Newswise — Ready or not, school is almost out. If the thought of the lazy days of summer makes you feel anxious, Ken Haller, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, has a prescription to ease your mind.
"The first step to helping your kids have a good summer is to find out what kinds of activities they want to do, but allow them enough time to hang out and daydream. That's where a lot creativity comes from," says Dr. Haller, who also is a pediatrician at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital.
"The secret to having a summer everyone will remember is finding the right balance between irresistible activities and free time."
Start by sitting down as a family to help your children brainstorm the top three things they want to do this summer. Encourage them to select:
· A long-term, sustained program. Options include taking weekly swimming lessons, playing on a baseball or softball team, finding a bowling league, going to a special interest camp, participating in rock-climbing excursions once a week, performing in a summer play or learning to play the guitar.
· A creative project. Whether it's building a website, charting the stars each night, making a movie, painting a bedroom mural or building a backyard Wiffle ball field, let your child decide what he or she wants to do. Your role is to offer support. Talk about ways they can accomplish their project, help get them what they need, then turn them loose.
· A family activity that you can afford such as a vacation, daytrip or special outing. This can be as extravagant as a trip to Disney World or as simple as a weekly jaunt to the local ice cream stand.
"Some kids will need guidance on where begin. Others will come up with a list of 20 things they want to do," Dr. Haller says. "One of the jobs of a parent is to ask, 'What do you really want to do and can do well that leaves you enough time so you can ride your bike when you feel like it?'
"Think of summer as a time when children get to do the stuff they want to do but don't have to do. They continue learning and exploring, but not in a structured school classroom."
Throw out the set ideas of "have to do" summer activities " you have to be outside, you have to play on a baseball team, you have to participate in the library's structured summer reading program " if they don't work for your child, he adds.
"Parents are the experts on their own children," Dr. Haller says. "What works for one child in the family won't work for another."
While it's best to leave plenty of time for spontaneity, having some structure in place is important.
"Parents need to know what their kids are doing," Dr. Haller says. "Having them select specific things they want to do is a way to keep them at some level of supervision. Parents also have some level of security that kids are engaging in activities and hanging out with people who are acceptable."
A relaxed summer plan also is more likely to prevent kids from staying up until 2 a.m., and sleeping until noon.
"Having some sort of structure to the summer will make it easier for kids to go back to school. It won't be such a shock physically and psychologically."
RSS