How to keep your kid productively occupied during vacations - Lawrence High School

Holidays mean a break from the routine for the child as well as for the caregiver.  However, once the options of summer camps or vacation trips are exhausted, the task of keeping the child engaged the whole day at home can prove to be equally stressful for many parents. Here are a few tips that can occupy the child productively at home:

Age 3-5

Kids in this age bracket love routine. So having a holiday routine is not a bad idea. Fixed slots could be allotted to activities like book-reading, drawing, colouring, cut-pasting stickers on chart papers, etc.  Small household chores can be assigned to them like watering plants-you can probably give them a small watering can of their own-or helping you in sorting out the veggies. By including them in your daily schedule, they feel important, remain occupied enough and also learn the sense of responsibility.

Age 6-10

Teach them a new indoor game like chess or carom and have them practice the game daily. Help them cultivate the practice of reading books that are not related to their area of school or study. Help them to construct their own thoughts or ideas around a particular book or story. Introduce the habit of newspaper reading. It could be just a small paragraph from the page of their interest.  It will not only increase their general knowledge but also help them form opinions at an early age.

Age 11-16

They are old enough to handle outdoor tasks like buying small items from your local grocery store, filling out bank forms or dropping off cheques. Setting of small-time goals like learning a new skill or reading a new author every year can be initiated.  Setting up a picnic for the youngster and his/her friends and allowing the teenager to handle simple logistics will serve as a learning curve in management and communication skills.

Squabbles between siblings can be reduced by proving them incentives for positive behavior and keeping them engaged separately.

So, take help of these tips and enjoy the holidays!

To know more about Lawrence school, please visit the website http://lawrenceschool.in/ and join us at our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lawrence-School/

Vacations then and now - Lawrence High School

Vacations have always shared a special place in the hearts of students; a welcome break from the grueling routine of school, homework, classes and such other activities. Over the years, the concept of a vacation and the manner in which it is perceived and spent has undergone a sea-change.

There was a time when vacations truly meant a sheer break from all school related activities. Lazy mornings, plenty of playing indoors with friends and cousins, binging on home-made sweets and snacks and being pampered by doting grandparents. Cable TV had not yet made its presence and life was free from other distractions like the phone and internet. Travelling also meant visits to the grandparent’s house in the native village or camping up at the cousins’ house. Travelling also meant long hours spent on a train journey.

Now, children themselves get bored after a few days of inactivity and demand to be entertained. Cousins live far away, some even countries apart, so it is not a wonder that many have no contact with their cousins. Summer camps have taken up dominance and preference to keep youngsters away from spending too much time in front of the television or Facebook. Travelling is definitely not synonymous with visiting relatives. It has to be a luxurious holiday to a resort or even a foreign locale, with train journeys mostly given a miss. With most households falling in the double-income category, most of these do not seem like a stretch of finances. 

www.123rf.com

While the trend may not hold true in absolute terms and applied across the many strata of the society, this can be safely taken as a general curve in the graph of time-life analysis.

Both trends have their pros and cons. While the previous generation missed out on the early exposure that travel and extra-curricular activities bring along, they gained on the valuable nourishment that happens when you bond with grandparents and cousins/siblings. The innocent fun and mischief is something that cannot be traded off with anything else.

Vacations for the current crop may mean summer camps, holiday to exotic locations and extra TV viewing. If the moderation is kept as a key factor, even this could serve as an advantage factor as the exposure levels have indeed gone up and keeping up with the trend seems to be the wise thing to do. As long as the children get the necessary fodder for mind and body nourishment, any activity is welcome.

So, whatever your idea of vacation is, go on and make the most of it!