Managing Children's Time without TVs & Phone during Summer Vacation: The Power of Appreciation.

Every year my younger sister's children will visit my place for Summer Vacation, they spend 10 to 15 days and it is quite a challenge for us to manage these 2 children (6 & 9 years old) along with my child (8 years old).

This year I got a bonus in the form of 2 more children of my cousins (13 & 14 Years old) joining this team of 3 to test our patience and management skills.

Family: where hearts connect, laughter resonates, and love binds us together. In the embrace of togetherness, we find strength, joy, and the true essence of home.

In this post, I going to share my experience of 15 days with this team of 5 children.

Timetable Helps:

The timetable is followed during school hours, but here I asked them to prepare a timetable that everyone should follow. I know they won't follow it, but I can keep them busy for 1 to 2 hours. So the team made a common timetable for all after struggling for 1 hour and everyone signed it.

Although they haven't followed it most days, I've been using the timetable whenever I wanted to stop them from mischief.

No TV & No Mobile Phone:

I want the children to have quality time. They should learn and play during the summer holidays, so I disconnected the TV and banned Mobile Phones, and allowed them to use the tab for learning. 

They tried every possible game/activity to have fun. This included riding a bicycle, playing chess, and carrom, preparing birthday cake, outdoor games like football, volleyball & basketball, bringing groceries, evening walks, playing in the park, Ludo, dancing, drawing, reading, role-playing, storytelling, and many more.

I managed the children for 10 days without TV & Mobile Phones. However, after the 11th day, we agreed to watch TV for 1 to 2 hours every day.

Learning Apps/ Puzzle We Used:

Youtube: Children made different drawings & crafts work using Youtube.

Read Along by Google: Each one made 10,000 points by reading 20 stories in Hindi & English.

Khan Academy Kids: This app helped my children to build a strong foundation in different topics.

This app contains English stories, General topics, Math, Drawing, Rhymes, Yoga & Exercise, and many more for children of age 2 to 10.

DinoLab: This app helped my children to understand the Olympiad questions.

Canva: For learning & making videos with animations.

Rubik's Cube: 4 out of 5 learned how to solve the 3*3 Rubik's cube. 

( The Rubik's Cube Guru for all of us)

Fun & Education Trip:

An education trip is not just a journey of miles, but a voyage of knowledge, curiosity, and discovery that expands our horizons and shapes us into lifelong learners.

We visited Almatti Dam & Park for one day, and we had a great time there.

We visited Badami Caves, Pattadakal & Aihole, It's a great place to see the Ancient Indian Architecture.

In Badami, the 4 caves are carved as temples, in every cave/temple you find the great architecture of the Chalukyas kingdom.

Appreciate Every Task and Every Day:

Appreciation is a powerful force that can illuminate even the smallest acts of kindness, turning ordinary moments into extraordinary gifts.

Everyone wants to be appreciated for their work whether it is small or big even children too.

I used my whiteboard to appreciate each task they do by giving points. Points are awarded for every task (such as reading a story, helping in the kitchen, mopping the floors, bringing vegetables, and playing outdoor games).

At the end of the day and each day, the children were awarded Gold, silver, and bronze medals as per their scores (My son's old medals were used).

Safe & Secure Environment:

I live in a place where we don't find hanging electric cables, no open manholes, no open drainage, closed fencing, CCTV survivance, and vehicles moving at less than 20 KMPH on the road. My children are blessed to have such a safe and secure environment where they can move freely and play with nature.

I would like to express my gratitude to the NTPC employees who have been involved in designing such a beautiful township and maintaining it to such a high standard.

I wish every child in India had the safe and secure environment that we experience in NTPC Township, Kudgi.

NTPC Kudgi Township

Be the Change:

Kids are like a mirror, what they see and hear they do. Be a good reflection for them.

Children do exactly what we do. We at home reduced mobile phone usage and started spending quality time with them. We answered hundreds of questions, tried all the games with them, made different stories, and solved a lot of riddles.

Conclusion:

Playing with children, going out with them, and becoming a child with them is an amazing learning experience. I am happy to be part of their summer break journey and I will wait for the next summer vacation to have the same fun.

Besides the fun with children, I completed the Online courses on Machine Learning & Introduction to Data Analysis from Udacity. I also updated my Android Diary App with more features. This app has more than 5 lakh downloads with a 4.6 rating.

I recommend you try my Android Diary App. It helps you a lot. (Link shared below)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=st.info.mydiary