Kids wait for their summer vacations all year long and parents tend to dread them as children can get bored easily and keeping them occupied for two months is a feat. If you aren’t planning on taking a long holiday or aren’t going on one at all, I think this might help you out a bit. This list of activities is by no means comprehensive, but should serve as a great jumping off point. Let’s go!
For the arts and crafts lover
Loom bands
These small, colourful rubber bands that can be woven together using a plastic loom to create various designs and patterns became popular in the early 2010s, especially among children and teenagers.
As a hobby, making loom band bracelets, necklaces, and other accessories can be a fun and creative activity. It can improve dexterity and hand-eye coordination, and it can also be a relaxing and therapeutic way to unwind.
It is also an affordable hobby since the materials are relatively cheap and easy to find.
Ask your child to make loom bands as back-to-school gifts for their friends! One for each friend in their favourite colour and design. Great gift to round out the summer vacations!
Rock painting
To kick up the art bug a notch, try rock painting. Kits are easily available online and aren’t too expensive. The best part – there are multiple do-overs! Don’t like the result? Wash it off and start again! It’s therapeutic and can be a family activity as well. Take a break from the emails and paint a rock with your child!
Mandala art
These books are available everywhere! You just need a book and some colours. If you have a printer at home, just print up a few pages and let your child colour them at their own pace. Alternatively, you could also get mandala art coaster kits, bookmark kits, dream catcher and clock kits online. However, these kits could get slightly expensive so you could encourage your child to create a mandala design by themselves and then colour it!
Leaf painting
All you need is some paint, paper, leaves and creativity. You could make any design with paint on a leaf and transfer it to paper. Simply make sure the paint on the leaf is damp, before you turn it over and press it into the paper. This activity can be enjoyed by children of all ages, but it may require some adult supervision for younger children to ensure they use the materials safely.
For younger children, you may want to provide larger leaves and thicker paintbrushes to make it easier for them to apply the paint. Older children may enjoy the challenge of using smaller leaves and finer brushes to create more intricate designs.
Paper crafts
Origami, papier mache, paper quilling and collage making are all wonderful ways to kill time and maybe pick up a new hobby. Making something intricate and beautiful from just a plain sheet of paper can inculcate the seed of patience, focus and resourcefulness in children and not to mention these make great works of art!
Calligraphy
This visual art form can be very satisfying and soothing to those who practise it. It takes patience and mindfulness and can give children a huge boost in self-esteem when they accomplish a style. Younger children might not enjoy the slow moving hobby, but older children just might enjoy the perfectionist emerging in themselves.
For the nature lover
Build a bird feeder or birdhouse
You don’t need a lot of space to put up a bird feeder. But once you do, you’ll never want to take it down. Watching the little guys eat to their heart’s content and chirrup loudly in satisfaction will be reward enough. Building a bird feeder or a birdhouse will give your child a sense of satisfaction of doing something wonderful for the feathered ones.
Grow some plants
While a lot of city homes might not have a lot of outside space, growing indoor plants can be a huge plus point. Apart from making amazing design elements, they can purify the air. Encourage your child to grow a few plants and keep a photo journal or diary about the progress. Succulents, sunflowers, marigolds and money plants are some of the easiest plants to grow.
Plant a butterfly garden
This might require you to intervene a bit, but once you do, it’s oh-so-worth-it. Butterflies are attracted to marigolds, lavender, periwinkle and milkweed. For the inquisitive child who loves nature, try growing a curry leaf plant. These are excellent host plants. Butterflies can lay their eggs in these plants and the caterpillar will feed on these leaves after it emerges. The entire life cycle of the butterfly is completed on the curry leaf plant.
For the discerning gourmet
Food journaling
Children today have very evolved palettes and that’s a great thing. It’s one more avenue to keep them occupied. If your child is interested in cooking or finds how food is made intriguing, encourage them to keep a food journal. To keep the journal, they could either guess how the food you prepared was made, the ingredients included and the mode of preparation(steaming, baking, sauteing) etc. or they could take photographs of their meal everyday and document their food. Encourage them to sort and organise these photographs in a way that is easy to rummage through.
Start small
Everyone has to start somewhere. Give them something to do while you cook – pour the water while you knead atta, count the the number of whistles of the pressure cooker and tell you when the requisite amount is done, clean and store herbs, measure out and wash rice and dal, wash fruits and vegetables and store them away, whisk eggs etc. While they do this, talk to them about why these need to be done in a certain way and tell them how they can efficiently do it. Journaling what they did in the kitchen the entire day will give them confidence and boost their self esteem.
Give them responsibility
Ask them to lay out the salad – decorate it whichever way they please. Give them precut vegetables and encourage them to choose a dish to lay it out in.
They can help in making small things like sandwiches, microwaveable popcorn, fruit salad, lime juice etc.
Making them feel included and relevant in what happens in the kitchen will encourage them to learn more.
For the creative one
READ!
For those who love to read, there can never be enough books. For your bookworm child either join a library or buy books from the raddi wala by the kilo. Book exhibitions that often set up shop are also a great way to buy books for cheap. If you’re concerned about storage, invest in an ebook reader. Problem solved.
Write
Writing is one of the most satisfying creative outlets. Encourage your child to write everyday during their vacations. Whether it’s at the end of the day in their journal or at the beginning of the day with their expectations for that day. Give them a topic to write on to break the monotony. Challenge them to write a poem, a story, an autobiography, a song – anything on the topic you choose.
Learn a musical instrument
This is not so much as just a summer vacation thing to do, but a hobby and skill they can hone. Let them choose the musical instrument to avoid them feeling like they HAVE to do it. They should want to do it. Look for online tutors or offline music schools to get your child started.
Learn a language
Knowing another language other than English, Hindi and the state language or the mother tongue will not be knowledge in vain. There are so many well known and reputed apps for you to choose from. Pick one that you feel is best suited and will keep your child occupied. Ensure the child learns at the same time every day. This will help create a routine and that generally helps when learning something new.
Keeping children occupied during summer vacations can be a task but just a little preparation and you’re golden!
