DEBBIE JACOB
The July/August holiday for students is coming soon, and the trick to having a fun and meaningful vacation for your children is to organise activities that are both engaging and educational.
Find activities that build the skills they need for school and life. Tackle listening, reading, comprehension and maths. Use the Internet as your friend. Be creative and make everything fun.
Here are a few websites and activities I recommend.
The website BBC goodfood has fun food-related activities for children. There's everything from recipes - like making nutritious lollies from avocados and fresh fruit - to planting an herb or flower garden.
Cooking and baking are fun activities that build confidence and incorporate maths skills. Check out this link for many activities: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/kids-summer-activities
HGTV has a site with gardening ideas for children. Gardening incorporates many skills into fun activities. Children can do research about different types of plants available in this country and determine the conditions that plants need to grow.
Do they need more shade or sunshine? What is the best place in the yard to plant? How much water do they need?
What natural products are there to control ants, grasshoppers or other insects? Which plants attract butterflies? What can they plant to keep mosquitoes and flies away? Gardening also creates spatial awareness. It gets children outside so they are getting valuable Vitamin D, but they should wear sunscreen.
If you don't have a yard, investigate how to create a kitchen garden. There are plenty of ideas on this site for growing plants indoors or in confined spaces. Find ideas at this site:
https://www.hgtv.com/design/make-and-celebrate/handmade/kids-gardening-projects-pictures
Build listening skills - All children could use help developing their listening skills. Try audio books on a platform like audible.com.
Look for reading sessions at NALIS during the holiday, and most importantly, read to your children. When I was a librarian, I read to children from Kindergarten through form three. The older children enjoyed being read to.
Make reading sessions no more than 20 minutes long so they don't lose interest. Always choose a book with your children. Don't force a book on your children if they're not interested in it, and don't buy the excuse they're not interested in any book because there's a book for everyone.
Once they get interested in a book, they will beg you to read longer. Make sure you listen to books together so you can discuss the literary elements. This will help build comprehension and analytical skills for all of their subjects when they return to school.
Remember, when you read to a child, you can use books slightly above the child's reading level. Make sure you read at a time when you won't be interrupted. Turn off all electronic devices and make this a family experience.
Puzzles - Introducing your children to puzzles helps to build concentration, problem-solving and s
