What kids really love about their winter vacation
For many parents, it's been the time of year for shopping, decorating, mailing, baking, wrapping, singing, snapping photos, losing sleep and occasionally losing a few marbles along the way. The one thing that most of us did not have the time or energy to contemplate until the middle of this week was is the long expanse of winter break, and how we will entertain our children for the days that follow the Christmas culmination.
Now that the carols have been sung, the presents have been opened and the wrapping paper cleaned up, it dawns on us. Will playing with their newly opened gifts be enough to fill the days? How are we going to keep our brood busy?
The answer may be as simple as we have made the holiday complicated. I recently talked with several groups of students at H.C. Storm Elementary School in Batavia, and they gave me the skinny. Their answers were enough to make me want to be that young again, and were offered in a spirit that would warm the hearts of parents everywhere.
Kids truly don't want to do much on their Christmas break. That is, they don't want you to spin in circles signing them up for organized activities or contriving events just to pass the time. Interestingly enough, they also are not pining to watch television or play video games all day. They may want to sleep in, but sleep alone is not what makes them long for that stretch of time between Christmas and the New Year.
"I just want to play in the snow with our neighbors," says Leila Kalomiris, in Maryann Weidner's first-grade class.
It was a simple sentiment echoed by countless others from kindergartners to fifth-graders to my own son, a middle school student. So for parents, that is tip No. 1: send your kids outside to play. Remember when you used to play outside all day, even in the winter? The times haven't changed that much, it is just that the myriad of activities distracting from outside play have merely increased. Kids still want it.
"I want to go sledding down Windmill Hill," said 6-year-old Sophie Cange, a student in Jolie Kelm's kindergarten class. And she is not alone -- it seems most kids would wish for the same, from kindergartner Sophie Chahmirzadi, to fifth-grade student Mark Schmidt.
What they want is unstructured time with their family and friends. To have a snowball fight, go sledding, skiing, snowboarding and then drink hot chocolate afterward.
Parent tip number two: stock up on hot chocolate mix.
"I like to snuggle in a Christmas blanket and drink hot cocoa," says Madeline Schuster, also a student in Weidner's first-grade class.
As a chocolate fanatic myself, I understand its simple pleasures. I joked with the children that one of the main reasons that my son and daughter like to play out in the snow for hours is because they know that the hot chocolate will be waiting for them when they come inside. The students understood.
Hot chocolate is a must for the season said first-graders Jill Trnka, Jimmy Morris, Megan Segundo and Zoey Akers. Put on some Christmas music and spend some time baking cookies with your kids, and the moment would be perfect, insists fifth-grader Emma Foelske.
For the older students, dreams of snow play during winter break were expanded beyond sledding. Fifth-grade students Tessa Day, Patrick Gamble and Maggie Conroy from Jessica Brooks' class long to ski; fifth-graders Kevin Fiddelke and Conor Lewis from Jennifer Smith's class want only to snowboard, while fifth-grader Carter Red would be content to make snow forts, and Andrew Clark merely to have a good old fashioned snowball fight.
Most likely he would want that snowball fight to be with members of his family, nuclear or expanded. Because that is tip number three: kids of all ages want to spend time with you, with grandma and grandma, with their aunts and uncles, with their cousins.
"I want to spend time with my family," says kindergartener Tsunami Smith, who speaks for many.
Nothing trumped plans to visit family, whether that meant celebrating at grandma's new house in Kansas for kindergartner Mia Wells, marking the season with new baby twin cousins for first-grader Brett Puttin or spending Christmas Eve at her aunt's house for fifth-grader Riley O'Brien. The kids tell me that they like doing the same thing each year; that tradition is important.
"We get together with my cousins for Christmas," says fifth-grader Tyler Garza. "It is nice to look forward to that every year."
Interestingly, in my conversations with the kids only two mentioned the thrill of opening presents and playing with their loot. That was the same number that mentioned they were looking forward to time to read.
This might come as a relief to parents.
"Kids have so much structured time, that during their holiday break they look forward to relaxing and having that social time with their family and their friends," says third-grade teacher Lauren Galardini.
The message is that downtime is a precious commodity. And that children really do get the meaning of the season more than we think that they do.
First-graders Anna Marie Harms and Ethan O'Toole were looking forward to marking Jesus' birthday on Christmas as much as they were looking forward to time off of school, and for fifth-grader Miranda Rea, winter break is a time to think of others first. "Every year our family visits the homeless shelter Hesed House to serve food," she says.
So what do kids want this winter break? They want you, and the great outdoors, and a little something sweet to warm them. What they want is something not difficult to deliver at all, lasting gifts that do not have to be shopped for or wrapped up.
So this year, don't sweat winter break boredom. Instead, plan to give your children what they want, gifts of special moments that become memories of joy, peace and love.
Hcjc1993@aol.com