Top Tips for the Summer Holidays

School’s out and everywhere up and down the country children and their parents are embarking on exciting (and hopefully sunny) summer holidays. However, we know the holiday period requires a lot of organisation and planning and it can be stressful for some parents. So today the Floris Books team is giving our parent readers a helping hand with our five top tips on how to enjoy a stress-free summer break and inspire your kids with fun, engaging activities.

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#1 Keep Calm

Regular contributor to parenting magazines Juno  and Kindling, Lou Harvey-Zahra is an experienced parenting coach with a background in Steiner-Waldorf teaching. She is also a Love Button Ambassador, who believes redirecting children’s unspent energy is key to avoiding tears, tantrums and troubles for a calm and happy summer holiday.

From LA to the UK, Lou has been in popular demand recently, delivering parenting talks and running creative discipline workshops. For more information about the kinds of presentations and seminars she runs, you can visit her website.

If you’ve missed Lou’s UK tour then we’d recommend her book on Creative Discipline, which offers advice on overcoming everyday issues from fussy eating and bedtime struggles to sibling squabbles. It’s the handy guide and helpful handbook for ensuring the whole family enjoys a calm and relaxing summer.

Creative Discipline by Lou Harvey-Zahra

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#2 Explore the Great Outdoors

Channel excess energy into summer games and activities, from leap-frog to cops and robbers, and encourage children to explore the great outdoors, whether that’s racing boats down woodland streams or creating an outdoor play kitchen, making ‘food’ from plants, flowers and tree bark.

Discover our top tips for a summer by the stream!

Find more summer activity inspiration in Stefanie Pfister’s Spring and Summer Nature Activities Come Rain or Shine

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#3 Soak up the Summer Sun with a Good Book

The summer holidays is a great time to catch up on reading for you and your child. We have the perfect summer story that will inspire children to play outside and take advantage of the warmer weather. Follow Pippa and Pelle outdoors into the sunshine and start exploring the world with them through the orchards and into the lush green meadows.

Pippa and Pelle in the Summer Sun – by Daniela Drescher

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#4 Taste the Fruits of Summer

Cooking together is a wonderful way to spend time together as a family, and encourages children to understand how their food is made. Help them to discover seasonal produce from tomato crostini to green pea cake and cherry focaccia. With over eighty seasonal recipes that are both nutritious and delicious, Pumpkin Soup and Cherry Bread  is filled with inspirational recipes that your kids will love to eat and make these tasty treats.

Discover how to make refreshing elderflower cordial and summery strawberry ice lollies in Our Perfect Summer Picnic Plan post!

You can also discover more nutritious inspiration on our Floris Books Pinterest board – ‘Edible Inspiration‘.

Pumpkin Soup and Cherry Bread by Rikke Rosengren and Nana Lyzet

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#5 Manage Your Screen Time

In the digitial age it is an increasing challenge for children as well as adults to switch off from technology or simply to manage their own screen time. This book by a pediatrician specialising in an anthroposophical approach to child health, offers a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons of screen time, to help parents make their own choices. Read this book for helpful guidance on how to manage yours, and your children’s, screen time this summer holiday.

Managing Screen Time: Raising Balanced Children in the Digital Age by Edmond Schoorel