30 Jun 4 tips for your child and you to survive this summer, minus summer camp.
Two Way Loss – Remember that these are tough and unprecedented times, not just for you but for your child as well. Living under the same roof as adults, doing chores, and missing time with friends – this isn’t their idea of an ideal summer for sure. Do your bit by addressing their emotions too and talking to them about their bummer summer. We say – it’s the holidays so relax and bend the house rules a little. Remember these are exceptional times for both you and your family, so do cut your children some slack when it comes to schedules, housework and chores, so that you can all enjoy the summer in your own way.
Make Screen time Matter – as parents a lot of you are concerned about the screen time that children are getting these days, especially when you are busy trying to manage it all. The American Academy of Pediatrics does recommend that children between ages 2 to 5 should have no more than one hour of screen time a day. But for older children it recommends at least one hour of physical activity, besides limited screen time. We say this is a good time to focus on balancing both. Ensure that your kid gets plenty of exercises and outdoor time to balance out the time spent before the screen. Another vital aspect is to make the screen time count for something. This summer educational organizations, orchestras, universities, art galleries, and museums across the US are offering virtual courses for children across all age groups. So instead of complaining about too much screen time, why not ask your child to sign up for a course or two to make the screen time more meaningful and worthwhile. Here are a few interesting options you can look into:
The Strong Museum, Rochester, New York
The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Back to Good Old Free Play – A 2011 article from the American Journal of Play mentions that unstructured playtime for children has reduced drastically over the last half-century. Free play has been shown to increase brain activity, better brain development and keep anxiety, depression etc. at bay when it comes to children. Keep all the need to learn, grow and compete aside at least 2 days a week and let your child enjoy free play.
We say- create a free play corner…leave blocks, art materials, pretend play props such as hats, sunglasses, scarves etc. Puzzles and other toys in separate baskets and let your child explore the toys to their hearts content. No instruction, no guidelines is the key to free play.
Welcome to Camp Home – you can plan your very own summer camp at home. First decide on a theme for the week and second an activity day to go with that theme. For e.g. Monday for art, Wednesdays for Craft and Creativity, Thursdays for dance and drama, and Saturday for experiment & fun. Now if your theme is nature you can plan all different activities centered around it and continue exploring that theme with your child for 4 days in the week. Keep the two days of free play on so even you have less planning and preparation to do. This method is tedious and requires some amount of planning but do use online resources such as Pinterest and other mommy blogs to help you with activity ideas and free/paid printables for various themes.
We say – try to incorporate this theme into your routine as well. For e.g. you could have your family eat outdoors when it comes to following the nature theme. Plan a bonfire night or even let your children camp under the stars for a few nights that week.
Let the summer fun begin, NFK style.
#nocampsummer #summerfun #itsnew #itsdifferent #lockdown2020 #figh