The Benefits of Planning Your Child’s Summer Vacation by Dana Brown

The Benefits of Planning Your Child’s Summer Vacation

For children, the summertime represents three months of carefree fun and activities and long, hot days. Parents, on the other hand, tend to worry about the idle time and lack of restriction that comes with not having a set schedule or obligations. The best way to ease your mind around the sudden increase in free time your child has is to plan a well-rounded summer schedule for them. Here are a few suggestions from Kids Without Cancer to help you plan accordingly!

Get outside

Spending time outdoors should be one of the great joys of summer, but with so many opportunities for technology to be a distraction, it can be a chore to pry some kids away from their digital devices. To keep kids engaged with the natural world, plan family outings to local parks, nature centers, or even just your backyard! Make sure, however, to always keep safety at the forefront of your mind during your excursions.

For example, if you have a pool, building a fence that surrounds it will prevent kids from entering the water when you’re not around to keep a watchful eye, especially if it’s outfitted with safety latches. You can search online for fence installers to find review sites, and some even showcase local contractors who are offering discounts. Similarly, if your family decides to explore a local nature trail, heavy-duty boots (or at the very least, sneakers) and lightweight, long-sleeved clothing will protect you from bugs, snakes, and poisonous plants.

There are a host of products available, like wagons and all-terrain strollers, that make it easier to get outdoor activity with small children. With so many choices, it can be difficult to know which products are best for meeting your needs. You can read reviews online at Safe Smart Family to get a better sense of what will work best for your family. Then you’ll be able to make an informed decision that you’ll be happy with.

Encourage them to try new things

With no set schedule, it’s easy for your child to fall victim to spending the majority of their summer break on the couch playing video games. Encourage your child to get out and be active by learning to try something new! Learning something new keeps your child from falling into a rut and it also feeds their creativity.

Something new for them could be learning to rock climb, joining a summer sports league, kayaking, or learning how to make lotions, soaps, and candles! While they may be nervous in the beginning or unsure of their abilities, their confidence will soon build and lead them to trying even more new things.

Avoid idle time

Encouraging your child to pick up a new hobby or try new things will structure their time over the summer, which will help them avoid falling into bad behaviors. It has been said that too much of anything can be a bad thing, and that is no different with time. Children that don’t have any fulfilling activities to occupy their time are more likely to pick up bad habits such as hanging around the wrong crowd or partaking in the use of drugs.

Try to keep your child as involved as possible throughout the summer by signing them up for camps and spending quality time with them whenever you can. And not all teens are able to seek summer employment, but that doesn’t mean they can’t volunteer their time. Look for ways your teen can be a mentor or work with other kids to be a leader and contribute to the community. This can end up being a rewarding experience that leads to a lifetime of service work.

If you are a working parent or own a business, it can be difficult to find opportunities to spend with your child. Looking into implementing tools that can improve your time efficiency, like an email scheduler such as Boomerang for Gmail or cloud accounting tools for your business. Automated tools make it easier to start and complete repetitive tasks like invoicing or inventory, save you money and time. Not only can software grow with your business, but it will help you get more family time as well.

Be honest with them

As a parent, your number one priority is to keep your child safe and to protect them from anything that could pose a threat to their wellbeing. As you know, you will not always be able to be around your child when certain situations present themselves, so it’s best to have open and honest conversations with them about the dangers of drug abuse and choosing to go down the wrong path. These conversations may seem painful in the beginning, but it is important that your child learns from you rather than someone else who could potentially be a bad influence.

Teach your child the importance of being a leader and that it is honorable to not give into peer pressure under any circumstances. Tell them that with all decisions come consequences, so it’s always best to make the right choice. Even if your child does not seem to grasp the magnitude of what you are saying right away, continue to have these conversations. As they grow older and are faced with different situations, your words will be a light on their path.

Planning a schedule for your child’s summer vacation is the wisest thing you can do as a parent. Not only will you keep them out of trouble and guarantee their safety, but you will also be setting a positive example for other parents and their children!

For the past 40 years, Kids Without Cancer has been raising money to fund the pediatric cancer research being conducted at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University, and the Karmanos Cancer Institute. For more information, please visit our website or contact us today!

Posted on June 30th, 2022 in News.