Breathing space

The one thing I hate about the children being in kindergarten rather than childcare is the fact that they have holidays. Regular school holidays. As opposed to them being in childcare where they only get public holidays and certain other days off! That means that during the vacation time, we have to entertain them and figure out all sorts of things to keep them occupied because otherwise, the house is the mess and our helper would go nuts because of the mess they would create.

So, even though, on a regular month kindergarten is cheaper than child care, come holiday months, the amount of money we fork out to keep them occupied is about the same as a month in childcare! We became philosophical about it. And we drew the line at anything academic. So we signed them up for fun stuff and physical stuff especially (so that they would be tired out).

By the end of the vacation, they had
1. Learnt how to do forward and backward rolls and a variety of jumps (Gymnastics $170 for 3 days)
2. Painted on umbrellas, made photo frames and t- shirts ($130 for 2 days)


















3. Learnt various dances from the Wiggles and created hats and swords for props ($200 for 5 days)



















4. Tried out swimming classes ($70 a month)


















5. Tried out ballet classes ($160 a term)


















Verdict?

The gymnastics class wasn't that fantastic although I think it is something they would have enjoyed if it was taught in English (this one was taught in Chinese) and there was real equipment. The art class was well worth the money and they were most proud of their umbrellas. The Wiggles Dance Camp exhausted them the most but I think it was there that they really had a lot of fun. The highlight for Evan was the water-cooler that dispensed cool cool water and for Jordan, it was the fact that she could wear pseudo ballerina clothes to class. What amused us the most was how they'd decided that dancing meant spinning around and becoming as dizzy as possible and taking down as many people as possible.

Was it a waste of money? I don't think it was. It occupied them, it gave us some time in the morning to do our errands or spend with the little Muffin and it was much better than the year I put them in child care for a month and they ended up with HFMD and seemed traumatised by the experience. On top of that, they were only in school for about 5 days that month. Was there a better alternative? I know moms who planned excursions every day for the kids. We did our fair share of that in the afternoon but most of the time, we just included them in the running of our errands. And most of the time, they seemed perfectly happy with that. But to purposely plan to do stuff with them, sometimes. But not always. Of course, it wouldn't be a holiday if they didn't watch copious amounts of television so that would definitely be on the list.

But I am glad we have resumed regular programming and they are back in school and some semblance of peace is restored. Now to find time to do my own stuff like my eyebrows, my nails and perhaps even a facial. After a month of just being Mommy, it's time to go out and have a little bit of fun.


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