Often, the most challenging days are those without structure–Sundays, yes, but also those long motzei Shabbos winter evenings. How do you give structure and make the most of them?
There’s something about those long unstructured days that can sometimes feel frustrating. It can be the long motzei Shabboses in the winter, or Sundays all year long.
These days don’t have routine, your kids are constantly asking, “What are we doing?” and parents come to dread them. We like feeling productive, and these days can make us feel very unproductive as we sit around trying to figure out how to make ourselves and our families happy with the way we’re spending our time.
The solution is to give some structure to the time. This structure is also helpful when you need to figure out what to do with yourself.
Most of us use a similar concept when making dinner menus–if one day is chicken, one day is meat, and one day is dairy, it’s so much easier to plan when there’s parameters.
The concept for these days is to choose four categories of “activities,” and rotate them. Once you have a category, it’s much easier to be creative. There’s no need for high expectations or high productivity. This is simply family time, with some structure. You’ll see that kids won’t kvetch to go out for food, when that activity is designated for a specific week.
These activities won’t take up the whole day, but they’re something that families can look forward to and they give some structure to the day.
We’ve provided some examples below just to get you started. Make your own 4-week rotation including ideas that’ll work for your family.
Here’s a sample for motzei Shabbos for a family:
Week One: Craft or Indoor Activity
Week Two: We Go Out! (For ex: Bowling, Pizza, Ice Cream, Book/Judaica Store, or Visiting a Grandparent)
Week Three: Game Night OR Video + Popcorn
Week Four: Fun in the Kitchen (For ex: Chopped Competition, prepare Melave Malka together, Make Razzles, etc.)
See this post for more specific motzei Shabbos ideas.
Sundays with Little Kids:
Week One: Craft Project/Art Activity
Week Two: Make Plans with a Friend (Coordinate with a friend who has children the same age. Toys are always more fun when there’s new people to play with)
Week Three: Going Out
Week Four: Water/Bath Games
Singles/Couples:
Week One: Going Out for Dinner/Lunch/Ice Cream/Coffee
Week Two: Doing an Activity Together (Bowling, Paint Pottery, Virtual Reality, Top Golf, Escape Room, Library/Book Store)
Week Three: Game Night
Week Four: Accomplish! Errands, organizing…take care of those nagging things that need to get done.
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