Summer time is vacation time. Take advantage of the good weather, make your bookings, pack your things and have fun with that well deserved get away.
Surely, a vacation can cost you money. Among the many expenditures you need to allot budget for are hotel reservation, transportation, food, adventure rides fee, museum entrance fee and gears. Not to mention travel insurance and shopping.
Indeed, a vacation can be very expensive. But no matter how expensive it may be, the benefits from spending a vacation that your family gets are priceless. No amount can pay the happiness, the learnings, the experiences and the memories anyone can get from it.
In every family, the members that best benefit from a vacation are the children. It is good to know, what are the positive things that your children can get from a vacation? Let me share with you what I gathered based on my family’s experience.
A vacation can make your children…
Healthier. The excitement and the happiness upon learning about the vacation has an immediate good impact to their health. I remember one time, my child’s fever suddenly disappear upon learning that we were going to the beach for a vacation. The long trip to the location can give them good sleep and rest. The swimming, the hiking or simply the walking in your vacation are good body exercises that can make mind and body healthier. Plan the physical activities for your vacation and let your children have fun and be healthy.
Acquire or enhance good values. We let our children prepare the things they need for the vacation on their own. This teaches them to identify own needs, caring for oneself, the value of being prepared and most of all diligence. The long trip provides an experience on how to be patient and persevere. Exposing them to nature makes them appreciate God’s creation. It can initiate the value of loving and caring for the environment. Learning about the culture of people in the places you visit helps them realize and respect the differences between people and races.
Increase their knowledge. Depending on where you go and what you do on your vacation, remember to feed facts and information to your children. Geographical information such as the town, the city, the province and the country you are visiting is simple but helpful to them in school and in the future when they do their traveling on their own. They can discover animals that are new to them. Learn about rare sea creatures. Know the scientific name of a plant. Accumulate historical facts and cultural heritage and probably learn a new language. There are much knowledge a child can get in one vacation.
My child got a good score in his exam about regions and provinces located in the main island of our country because he personally visited most of these places.
Learn new skills. Swimming is a good skill to learn. Two of my children learned how to swim after few vacations in the beaches and pool resorts. We also tried planting in one farm we visited and had fun learning how to boat in a man-made lake. Other skills that children may learn from a vacation are fishing, hiking, diving, farming, crafting etc. These may not be applied immediately but probably later in their lives. You never know.
Believe in their selves. Self- confidence is developed when your kid undergoes adventures. I noticed that my daughter got less timid after riding a zip line and roller coaster multiple times. Most of these happened in our vacations. Children discover their potentials and realizes that they can do more after undergoing a frightening and challenging adventure.
Know you better. At home, you may be spending up to only 3 quality hours with your child when he or she starts formal school. You are busy with work and home chores while your child is busy with school and play. You need that vacation to strengthen your bond with your child. Especially now a days when social media and internet rob their attention from you.
I believe that my sons get closer with their father after every vacation. Lessen the use of gadget during vacations and focus more on each other. It is best if the family can do an activity together like taking rides in an amusement park, swimming on the beach or simply playing hide and seek in the park during your vacation.
Feel loved. It has been said many times that love is spelled ‘T- I- M -E’. The time you spend with your children means love to them. My daughter in one of her essays said that she loves to spend time with me and her dad more and that she is always looking forward to summer because of our annual vacation. She said that she is saving all the memories of our vacations in her heart.
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What about you? What are your thoughts? Please leave it on your comments.
