Officially, we have entered the summer season (even though Naija doesn’t actually have summer, we have to “belong”) which is good news for the children, as this usually signifies a period of waking late, watching TV, visiting friends and just following the day without a strict schedule. However, most Nigerian parents feel that too much idleness makes children get themselves into bad situations; so they make children attend summer lessons and coaching from morning till night, after which the child goes to bed exhausted. Lessons to develop a child’s intellect are not bad, but a child needs to have a well-rounded life outside of just education to enable that child to develop necessary social skills and other additional skills to become a fully functional member of society. Rather than plan lessons or coaching to fill the whole day, there are other activities that can work alongside these lessons and will be of great help to the child both now and in the future. Some of these activities include:
Vocational training- These days, people are encouraged to learn a skill due to the huge deficit in the job market. It would be a good thing to find out the child’s interests and get the child trained in such a skill- this can help the child make money in later days. As a child, I was very interested in cooking and baking and one summer training taught me various cooking techniques that I still use today.
Excursions- theoretical teaching can be instructive, since humans are visual beings, we learn better if we are directly engaged with visual lessons. This holiday, try to take the children out to see the sights in your city- this could include museums, historic relics and cultural relics. If you have the money, why not take a trip with the kids to give them a little bit of enjoyment(and be sure to use www.hotelnownow.com to book your rooms, so you get the best deals and discounts on rooms across Nigeria). If there isn’t any time to do this yourself, there are a lot of schools and organizations that plan trips and excursions for kids, so don’t let your children get left behind in the fun.
Challenge their thinking- it is becoming really difficult for people to read and write correctly these days, due to the obsession with social media “language”, and it is a really sad development. To prevent this in the future generation, try to get your kids to read literature (not necessarily school books) and to play games that challenge the cognition and improve their diction.
Having the children doing these things, in addition to summer coaching (and of course, allowing the child some time to be a child) will definitely help the child to develop in all aspects of his/her life.