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How to Keep Kids Productively Occupied When They are Not in School

Kids

To many parents, an approaching summer or winter vacation or even weekends feels stressful. Reason? Kids would be home and they hardly have any idea to keep them busy and productive during the time they will be at home. Most of the parents find it hard to fill hours with productive engagement that the students get at school.

Why to keep kids occupied?

If you are wondering about the need to engage kids at home, read on…

Children often tend to stay glued to television, gadgets, and video games. These days most of them (especially teenagers) have shown an affinity towards social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Thus, they tend to keep themselves busy with things, which would not otherwise help in their physical, mental, and educational development. It is very important to keep children’s brains from atrophying during the long breaks from school. Otherwise, they would forget their hard-earned mathematics knowledge and lose their reading, writing, and reasoning skills.

Should they be studying all the time at home?

Productive occupation at home does not necessarily mean that the children will have to sit with school lessons and do sums even during their weekends. It is important to check whether there are any pending projects, assignments, and homework that needs to be completed before the school reopens. Other than that, the students can engage in painting, art & craft, extra-curricular activities, and also do productive household chores. Spending time with your kids and letting them help in tasks like cleaning their own rooms, reorganizing the pantry, helping you to put away the groceries will keep them busy and active and also keep them away from gaming addictions and television programs.

You can also introduce paid work for your teens. Assign the children work, and on completion provide them a token of money. This would keep them busy and they would develop skills and attentiveness. It is a fun way to engage kids at home and also make them learn different things like decorating the living room wall with innovative ideas and whitewashing the fence. This would not just keep them busy, but will also help them to grow more independent and confident.

Volunteering for social cause is another thing your teens can engage in. They can gain practical work experience as well as learn to serve others by volunteering for social cause along with the NGOs. They could volunteer for cleaning the locality, help the local traffic police to maintain traffic situations in the area, and can also help to gather funds or donations. This will help the children to develop a good attitude towards the society and people around. It is definitely going to be important in the overall development of the children.

Long vacations are time when the children should learn something in addition to what their academic syllabus holds. It is the time you can enroll them for swimming classes or can also learn to paint. You can also introduce some interesting hobbies to the children during this time. Hobbies are good ways to keep the children engaged and also learn something valuable in the process.

Do not just engage kids at home; encourage them to participate in outdoor activities and exercise. You can take them out for walks and jogging in the morning. This would not just provide bonding time with your kids, but will also improve their physical health. You can also teach them to play golf or play football. This will help them to make friends and will keep them active. Many parents think that playing outdoor games is wasting time. However, they tend to forget that it is what can keep them physically fit and active. Health problems like obesity could be kept at bay too.

So, you must sit down with your kids and calendar as the summer or winter vacation starts. Plan and map out the entire vacation period with different activities and programs they should engage in. Ask their opinions too and include activities they would love to do themselves. You can map one week at a go. While making plans, do not forget to include homework, revision of lessons taught in school, and also a bit of video gaming as perks! Your children will happily accept your plan while you can have much-needed peace of mind.

When they are not in school there is a plethora of activities that the kids can engage in. It could be the time when the children learn to bond with the siblings and parents. It could also be a time when they learn something new like join a painting class or take guitar lessons.

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