax after a really busy last week of school. I love doing this with the kids because of the educational aspect of it, getting to know how much the kiddos are comprehending what they are reading allows me to see how much they have grown in their understanding and vocabulary skills. #2: Swimming! We are lucky enough to have a pool in our yard and the kids have been enjoying the cool water most days. This is great for them to let out energy before

Hey everyone! So last week was our morning routine, this week is our evening routine! I will go from after school pick up because, like our morning routine, our evenings do tend to go fast as well. So after school, they have a small snack like a few Shapes biccies or some yoghurt or cheese depending on whether they had any dairy snacks in their lunch boxes that day. I do try to cook dinner or at least prep it (chop veggies etc.) before I go get the kids from school to make it easier on us during homework time. The kids have a bit of a run around after they eat to burn some energy off before they get their homework out. We have a fairly big backyard so there is plenty of space for them all to play. A favourite game of theirs lately, is Ninja Warrior. So they use things like the trees and the swing set and the trampoline and most important, their imaginations. After they have had about 15 to 20 minutes outside, they come in, have a drink of water and get their homework done. For

So, since this is the very first blog post, I thought we could start with our regular school term morning routine.  Our Morning Routine Our mornings get really busy and tend to go real fast due to the fact that we are a one car family and I have to take my husband to work every day. We are fortunate in that we also live with my mum so I do not have to get all the kids up and bring them with me.  So my day starts at 6am, when my alarm goes off and I keep pressing the snooze button until 6:30am mainly due to the fact that I am NOT a morning person. As soon as I do get up it is time to wake up the babies! First up, my 8 year old son. He usually wakes up pretty easily and I don't have to keep going back to get him out of bed. He is also the one who, when he feels helpful, gets the bowls out for breakfast along with the cereal.  Next is my 7 year old daughter. She can be a little tough to get up some mornings, but generally speaking she gets up within a few minutes of waking.