Summer holidays

I'm not sure what it's like around the world (except Italy as I know they close down everything over August) but here in England the world seems to slow down over the summer holidays.  The summer holidays here refer to schools breaking up usually around the second or third week in July and then starting up again mid-week through the first or second week of September.  It is about a 6-7 week period where the trains and buses are quiet and you may be lucky enough to get a seat.  The pub outside areas are generally full all day because it's sunny and what is a sunny day without a trip to a beer garden for a shandy (half beer, half lemonade)? But all child related locations are full of desperate parents and their bored children.

All classes bar a small handful close down for the summer period.  I only have one toddler who does not go to school (thankfully his nursery doesn't close for the summer) so this leaves me with no classes to take him to to keep him occupied during the day.  I also feel that by closing the classes for the whole holiday they are losing the routine which goes against what a lot of these classes are trying to achieve, I get that the teachers need to take a break too but a couple of weeks is more realistic surely, not the whole summer? Anyway, that's another rant for another time.   Last week I had a playdate with some mums from the playgroup my son usually goes to on a Wednesday, as per usual in England it was raining so a picnic was out of the question so we went to a soft play centre.  It was awful.  It was packed to the rafters with children and their parents trying to keep them busy and my son was so small compared to many of the other kids.  You couldn't really hear yourself think and I think in the end even my son was overwhelmed with the sheer number of children but strangely, the limit hadn't been met on numbers so they were still letting people in! Never, ever again.

Since then I have been searching for things to do with my son that don't involve being in such a small but crowded place, but where he can roam and enjoy himself obviously.  For the next at least 4 weeks that will be very difficult but as he is an early riser and other families don't seem to be, I have been taking advantage of the quietness and we have been exploring places when they open at 9am then leaving as the crowd come in at 11.  We went to Lloyd Park in Walthamstow a couple of weeks ago on a Tuesday morning at 9.30am and it was dead! There were barely any children and parents around and my son got to play in their massive sand pit area practically on his own.  I've been scouring the local mum groups on Facebook to try and get some more outdoor toys so we can have our own playspace here till the summer holidays are over.  I know it sounds anti-social of me but we do meet mums for picnics and we have kids over, it's just that I'm not willing to have my son bombarded and surrounded by a bunch of older kids just for the sake of something for him to do.  That and the fact that aside from soft play and parks, everything else costs so much money.  My son is still under 2 so is mostly affordable but when I start having to pay at least £10 for myself to come with him, it starts to add up.

For the first time in almost a year, my husban and I took our son swimming.  We went to a pool my mum used to take my sister and I to when we were younger.  It just had a refurbishment last year but it used to have two massive slides that went outside of the building and back in again, it was amazing! I didn't think they could top that but having a young child, they have put in a little water play area for babies and my son, despite the fact he can't swim and despises a pool... loved it!  This is a picture of the space:

Leyton Leisure Centre by Trebor Developments

It is absolutely fantastic and the best thing I could have found for the holidays.  I will definitely be taking my son back over and over to get him used to the water before our big (first) family holiday in November, the joy and excitement on his face was something I never thought I would see with him and swimming.  There are other things on our to do list but this has trumped them all so they're not even worth a mention compared to this, I cannot wait to go back.   What are you up to this holiday?

~AB~