Family vacation: where to go with children and how to spend a weekend

Weekend is the best time for a family vacation. It’s 48 hours of fun with the people you love. We have prepared for you the best ideas for a joint holiday with children.

Contents

• Planning 
• What to do at home on the weekend?
• Where to go on the weekend?
• Outdoor activities
• Where to go out of town?
• How to make your holiday interesting and safe?
• To summarize

Planning

Of course, you can play «rock, paper, scissors» at the family meeting and choose an option that the winner will prefer. However, as practice shows, the weekend should be planned no less carefully than workdays.

One of the key rules of a perfect weekend is not to leave a bunch of household chores on Saturday and Sunday. If you spend business workdays a little more systematically, pay bills, make the necessary purchases, then the weekend will be completely at your disposal.

While planning, you need to take into account the free time of all family members. If children, for example, have the sports section on Sunday morning, then long trip out of town with an overnight stay is a bad idea. You need to understand how many hours you have, and try to use them as efficiently as possible, and this is a whole «science» – the discipline of time management is studied in many educational institutions of the world.

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But don’t try to keep everyone on a tight schedule. No need to fill out the schedule with the dozens of entertainment and then frantically trying to handle everything without receiving pleasure from the rest.

Be objective. At the weekend you have to give yourself a rest and at the same time recharge your batteries for the new week. If you were spinning like a squirrel in a wheel for 5 days, then you should not choose active options, a quiet rest might be better: a visit to the cinema, a slowly walk with a picnic in the city park. But for those who were dying of boredom in the office on weekdays, it is better to have fun, such as: the bikes race, hot-air ballooning, laser tag or quests.

It is also necessary to pay attention to the needs of each person. Do not offer people with allergies to plants walks in the woods, or the fearful one – extreme rafting on the river. Besides, always listen to the desire of the child. You are crazy about theatrical productions, but your child falls asleep at every performance? In this case, a cultural holiday can become a bone of contention in your family.

What to do at home on the weekend?

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1. Arrange a cook-off. It will be interesting to cook something together. The family will unite, as well as no one will stay hungry.
2. Have a karaoke night. Everyone will choose their own repertoire and try to get 100 points. You can also turn on imagination and make the home stage of the some vocal show, evaluating performances. But judge honestly!
3. Board games day. Fortunately, there is no shortage of games nowadays, so you can find those that your parents played, such as lotto or dominoes, and those that will be interesting to the youngest members of your family.
4. Do crafts. Get out of the closet clay, colored paper, crayons, etc. Gradually, this kind of leisure becoming a thing of the past, but that’s unfair. Such classes help to develop fine motor skills and conscientiousness. By the way, you can combine business with pleasure – make handmade soap in an interesting shape.
5. Do not forget that the house can turn into a mini-gym. The Swedish wall, dumbbells and a yoga mat are enough to keep yourself in good shape.

Where to go on the weekend?

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1. The easiest option is to visit relatives or friends. This will allow you to keep in touch, relax, as well as will not lead to large costs.
2. Modern shopping centers are a concentration of entertainment. Use it: you can go shopping, do a manicure while the child playing in the children’s room. Then you can go to the movie together. Such multifunctional shopping centers have been actively built in recent years not only in major cities, but also on the periphery.
3. Go to the zoo or the circus. Here both adults and children pass the time with pleasure. In two or three hours the whole family will be able to relax and get a charge of positive emotions.
4. Photoshoot. This is a great opportunity to update the family photo album. Take your camera and look for beautiful and atmospheric locations in the city.
5. Concerts, sports matches, city events. Usually, every significant event in the city becomes a local holiday. It remains only to arrive at a given point and at a certain time.

Outdoor activities

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1. Go to the nearest stadium or sports ground without any hesitation! Jogging or a little match with friends and family will cheer you up and make you forget about everyday problems.
2. You can do sports in the courtyard. Take the racket, shuttlecocks, frisbees and organize tournaments!
3. The weekend is a great opportunity to go cycling. 10-20 kilometers around the city will help relieve the brain. The same can be said about the rollers, but you need to be careful with them: drive only in parks, squares or specially equipped sites.
4. Hiking. Each city has many interesting places. You can show your son or daughter the most beautiful places in the city, tell about them, and remember funny cases from life. It would be nice to study first the history of the small homeland in order to tell the children about it. Turn off your mobile phone, enjoy nature and breathe deeply.
5. On Saturday or Sunday, it’s good to go to the sea. If it’s far away, a pool or water park will do. Swimming is a good way to give the necessary load to the muscles, which are usually little involved in everyday life. After the swim, the overall tone will increase noticeably.

Where to go out of town?

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1. The whole family can go on a picnic. Make a menu, think over the logistics and enjoy your favorite dishes in the fresh air.
2. Fishing, picking berries and mushrooms. Hiking to the river and the forest will give children a lot of new information. They will be able to learn not from Wikipedia about how mushrooms grow, but to see it firsthand. Moreover, collected or caught “trophies” can always be cooked in the evening as a main dish for a family dinner.
3. A simple option that usually many families do not take into consideration is a trip around the area. Go to the nearest village or city, just change the situation for a couple of days and “picture” outside the window. The weekend tour will help children to expand their knowledge about the world and get better acquainted with the architecture and culture of the country.
4. Tourism. Pack backpacks and go camping. A couple of days in tents without gadgets will help completely reboot the brain. If you can not live without comfort – choose organized campsites, there are houses with all amenities.
5. People who have a sharp lack of adrenaline in their blood should choose a kayak rafting, relaxation in rope parks, rope and bungee jumping. The main thing is not to act heroically without measure.

How to make your holiday interesting and safe?

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Parents need to think ahead. If you plan to hike in the mountains on Saturday morning, everything you need should be packed in the evening on Friday.

It is definitely worth exploring the surroundings. Ask friends, read reviews on the Internet. Going somewhere, you’d better understand what awaits you there.

Prepare a «first aid kit». Its contents will be useful not only in campaigns. Here is a short list recommended staff:

• analgesic, anti histamine and anti-allergic drugs;
• remedies for mosquito bites and ticks;
• sunscreen.

Do not rely solely on your opinion. Arrange a family brainstorming session, perhaps a lot of great ideas will be born.

Set a limit on the Internet. For example, if we are talking about active weekends, you can limit the screen time spent on the gadget to 15-20 minutes.

Do not forget about a balanced diet and daily routine. On weekends you need to have a good rest, sleep and eat properly.

Listen carefully to your children on weekends. In the confusion of everyday life, sometimes there is not enough time for simple heart-to-heart communication. Try to understand how your son or daughter lives, what their interests are.

To summarize

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In one interview, the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates said that 20 years ago he would have been happy to spend a weekend at work. But now he has become wiser and gives free days to the family.

In social networks on personal pages of many celebrities you can find happy family photos. If they manage to carve out a weekend for relatives, then it is unfair to ordinary people to blame for the lack of time.

Family weekend begins with the desire to spend time together. Each point in the schedule of Saturday and Sunday can be bright, unforgettable, and most importantly, become a part of a common memory.

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