Holidays -the most awaited time of the year! Children run out their schools on the last day of exam with inexplicable excitement. The parents, meanwhile, wonder how they will contain that excitement for the following two months!

While some take to travelling other parents enlist their children to summer workshops where various skills are picked up. To continue your daily chores & office work, without interruptions, your children need to  be occupied. They need to learn how to spend time by themselves when their parents are busy. Once you make them independent they enjoy their holidays better and you enjoy a peaceful time!

Make sure they stick to schedule. Long hours of sleep & unscheduled bed time can make them cranky at odd hours. If they stick to their normal routine, which they follow during school days, they will not find it difficult to get back to it later and will be less restless through the day.

Holidays are a fun time no doubt, but children should not waste this precious abundance aimlessly. This time could be used in many creative & conducive ways.

Nature camps & treks. All year long children are behind books, this could be the time they use to venture outdoors. Camping, short treks, cycling around empty & serene landscapes  etc, will make them more aware about nature & the importance of sustaining ecology. Only when they see it, they will understand why they need to protect it.

Let them use this time to discover hobbies which could even become serious professions later. Like photography, performing arts, fine arts, cooking -all this will get their minds & bodies to work in ways they did not know of before.

They will develop different perspective of looking at things, about people & life in a small way!

Reading could be a difficult hobby to develop, especially after exams! Some kids almost develop an aversion to books! To break this take them to a bookstore and allow them to spend some time there just looking at books. Let their curious minds soak in the environment. Once they pick up their choice, there will be no looking back. Apart from the obvious reasons, reading is good because it informs their temperament in a huge way. They are much more calm, independently occupied & have a strong presence of mind.

Holidays of course, doesn’t necessarily absolve parents from their work, but you must make time for you little ones. This is the time when you can get to know them, their interests & potential. It is the time where you can engage in friendly banters and explore different places, hobbies & skill sets with them.

Go on take a break and embrace this precious time!