Parents, children and the holiday

Now that school has closed, the much awaited holidays are here. These three weeks tend to have a lot of activities and programmes; for most children this is a time to relax, enjoy themselves, and catch up on studies, or to spend time with family and relatives. To the parents, not only does this time impact on their pockets, it also comes with many emotions and anxieties. One of them carried by the expectations and the need to know how much their children have developed in school. Though this time is aimed at giving children a rest from the ever busy classroom routine, holidays should not break the chain of learning. Parents should use this moment to take part in the teaching learning process of their children; a variety of programmes can be put in place to keep the idle children active. As children are prepared for the later part of their life, we can never know what skill will elevate these young fellows to the next level so as a moment to nurture we should be able to handle both formal and informal skills with equal measure. With schools focusing on formal skills, holidays should be a time to place emphasis on the informal and non formal skills. Like internship at university, students should exercise their different abilities at places they can best be creative and productive. Not only does this help build a complete pragmatic being but also a person who can analyse situations, connecting classroom knowledge to real life situations. Every day the world becomes more and more competitive, we are racing against time to cope with its demands which means a lot is needed with limited time therefore utilizing all the time available to us is mandatory. And as we work towards this we should not forget that this is not only the playing field of a teacher within a classroom setting but also a role each stake holder should embrace in a combined effort. For this moment the row has been handed over to you the parent, take the lead. The writer is a school-based mentor.