By Amaka Abayomi, Tare Youdeowei & Chris Onuoha

HOLIDAYS, especially Christmas holiday, can be a great time for parents to bond with their children and for families to bond, particularly with extended family members that you haven’t seen in a long while. It is also a time to let your own inner child come out to play.

File photo: Cross section of students

Though this can be a stressful period as children would tend to misbehave due to boredom, it can be a fun time with proper planning and an arsenal of activities to keep the little ones out of mischief and save you the stress.

Keeping the young ones positively engaged during the Christmas holiday can be tasking as they tend to become restless.

Luckily, parents can work with their children to keep their brains active while on vacation, so that they can avoid brain drain as they take a break from school.

Below are some fun and interesting ways to keep them active and rejuvenated that they’ll always look forward to the next holiday.

Book-a-thon: Unarguably, the easiest way to keep your children’s brains active is to encourage reading. This can be achieved by having them set aside designated reading time each day. While educational books are best, anything that gets them to read can work wonders with their brains.

Agreeing with the above is Mr. John Olufemi, who has already bought some colourful educational materials for his pre-school daughter.

According to him “based her performance in examinations, I have bought some interesting and colourful books that would teach her colours, poems, numbers and the alphabets. This way, I don’t have to wait till next school term for her teacher to teach her how to write number two since she already knows how to write number one.”

In agreement is Mr. Abiodun Osokoya, a lecturer, technical educator and CEO Open Intelligence Ltd., who said; “parents should make self help study materials available. As opposed to conventional books, study videos can be used as they are more laid back and interesting.

Stumbling on negative sites

They can be used on computers which also teach the students to use computers without the internet, as they might stumble on negative sites.”

For the Principal of Caro Favoured Schools, Awodiora, Lagos, Mr. Mark Okoh, “This period, many parents will find it difficult to keep their children busy because the kids will be carried away with the celebrations and would be looking forward to gifts and outings.

“Since no amount of convincing would make some read or be involved in any academic activity, my advise to parents is to get educative story books related to the season so that their kids do not completely forget what they were taught in school.”

Take Field Trips: Rather than sitting around the house all break, families can take trips to parks, museums or other places of interest to enable their children engage new materials and create learning environment. These trips can be made more fun by packing some snacks and chilled drinks along for some family time out.

Planning to make the holiday more memorable for her family, renowned actress, Mrs. Dakore Egbuson Akande, said; “the yuletide is the best time to take children to fun places such as amusement parks, beaches and other many interesting places because they get to learn new skills, make new friends and keep in touch with the season aside the holiday coaching class.

“This will actually balance what they have been doing in school which somehow adds up to their fast growing knowledge. Besides taking them out, I could also engage them with in-house activities such as taking piano lesson or other musical instruments of their choice.

“Chatting with them will be of great importance as it will avail me the opportunity of knowing their worries, especially in school, and how they relate with friends in school. This I think will equally develop that bond that will solidify parent-kid relationship.”

Turn the screens off

Nothing creates more brain drain that sitting at home watching television for the entire holiday. This is a problem because nothing is easier for parents than turning the television or a computer on and allowing it to entertain the children for hours.

Rather than allow them play video games, download educational apps with which they can practice skills so as keep their brains active while sitting in front of a screen.

Not agreeing with this is Mrs, Perpetual Mordi, who opined that the only way she can get her kids to give her some space is to make sure that DSTV subscription is paid for so they can keep themselves occupied with television.

For Mrs. Ekaete Philemon, she intends to keep her children occupied with words puzzle booklets which they get to solve on their own, educational DVDs, activity books, educational games like monopoly, scrabble and chess.

A teacher with Federal Government College, Port Harcourt, Mr. Torniye Lezigha,  said; “students should be involved in computer training, either at computer schools or at home. They can also have lesson teachers while television viewing should be restricted. To improve connection with the family, homework should be done with parents so that children see learning as rewarding.”

Spend time with your kids: Pointing out that Christmas break is a time to relax and bond with nuclear and extended family members, the Principal, Krisbethel College, Ipaja, Lagos, Ms Olajumoke Solarin, said; “this is the family season, they are supposed to be with family, either they travel or they stay with the elderly ones. They should not be engaged academically, though the school gives project but it is a very light one compared to that of long vacation.

“Basically they should be allowed to rest as this is a form of development in itself. They should also use the period to bond with their family members as most parents who do not have enough time for their children are freer during the yuletide period.”

Yuletide period

For a Benin-based mother, who simply gave her name as Aseriabo, exclaimed; “keep them busy? Its a festive season and children have their minds on Christmas, clothes, food and outings.

“Moreso, the holiday is short, just 3 weeks so I doubt if they’ll forget what they learnt during the term. My son takes his book and pencil and scribbles once in a while, and sometimes on his own he reads.”

Mrs. Gina Karuwi says “I engage my kids with toys, puzzles, story books, watching interactive videos or cartoons, baking of biscuits and ensuring they take their nap by 1pm after lunch. We also go bicycle riding and swimming once a week, and they some times follow me to the market and banks where I engage them on what I am doing.

For Mrs Divine Adamu, a mother of three active boys, “my boys would be going with me to my place of business and I have already bought books and novels they would read. Since the holiday is a short one and there would be no lesson for them, we would make it fun by reading, watching television and movies and would go out to fun places once I’m chanced.