Well THAT day is finally here, the day I’ve been dreading in trepidation. The start of the summer holidays. Yes it’s a nice welcome not to have to wake up at the crack of dawn and kick start your sleep deprived brain into action so that you can pack lunchboxes in an imaginative fashion. Then run around doing the one hundred million things necessary, before your children finally exit the house bound for school. The minute you hear the front door slam, you collapse in exhaustion but blissfully the morning is yours.
With the start of the summer holidays and with the kids being home, there are no early morning wakeups or morning chaos, there is now unfortunately chaos throughout the entire day. Rather than let the summer control me, I thought I would take control of the summer with kids. When children are involved you have be organized and methodical, even if you are arranging play dates, for leaving everything till the last minute means that someone will suffer and that will usually be you.
How to survive a ‘summer with kids’
Summer could be one long session of T.V and computer games, where at the end of it you produce zombie like children. But why not make the summer a memorable one, the summer that the kids will look back and say ‘That was a great summer, we had fun!”. Here are a few tips of surviving the summer with kids.
Summer camps : There are more of these in existence now. From small workshops to a more extended program, these summer camps keep your child enthralled and enthused for a couple of hours everyday. It is not school but a more interesting way of getting the children to learn other skills. Usually if you troll such platforms as facebook, there are many recommended programs. Also you can book these programs early before the start of the summer holidays.
If your children are older, plan a few summer goals to accomplish. For example my son who is a novice swimmer has decided to fine tune his swimming this summer. It could be to learn a new sport or to learn how to cook, this will be an interesting activity to do with your child.
Go on a summer adventure: Look up a place of history and plan a trip. There are many historic places to visit around the island and you can couple it with an educational session as well.
Schedule in some family time with extended family members. During the school year children are very busy and it is difficult to visit or be in touch with grandparents or great aunts or uncles. As a child I used to love spending the summer months with my grandmother. These are important relationships for your child to cultivate for children are molded by the relationships they form.
However tedious, have a plan for each summer day. Asking children to mindlessly play will not happen and they will quickly tire and be whinning around your feet. Get them to write down activities from having breakfast, to play time to reading to drawing etc. Get them to draw up schedules, in this way they are always busy.
Summer holidays are lovely times in a children life, we as parents need to learn how to make the time a positive one rather one a period where we constantly discipline because the children are home and jobless.I know not schools have broken up yet, but whether your children have holidays for two months or two weeks keeping them entertained is a challenge, its is good to be prepared, help you children have the best summer of their lives!
By Mayuri Jayasinghe
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