During the end of term breaks, your child can unwind, cleanse their mind, and try new things with their minds. But if your child let’s their study habits slip, they are losing out on a significant chance to get ahead.

Research indicates that students—especially young ones—show a decline in their academic performance following long holidays. Children are supposed to resume at the same, if not higher, level when they return to school, yet teachers report a discernible decline in all subject areas.

There are some HUGE benefits for your child in doing a little bit of studying and learning a day –

1. Revision: boost their self-assurance

It’s the ideal time to organise the notes from the previous ten weeks of studying because kids don’t have to deal with their teachers constantly sending in fresh material during the school break. Before returning to school, your child will feel more assured if they completed some revision over the break. They will feel more confident and have a solid head start on the term if they think they have grown and learnt over the break in school.

2. Your body maybe on holiday but your brain isn’t!

Children’s brains are not being used to their maximum potential all day, every day, when they are taking breaks during the holidays. Similar to a muscle, the brain requires regular exercise to function at its peak. It takes time to return to your previous level of fitness, just like it does when you stop going to the gym for a few weeks and your levels decline. By keeping their mind occupied and assisting with homework during the holiday, your child will be ready to tackle the next challenge when they return to school and will be ahead of their peers.

3. Routine: keep up the pace

We are all aware of how crucial routines are to kids. They support your child’s sense of security and growth in self-control. School holiday learning facilitates the transition to the new school term because it can be challenging to get back into the learning pattern after a prolonged break.

4. Education is enjoyable!

We think that education ought to be enjoyable and engaging, fostering in your child a lifelong love of learning. Learning via our educational board games over school breaks allows your child to learn without the stress of performing well only to get a good grade.

Recall that education empowers, therefore let’s help our kids realise their full potential and make the most of the school break. Our educational board games are ready to assist if your child requires more help to get ahead this holiday season.

5. Plan ahead and get ahead!

Learning during school breaks continues where instruction left off. Some parents will be aware what their child’s next topics are in class or what they need to work on. Personally, my son’s teacher told me to work on his spelling over the holidays as there are still so many mistakes in his writing. My daughter is learning about space next term. This means we have read a few books and discussed about space and all associated with it. So when they both get back to school, they will hopefully have improved their spellings and begun to understand what they will be taught.

 

In conclusion, I believe it is all about balance. For me it would be wrong to make my young children sit at the table all day doing at least 6 hours of work a day. There are other things and skills I want them to learn and experience also. From gardening, jumping on the trampoline, painting, sports, playing, walks, visits to places, watching films etc etc. It is really important children get the chance to this in the holidays. It gives them life experiences and skills, time to relax and enjoy family time.

 

That is why, I only do ONE hour of extra learning a day. When we have big days out we may not even do any. But for the majority of the holidays, we shall do one hour of work together. This is often in the late morning. I let them go outside first, go on their bikes, jump on the trampoline and play. Then, once they’ve got their energy out, we will go in and do some work for an hour. This is often divided up into maths, English, science and reading. I’m lucky because my children are used to this way and therefore there is very little moaning and they know that the more they focus and try, the quicker the work will be done and then we can get on and enjoy the day.

So I am all for children doing extra work in the holidays but for me it mustn’t be for too long and there must be other ‘fun’ activities to do that day. It’s just a case of balancing with children.

have fun and learn at the same time with our amazing educational board games!