Keep your school vacist busy during the long holidays

KAMPALA - I had a chat with my friend whose daughter recently finished senior four and the son completed primary seven. He was so excited about it that he was looking forward to his children resting from reading and just being at home relaxing. That comment attracted my attention as he prefers them to stay at home enjoying their rest from all the pressure.

I asked him about other plans he had for his children during the period they are staying at home which is closer to three months. I assure you there is no plan apart from waiting for results and the rest will follow.

It is good to know that during this vacation you can achieve a lot for your children than keeping them at home watching TV, being on social media, and enjoying meals prepared meals by others. You can apply these skills to empower your child with various skills.

Plan together

Ask your children how they intend to utilize their holiday. That is the starting point to listen to their ideas and plan together. This motivates planning for their vacation time, accountability, and ownership of the scheduled activities.

Choice of various activities

The child may also have no plans of how to spend this holiday but your deliberate open conversations can trigger your minds to come up with activities that build this child's capacity besides her/his academic ambitions.

Skills development

Most children look at the future from the perspective of achieving the best life through formal education. Think of short-time skills like baking, cooking, computers, music, etc. Your P.7 leaver can find gold in such skills. The COVID-19 experience taught us that we need survival skills to make our lives better in every circumstance. Take them to graphic design and multimedia skills training, language learning, financial literacy classes, and simple mechanics among others. Avoid leaving your children at home idle. They will resort to things that can fill the gap and the cost may be heavy on you tomorrow.

Outings

Some of these children have never had the amazing opportunity to be taken out to have fun. Yes, as a way of congratulating them for doing their examinations, plan for them a one-day or weekend trip or an outing somewhere depending on your pocket. But let them experience something special and unique this holiday.

We work hard for these children all day long. We try as much as we can to invest for them, build real estate, invest in business projects, and put up various side hustles for our children's tomorrow but we rarely think about investing in them. It's not surprising that most of these children don't value our investments as their own, especially after your death, and are therefore not very accountable to them. Invest in them also by taking time off to be with them, taking them somewhere to show them the projects the family is or intends to invest in, giving them ample time to shed off stress from books and exams, and reducing anxiety about waiting for results.

Manage gadgets

It is now becoming common that almost every child in our homes has a smartphone and other gadgets. Some parents are naïve that they don’t bother to know what their child is doing at home during the day while they are at work. Others are not mindful of checking what the child does with his/her electronic gadget. Some children use social media to plan to meet their friends, go to reunions, beach bashes, etc and you may never know. Others use smartphones to watch pornography, sexting, and share nude pictures not knowing how this can affect them. It is your responsibility to teach them to learn how to use these gadgets responsibly to avoid danger, addictions, and peer influence on them. One way of reducing screen time is to involve them in home chores and other creative activities that keep them busy and as alternatives to idleness or addiction to gadgets.

Volunteering and getting a job

The A-level students will soon finish their exams and have a long holiday. You can connect them to organizations where they can volunteer and acquire professional skills. Some places pay volunteers and a child can earn a living. You can also encourage them to apply for jobs or connect them directly. If you can employ them in your offices and businesses, that is better. Even if a child is a cleaner, office attendant, records keeper, salesperson, etc., this makes a big difference in their lives.

Let your vacist have something they are actively doing on this vacation. Don’t make them sit and rest all the time like my friend was planning for his children’s long holiday.

The writer is the Executive Director of Hope Regeneration Africa, parenting coach, marriage counselor, and founder – Men of Purpose mentorship program.