PARENTING

School holidays often seem to go past so quickly, missing out some vital things that you could do as a family to strengthen the family bond and create greater happiness and fulfilment for the entire family. Here are 8 things that you can do TOGETHER as a family.

For most families there’s just so much going on during term time that it can be challenging to spend quality time with our children regularly. Holidays are a good time to be intentional about spending quantity of quality time with our children. Ground rules: no negativity, no criticism or being judgmental. Just make it a time to connect with your child without distractions from technology etc. Great time for one to one bonding with each individual child.

Plan to have fun with your children watch movies together, laugh together, play indoor games together, go out and have fun together and have fun family devotional times together. Use your creativity to come up with activities that will enable you to have fun together as a family. These are treasured moments that your children will take away with them when they leave home.

Children feel valued and become confident to share their ideas and opinions outside of the home environment when they have been used to being allowed to have their say in family decisions. It’s a fact that it’s impossible to implement every suggestion your child makes. In such situations, it is vital to explain to

them why it is better for the family to follow your idea instead of theirs on this occasion. Plan together with your children places and people.

A lot of parents fail to get their children involved in doing house chores early enough only to find it challenging to get their children to do chores when they are a lot older. Chores give children a sense of responsibility and contribution to the family life as well as increase children’s resilience and self-esteem. Getting children to do chores prepares them to become adults who are not lacking in valuable life skills and are able to manage their own homes and families eventually. Doing chores together as a family is a good way to get even the most reluctant child involved in home chores.

I am a big believer in introducing the success principle of goal setting to children as early as possible. Where academic, family goals or any other goals had been set at the start of the school term, it is a good idea to create the time to review goals.

This can be a time to refocus and have clarity on what each member of the family wants to achieve and also on collective family objectives. Engaging in goal setting as a family activity helps children to understand how goal setting works and that it is an equally important task for adults too.

There’s so much that children and even parents would love to do during term time but time fails them. With parents and children having some

time at home together, you could set a family challenge that requires each family member to learn something new. It could also just be about supporting your child to develop a new habit such as dressing up their bed without being reminded, develop a daily reading habit, doing the dishes after meals, developing new hobby etc. Learning together as a family is a powerful way to get even the most reluctant child to get involved in family endeavours and gets children to appreciate the fact that learning is a lifelong process.

You would have received your child’s end of term report. Go through the report with your child, praise them for the progress made this term. Where gaps and areas needing improvement are identified, discuss with your child strategies to help them fill in the gaps in their learning during the holidays. There is nothing wrong with getting children to keep in touch with their school work during holidays. Holidays are a great time to support your child to learn complex topics they may not have had the time to grasp properly. It is unwise to let your child go into term two without having a good understanding of the topics covered in term one. Encourage your child to read ahead and read broadly to gain a broader understanding of subject areas they are interested in.

Be blessed, Be inspired and Help your child to reach for the Stars.

Pauline Limenhttp://www.starreachers.co.uk