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SUMMER VIBES!


I stood by the school waiting for our daughter on the last day of school and noticed the long hugs and teary eyes as they wished each other a happy summer; I heard the parent beside me say "now we get them for two months" and we both laughed and talked about what are we going to do to survive the next two months hahaha.


If your children are off school for the summer I can assume we are almost thinking the same thing.


Summer break is a great time for students to relax, have fun, and catch up on life but it sometimes becomes a dilema for working and stay at home parents to figure out how to keep them engaged and reduce how many time we get told "I am bored". Let's not talk about the excessive trips to the fridge for snacks in between meals.


Now that School is out it seems their bodies automatically switch into lazybones mode, as difficult as it may be, still maintaining a schedule over the summer months do help to keep children in a healthy mode of intellectual growth. Sleep and wake up time can be adjusted but should not be left without any guide or else the transition back to school routine will become stressful when that time comes.

To keep children on a schedule I always suggest that the parent do a list of what they would like the children to do and the children also do up a list of what they would like to do then both lists should be perused before making a summer plan.


Playing outdoors is also a great thing to plan into the summer schedule. Nature offers so many opportunities for play without screen time and gives room for physical exercise which children need anyway. While outdoors children also get to see other people and learn more about others.


Keeping a structure also helps them to stay disciplined and develop time management skills especially if we let them plan out family events and decide when and where to go with some supervision from the parent.

I remember a trip out of town with our youngest daughter and I had shown her how to check for flight time and gate on the airport monitor for the first flight, she did not need much help the rest of the way to find that information for other flights and she was super proud of herself.


Every child is capable of planning if we guide and give them opportunities to do so.


A question I am often asked is "how do i get my kids off their gadget?" Now that summer break is here and if there is no summer schedule then these same kids will end up spending a lot more time on their gadgets.


Here are the top three things I have to say about screen time:


-Majority of us adults are guilty of excessive gadget use too. I am not talking about work based use as that has come to stay as part of our work life, it is helpful when we do a sincere check of how much time we spend on our handheld device per day and you may be shocked at the result.


-If we do not create alternatives for our children then they will crave screen time. These alternatives must be things that are interesting and intellectual, the more engaged they are with the alternative the less time they have in each day to spend on screen time. Finding out what these alternatives are cannot be done without the child's input and we must be ready to spend some money to get them whatever material is needed for the identified activity.


-Be a role model, use your phone less when together as a family, no phone at meal times or while at the park. Children will feed off our behavior so we must be intentional to set a good example. Create family time activities that is not screen time based and if at all it is then make sure it is on the TV so everyone is watching the same time and the screen distance is not close to they eyes, it is also good to talk about the show later to find out your child's understanding of what was watched. You will be surprised at how much information their minds have captured form the show. There are great shows that teaches about places in teh world, diy projects, history, and science.



Here are some other fun summer ideas:

Outdoor sport class

Dance/exercise class

Book club/book report

Biking, camping, spray park, public play spaces

Family vacation with sight seeing or visiting friends

Hardware store kids events like carpentry

Sewing store events or arts and crafts

Plant a garden together


These are just a few of the things that can be added to a fun summer event schedule.



Whatever you choose to do this summer, remember to have fun and build great memories for your family. No one size fits all so please work with your family's peculiarity and do the best you can with the resources you have.


Have a great summer!



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Hi, thanks for stopping by!

I am a woman on a mission to empower parents and children to discover the right strategy and personalized plan for making the lifetime parenting journey a fulfilling one.


I am especially very passionate about raising children in diaspora based on my journey of a decade and plus of living in diaspora and seeing the struggle and pain of adjusting to a new system and culture of parenting.

#ParentingInDiaspora

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