April is almost here and seven more months before christmas! How time has flown. I hope you’ve had a wonderful and peaceful Easter. I totally forgot that Ms. Four is already on official holiday.

There I was on Tuesday morning, rushing Ms. Four, finishing the usual lunch and breakfast preparations so we can be at school playground before 8:30 am, forgetting to read the school newsletter in the business of it all. Oh my life! Got to school and it was closed, so we were back home before 9:30, thank God for grandparents who fill in for babysitters and missing parents.

Now, the dilemma begins. We don’t want our kids to be sitting in front of screens all day and doing nothing during school holiday. Do we have holiday programs?

I know there are a few programs but not on going and not all can take four-year-olds. We have parents who are all working full time and don’t have reliable babysitters available to supervise older, teenagers and younger children.

In New Zealand, my siblings pay hundreds of dollars for after school and holiday programs. There are a lot of fun activities to keep kids occupied while parents continue to work.

Extra curricular activities, holiday clubs or activity centres can help fill this gap. Do you know of any clubs that can accommodate children during the holidays?

Simple painting or fun activities allow children to continue fun learning during the holidays. Making new friends through school holiday programs is another way to keep kids entertained and interested in extra learning.

I can guarantee that by the time the two weeks holiday is up, parents grow more greys and will be all too happy to pay teachers extra, give them more food to take their children off their hands.

Most of us are not natural teachers. We don’t have the patience to sometimes teach young children the basic stuff like the alphabet, numbers and putting on their buttons or shoe laces. That’s why we have qualified teachers who are trained to teach and inspire children.

That’s why we pay money to tutors for extra hours of working on homework and other subjects that we may not be equipped to teach.

Maths for one, is a subject that many struggle with including adults. Try remembering your formulas from Form 4 or Form 5 about algebra or trigonometry let alone the times table that were beaten into us as six or seven year olds. It is a fun subject that has been made complicated by boring curriculum and out of date style of teaching.  

Word problems are probably my least favourite when it comes to Mathematics. Why would I want to read between the lines when you can just give me numbers? I’d much rather prefer one equation that leads to one answer. That way we all have the same chance at getting it right.

Physics is my favourite STEM subject in later years but Biology or Basic Science were much more intriguing for me. I enjoyed all the experiments, bunsen burners, mixing potions in beakers, ticker tape and learning something new was fun to me. I’m not so sure about Chemistry but I do have a friend who loves it so much that she’s a master brewer.

If you know of school holiday programs that tick the boxes of fun learning and making friends, please let a friend know. We don’t need entertainment but we certainly need fun learning environments. Enjoy the rest of this short week and be patient with our children this holiday.

Give them a break from too many chores and let them enjoy taking time

off from stressful learning.