What Your Child Can Learn on Their Summer Vacation (That They Don’t Learn in School)

It is a common occurrence during the summer vacation. As parents of bored children, having enough things to keep them occupied can be a momentous task. But perhaps it is time to turn the idea of keeping our children busy on its head. Children can spend a lot of time in school learning things that will give them a basic grounding in life, but we can all argue that a lot of the things we learned in school do not give us a well-rounded appreciation of the world or even ourselves. While we may not want to enforce a strict learning environment on our children during the summer, we can take the concept of educating our children on things that they wouldn’t necessarily learn in school.

Here’s a few examples to get you started:

Simple Life Skills

We can all feel like there’s a major gap in our knowledge because of certain life skills that we didn’t pick up on at school. If your children aren’t learning the basics of home economics, such as home repairs, cooking, or anything that can embody that “make do and mend” approach, it’s time to address this now. Getting that sewing machine out, dusting the cobwebs off, and getting an understanding of the basic repairs we can make to our clothes will be invaluable. 

If we give our children the skills to sew a button or fix a hole in their clothing, this skill will save them a lot of money in the long run. We’re all guilty of buying something new if an old item of clothing has broken. Instead, let’s work on making our kids more resourceful. There are other things we can teach our kids in terms of essential life skills:

• Cooking, which is one of the most important skills that will give them a far better understanding of how to look after themselves, but also stimulate creativity in the kitchen.
• Gardening, which will help them when they are living in their own property and will help them to cultivate a far more aesthetically pleasing home environment.
• Financial management, which is something that should be taught in schools that is essential for their personal development. Teaching them the importance of how to make the most of what they’ve got by teaching skills like the 50/30/20 method of budgeting, as well as delayed gratification when feeling like they need to buy something by allowing them the time to think about if it benefits them are just two approaches that will give them a far more mature approach to money.

Creativity Skills

If there’s one aspect of traditional education that could do with improvement, it’s the creative side of things. Granted, our kids may have art class and music, but it is structured in such a way that it may potentially prevent our kids from breaking through into some sort of creative practice that will give them a passion for something in life. 

One of the great benefits of summer vacation is that they can spend all day, every day on something they love. If your child is keen on drawing, writing, or any other creative craft like learning a musical instrument, there’s an abundance of benefits on offer through self-expression or problem-solving skills in addition to their creativity. Giving your kids the opportunity to explore their creative side is also a fantastic opportunity for them to break free from the structured traditions that school offers. 

In order to capitalize on this, you need to potentially work with your kids to see what sort of habits they have but also what hobbies will stick with them for life. You might think that leaving your kids to play video games is not particularly productive, but it all depends on the type of video games they have. Something like Minecraft is incredibly creative and there are plenty of benefits. But if you see your kids with a passion for something like a musical instrument, all you need to do is one simple thing – encourage. There is no point in putting a structure on it, especially during the summer vacation. You can think back to your summer vacations and remember them as being the best times of your life because there were no boundaries or limits. Encourage creativity by giving them as many resources as possible:

• If they like painting, give them play mats, canvases, and paints, as well as inspiration like the famous The Art Book. 
• If they like writing, encourage them to tell stories with different characters or ask them to write a story or script relating to their favorite TV show.
• If they want to play a musical instrument, let them explore the instrument and make as much tuneless noise as possible, but also provide them with an abundance of online resources that can be a stepping stone, whether it’s a website like Songsterr or YouTube tutorials.

Social Skills

One of the great benefits of summer vacation is letting them go to the park to run off energy, but there’s also the opportunity for children to interact with different people in a variety of settings. Beyond the park, you could point them toward community events that will encourage social skills. 

It’s very tough to provide a structure to this, especially if you want them to come away feeling like they have learned a lot, but you can use the opportunity to go to as many social functions as possible as a way to expose them to a variety of environments. 

Something as simple as a friend’s barbecue could mean that your kids end up meeting other children they don’t know and therefore will have to figure out a way to use their social skills to build friendships.

Time Management

There is no such thing as a structure during summer vacation, and you can give your kids so many different things to do, whether it’s leisure activities, self-education, playing video games, hanging out with friends, and so forth, that you could now use this opportunity to arm them with a number of time management skills. 

You’ve got to get the balance right here because you don’t want to be giving your children a huge amount of responsibility. It’s important to give them resourcefulness and skills that can benefit them later in life, but there’s also the other side of the equation, which is allowing them that sense of freedom that they will never have as soon as they become fully-fledged grown-ups. But by the same token, as human beings, we need some form of structure in order to thrive. You don’t want to be forcing your children to learn the fine art of time blocking or something like the Pomodoro technique when it’s not necessary for them at their age!  

PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

An engaging and educational way for your kids to increase their problem-solving capabilities during the summer break is by introducing them to crossword puzzles. Crossword puzzles not only enhance vocabulary and spelling skills, but they also encourage children to think critically and solve problems as they try to fill words into a grid based on given clues. Crosswords provide a relaxing yet challenging activity which promotes logical thinking and perseverance. Solving puzzles provides a welcome respite from our busy, digital lives, inviting us to focus and be patient while having a shared experience solving clues together.

A Deeper Understanding of Others

Geography class will teach your kids about other countries, but it won’t necessarily arm your children with a deeper understanding of others. It’s something that our kids should learn not just for the sake of their own social skills but for the sake of our planet. We all need to experience other cultures to build our sense of understanding and broader perspective on the world. We can all benefit from a deeper understanding, and the best way to do this is very simply to lead by example. Take your children to as many different places as possible, such as: 

• Museums
• Different locations 
• Community events

There’s a lot our children can learn away from school, and these are just a few examples. We can learn a lot on our summer vacations, so make sure that your children truly get a breadth of invaluable knowledge.