As a parent or caregiver of a preschooler, you know just how much energy and fun preschoolers can bring to any occasion. If that occasion happens to be a holiday the whole family is in for a lot of fun, but also potentially a big crash at the end of your celebration. Here at Dandelion, we want to provide preschool families with a few helpful tips so your holidays are full of terrific memories, rather than tantrum moments.
1) Stick to a routine. The holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year. Understandably, families have a lot to do and many extra invitations, parties, and gatherings to juggle. In an effort to do it all, sometimes families let things like a consistent bedtime, nap time, and meal time slip. As best as you can, try to stick to your normal routine. This year may look different than the typical holiday season, which is all the more reason to try to maintain some level of structure and routine for your children. Choose the most important “anchoring points” for your family like bedtime and stick to it.
2) Have your child help out. Children love helping out around the holidays. They want to be in on the action, whether that means carving or painting a pumpkin, decorating the home, or making holiday treats. It would of course be easier for parents to just do the decorating and baking yourself. However, these are great opportunities to let your child learn a new skill, experience age-appropriate responsibility, and continue to develop self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the child’s belief that they are capable of performing a task or managing a situation. Through this, they are learning how to persevere when they do not succeed at first.
3) Modify meals so your child is not waiting too long to eat. Often time during the holidays meal times can get thrown off. Maybe your family goes out to eat at a busy restaurant and has to wait a long time. Or maybe you visit relatives who say you will eat at 6pm, but it ends up being more like 8pm. Modifying meal times can be the difference between an enjoyable time and a full-blown tantrum. Simply making an early reservation, allowing the kids to go ahead and eat while the adult meal finishes up, or having light snacks like fruits, crackers, etc. may help. Also, your children may benefit from not staying at the family table for the whole meal. Having your preschooler start the meal with the family and then allowing them to go play may help keep the peace.
4) Try not to overload your child with extra stimulation like movies and sweets. During the holidays there are so many fun movies to watch. Also, there are extra holiday sweets that just seem to multiply everywhere you go from work to preschool, to friend and family gatherings. Enjoy the season, but monitor your child’s screen time and sugar intake. Some children become overstimulated by hours of movie watching and too many treats. Maintaining a balance between these fun holiday experiences and your typical routine or expectations is important.
5) Celebrate and create memories! Remember to have fun with your child! Childhood lasts for but a brief moment, so soak in all of the fun and special memories. Create new traditions as a family and honor old ones. Maybe your family likes to take lots of pictures or create crafts for the different holidays you celebrate. Whatever your family’s thing is, our hope is that these few helpful tips actually enhance your time together this holiday season!
If you need help with some additional ideas, reach out, we are happy to help.