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On Course: Keeping Your Wits About Summer
by Nayada Cowherd, contributing editor
Every year parents everywhere search for summer activities to keep their children occupied during summer vacation and attempt to avoid the old adage “the idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” With school out many kids would be cool with letting their brains go to mush, though I am sure they wouldn’t call it that. They’d call it summer vacation!
Most schools still have another couple of weeks before summer break but my children have already been out of school for at least three weeks. I admit, the summer kind of sneaked upon me so I was a little less than prepared. My boys and I been having an ongoing debate about what the summer should look like. I explained to them that the reason there is a summer break at all was to allow the children to help their parents harvest the crops in the early part of the last century. You can imagine how that went over.
My kids seem to think that it’s all about rest and relaxation and FUN! I really believe that they are taking the “vacation” part far too seriously. It is one of the very few things that they are taking seriously. I try with all my might to remind them that it is a time for self-expression and productivity without the constraints and supervision of school educators (but not in so many words). My eldest even told me that he is not “entertained.” I, somehow, must have missed that in my job description.
The point that I want to make here is that it is not our job to “entertain” our children during the summer months but to help guide them into self-discovery and independence. While it’s down-time from actively going to school, it’s also an accelerated learning opportunity for you and your child alike. Give him an age appropriate task that he can manage on his own (with guidelines) and see how he accomplishes it.
Let your child manage his own self-discovery:
- Have a brainstorming session to see where your child’s interests lie.
- Let them design reasonable activities (for you and them) to explore and accomplish those activities.
- Don’t attempt to over-achieve. Perhaps it is something that will keep them on track for school (doing an long-term experiment for their science fair in the upcoming school year) or it can be something that they have never considered before (starting a garden from which you can use in your evening meals, building a Go Kart or sewing clothing for their dolls).
- Create a daily schedule — Now take those ideas and have your child create a schedule of daily activities. It doesn’t have to be long but you should leave it up to them how they will go about managing and fitting it into their day. Have them post it on the refrigerator and mark off the completed activities for each day. You will both have a visual of how it is coming along. For children that can tell time having their own personal timer will help them manage on their own.
Sample schedule:
1 hour of reading — (have a contest between siblings or every book gets a ticket toward a trip to the zoo — another learning experience)
1 hour of writing — (in a journal, write a short story and at the end of the summer have a book printed via books on demand)
1 hour of personal interest activity 1 — (ie. sewing, gardening, etc.)
1 hour of personal interest activity 2 — (ie. building, cooking, etc.)
Trying to keep your child on track for growth and development doesn’t have to be rote or repetitive and certainly not boring. When the opportunities allow you can and should change it up. They might just stumble across something they really enjoy!
