Long live the holidays

Manage duration

With its eight weeks of school holidays in July-August, France is one of the most generous countries in Europe. The constraints of businesses and the economy of tourism undoubtedly weigh as much on the school calendar as the real needs of the child. In reality, two to three weeks are enough, depending on their age, to physically “recover” from the fatigue accumulated during the year. The ideal is therefore to start with a stay without the constraint of any kind, if possible in the open air, which allows you to get plenty of rest. Sea, mountain or countryside, it doesn’t matter. The only two necessary ingredients are relaxation and family intimacy. Once these needs are met, your child is ready for discovery. This is the time to plan, depending on the case, excursions, Segmented in this way, the holidays will seem fuller and more intense to everyone.

With and without parents

Few parents can take two months off in the summer. As a result, holidays often coincide with the experience of the first separation. Whether your child is entrusted to his grandparents, or relatives or goes to a holiday center, don’t worry: this learning is also part of his education. Carefully dosed – from a few days for the youngest to a few weeks for the “big” eight-year-olds -, it marks the first steps on the long road to effective and practical autonomy. By sharing a daily way of life other than that of the family home, the child will experience, necessary for his maturation, his faculties of adaptation. A beneficial test.

I don’t know what to do…

Burdening the child with “things to do” during the holidays is definitely not. But deciding on a joint activity, one that you never have time to undertake during the year, three times yes. No need for sophisticated equipment. Your attention and patience are enough. Collect and paint pebbles, undertake a collection of shells, compose a painting of leaves and flowers collected during walks, tackle a very large puzzle, make a kite, make a herbarium or, quite simply, read every evening aloud the complete tales of Perrault (Grimm or Andersen): the list is inexhaustible. Another popular summer occupation from kindergarten age: Drawing, and decorating with postcards and/or photos, told by the child whose pen is held, it will be the most beautiful memory of your summer.

This year, we are not leaving…

It’s now or never to give your daily life a holiday feel. Do not hesitate to change your pace, to improvise at the end of the day picnics in the municipal garden or pool sessions. Play tourist, systematically exploring all the local sights together. And from the age of four, you can register him punctually at the leisure center, a good way to widen his circle of friends.

Priority to relaxation

Acquire cleanliness, learn the alphabet and numbers, read with ease, master the addition or multiplication tables… For some children, the list of goals to be achieved in July-August is enough to make you dizzy… and discouraged best wishes. Wanting to turn the summer into an all-out catch-up marathon is the surest way to make the whole family spend a vacation, at best exhausting, at worst, a miss. It should be kept in mind that the main goal of these long weeks remains first and foremost the well-being of all. Which requires the absence of excessive pressures and imperatives.
It is first of all your availability and your regained serenity, after the stress of the year, which will naturally favor your child’s acquisitions. Do not ask him anything – or very little – you will be surprised at the speed of his evolution.

Organizations generally offer formulas for children from the age of four. But specialists recommend rather wait six or seven years for a first bath in the community. Before this age, the duration of the stay will not exceed six days; beyond that, seven to ten days.

Test an activity

Theater or rugby? Tennis or dancing? Swimming or music?… Before registering for a year at the start of the school year, take a test this summer. As a family, in a club or in a holiday center, schedule initiation sessions to the activity of your dreams. Perfect for testing your skills and, above all, your motivation.

Vacation notebook, instructions for use

Consolidating a little fragile knowledge or refreshing forgotten knowledge is never useless. But to be really effective, the vacation notebook is practiced during the last weeks before the start of the school year, and not the first days of July on the pretext that you are not on vacation. That said, the vacation notebook can be an essential form for some, before the change of pace in September.