With the summer holidays in full swing, I know that some moms are anxious about how to keep their kids occupied without just filling their entire time with the screens, while also keeping their joy and not becoming ‘Yelling Moms’. It sure can be daunting when you also juxtapose that with the false thought that you need plenty time to spend with them, and you just don’t have it. Fret no more, Queen. Because in this post, I am happy to lay the foundation for how to create a holiday structure for your kids using my own domestic life.
Hello sweet Queen,
Holiday is here and I am chomping at my bits excited. I dunno if you are a Summer school kind of mom, and that is OK (remember, what we learned about convictions here? I Respectfully Disagree, but I am certainly not doing summer school at all.
I am excited to rock out these 6 weeks with my kids at home in a highly productive, yet fun, and deeply impactful way.
The goal?
Joyful Mom, Joyful Kids, Joyful Home, Joyful Holidays.
Joy baby, Joy!!!
One thing that causes us to be anxious is when we think that keeping our kids engaged and productive all through the holiday would require a tosh load of time, and if you work from home or outside the home, you certainly do not have all that time.
The good news is, you don’t need to spend 90% of their waking hours keeping them entertained. Like I said in It’s Possible, girl, you are NO Barney, and your home is No Disney land.
There are at least 9 areas that we can set our kids up to be productively engaged in, and what it involves is not 100% engagement and involvement of us, but a proactive, front end, strategic planning, so that the systems we set up can run both with, and especially without us.
Ok, so let me break this down so you can get it.
You can get a 7-day access It’s Possible Masterclass here.
Like I said, I have a plan for the holiday, and the theme for our Year 2022 at home is Excellence and Independence. What this means is that most of the activities we do at home revolve around this two themes.
Now, 2 of the 9 areas I shared in It’s Possible, which I would like to spotlight here are:
- Project
- Academic work
Under Project, one of the things I would like to personally make progress on with my kids is basic computer literacy, and while this is very broad, I am streamlining it to a few things, one of which is both of them learning to type with relative speed on the laptop. We already have a laptop for them, so this would make it easier, and they don’t have to use mine.
So all I need do is give them stuff per time to type, while I time them reasonably.
The best part is that they don’t consider it work or project per se, but fun, so they are happy to do it.
For me, I am just laying a foundation for them to be able to use the screen reasonably, especially to capture their thoughts, or thoughts from others they wanna preserve.
As they progress, we move on to sending emails, as I want to teach them to start sending emails to themselves to capture their childhood memories.
This falls very squarely under independence while it still looks like fun to them. Plus it lays a perfect yet healthy foundation for technology, instead of them playing video games on the TV or watching endless cartoons on the phone.
Win-win
Under Academic work, my number one focus is HANDWRITING. Yes we have made some good progress in this, but I want my kids handwriting to be as excellent and beautiful as possible and I still see plenty room for improvement.
As a Journalling mama, my kids are now getting very curious and interested in it, so I am jumping on that, and then guiding them on not just what to write but how to write slowly and beautifully.
This involves printing out many guides and aids, and then giving them interesting things to write.
They know I am very fussy about handwriting so it is not a lot of fun for them, as I make them clean, rewrite, and I also provide small spaces they have to fit into. However, they don’t have to spend 1 hour daily doing it, even 15mins is enough, so far I am consistent in it.
So at the end of the holiday, I expect a more excellent handwriting from both, and this also boosts their confidence as they see their progress.
Like I said, the work is front end, and not continuous.
Everyday, based on those 9 areas I shared in It’s Possible, I can create a plan for them to follow, and then set them up to win.
Creating this plan is a tosh load of work, I agree which is why you can get on Google and let other moms help.
Personally, I am also committing to watching and re-watching again my session and Dumebi’s from It’s Possible so that I can get more tips too, as my goodness, we shared a whole lot.
Phew!!!
Parenting is hard work yes, but also a tosh load of fun and I hope you are finding the fun in the hard work. Plus the rewards?
Come on!!!
Plus as your kids get older, they get more independent and you gain the time back, It really is a huge goal for me to have independent yet responsible kids. In fact, based on ‘Chores’, another area we must let our kids be useful in, a goal I have is them not just brushing their teeth themselves, but doing it so well, especially their tongues, so what this means is that they won’t just be brushing morning and evening, but we will have at least 2 more tutorials during the day.
So feel free to buck convention as you create the holiday structure and solution your kids need, even if it means they get to bathe 4 times a day hehe.
And again, I pray you find the fun in the work. Because this is what parenting is all about.
Btw, I didn’t mention the spiritual here but like you know, that is an area I am always working on, and In fact, by early September, I am finally ready to launch my devotional Boys Olorun, which will help you raise while helping your kids become Godly kids.
Will share more details about it next week, and also let you know how you can pre-order.
The best part is not all the bonuses you get when you do pre-order, or that you get to pre-order at (almost) half the price, but that it won’t matter anywhere you are in the world as I am building my own eBook reader app which is the only place you will be reading the devotional.
Yes, IPhone and Android users will be able to read it anywhere in the world, with your sweet kids.
And yes, it is a one year devotional.
Don’t worry, more gist next week on the blog, plus also to those on our mailing list here
Cheers to joyful, godly parenting, you and me
So much love.
Eziaha