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During the school year you and your child likely have a regular schedule and routines for accomplishing various tasks every day. Letting the schedule fall to the wayside during school breaks is not a good idea for families coping with ADHD.
Going to bed late and getting up late, lack of regular meals and exercise can ruin the best plans during a school holiday. Your children still need a visible schedule. Sit down with them and plan the activities for the week. They need to know the plan for every day. If the big event for the day is going to a family dinner, the day’s activities will be planned around that. Kids must pick out clothes and get cleaned up before dinner. They need to eat breakfast and lunch, do chores, have down time, and outdoor play. On another day, the special event could be having a friend over or going to the zoo, the park, ordering pizza for dinner, or going to a friend’s house. The schedule will revolve around those events.
When there is a break from school it is important to maintain some type of structure. If you have a 10-minute cleanup at 8:30 on school nights, do the same during school breaks. Try to keep the same bedtime, being up an extra 30 minutes at night may not make a big difference for most people. But you know if you or your children are sensitive to disrupted sleep routines. A cranky child/adult can turn a beautiful day on vacation into a miserable experience for everyone. Prevent meltdowns with regular meals, a balance between planned activities and “down time” and a good night’s rest.
There are children/adults who can “roll with it”, but they do not live at your house. Figuring out what works best for your family/household is what matters most!
