MAKING THE MOST OF SUMMER VACATIONS

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Summer has really changed a lot since you and I were kids. Summer for us meant helping mom with errands, hopping over to a friend’s place in the building, taking long train rides to visit our cousins, heading to a hill station or perhaps going boating at a lake. For a kid growing up in the ‘80s, life was a lot simpler because our parents defined their normal, unlike us who find it hard to define a normal for our families.

We are so busy trying to do a balancing act and match pace to a world that strives for excellence and instant gratification. My plan this summer for our family was fairly simple. It was to bring back childhood days by exploring simple ways a working parent can define their normal and #Simplify Parenting in more ways than one, just like we do at kidsstoppress. com.

1. Define your Normal: What this means is fixing your budget, resources at hand and how much time you can spare each day/weekend. As a family, we decided to not spend on any extra classes, except the core skills that we planned to learn this summer. Besides, as a working parent having taken two weeks off already, there was no extra time to spare for multiple pickups and drops. Once you define your normal, just stick to it. Don’t get perturbed by what your friends are doing. Choose age-wise activities, themes and essential skills for the summer and add them to your workspace.

2. Go off routine: It’s so important to break the monotony and go off-routine to appreciate the routine. I let the kids drive their routine so that they appreciate the structure when they are back to it. That literally means no fixed times for bathing, brushing their teeth, lunch or dinner. If they are not hungry they miss a hot lunch (which by the way had a huge charm for me doing my summer holidays) and their plate will be on the table for whenever they are hungry.

3. Travel: Whether it is a nearby holiday home or the French Riviera. Every bit of travel teaches kids something. It teaches them about culture, currency, landscape, practices and the opportunity of meeting a diverse set of people. Do not deprive your children of that experience.

4. Save Hours: Spare yourselves the hours of searching for summer ideas and leave that to a curated platform like Kidsstoppress.com where you can get information ranging from books to read, cooking ideas for kids, movies to watch, games to play and a whole lot of activities to do.

5. Mindfully engage: Don’t cram your child’s schedule just to keep him/her busy. This summer, we took only swimming lessons because that was our summer goal.

6. Let them get bored: The first few days were a big struggle for the kids. What stays sacrosanct is non-indulgence in mindless screen time. Boredom is the key to creativity and innovation.

7. Essential chores: A must-have plan for the summer is to include essential skills like folding clothes, making rotis, sweeping the floor, making one’s own bed, cleaning one’s own room, chopping vegetables.

8. Have fun: All through the summer, we watch some great movies or documentaries together on Netflix. This builds gainful engagement. We also make tasty makhana, popcorn, hot cocoa and popsicles for our movie nights. We play lots of board games, group games and team sports that help build a child’s social skills. A building playground can be a perfect platform to learn essential life skills such as survival, taking turns, losing, winning, team work, negotiation and interacting with kids of different ages. At the end of the day, I also want my kids to hide under the blanket and read books with a torch way after the lights are off, just like I did.