Primary and secondary school candidates will be starting their vacation by the end of this month.
What a relief from the long nights of study in the quest of academic success! Every candidate looks forward to the vacation time.
Vac, as they prefer to call it, means no holiday package and no worry about subject x that has been giving headache. It literally means passing over to a new stage. Most of the candidates have already set their plans for this relatively-long holiday. They want to visit and look for jobs, especially the S6 leavers.
As a parent with a child on vacation, have you made any plans to fit into their vacation schedule? If you have not, it’s high time you thought about it.
Most parents will usually downplay the fact that vacation is a transitional stage for every child, irrespective the levels of education they will have concluded. A child who has completed P7 will be joining secondary school.
A lot of change awaits them in that new phase of life. They will probably join a boarding school for the first time, meet and make new friends from diverse backgrounds. Their bodies too will change.
The little girl who has been clinging to daddy and mummy will suddenly realize she is mature. She will set off for the adventurous path on how to live as a grown-up. Life is suddenly changing so fast for the poor soul.
The changes are not a reserve for the girl child alone but the boy child too. Think about the teenager that has completed either S4 or S6. They are in the prime of their adolescence. It is a critical time when the pressure to be ‘like everyone else’ is intense.
They have dreams and aspirations. They need someone to walk with and help them maximize their potential. They are moving towards a new phase of life with even bigger uncertainties. Some will be joining S5 and others vocational institutions; whereas S6 leavers will be joining higher institutions of learning.
They need to be equipped for this change.
I have known parents who wait to give parental guidance to their children on the day they are taking them back to school. Such last-minute lectures are usually characterised by threats.
“I hope you see how I have struggled to raise this term’s fees. If you try to mess around in bad groups; you will see me,” some parents will use such warnings.
The child cannot tell if this is a well-intended piece of advice, a threat or an ultimatum. The vacation is here. It is a transition time for our children. Let’s not wait to throw advice to them on the day of reporting back to school.
This is time to bond with them, listen to their dreams for the next phase and help them accordingly. Make your child’s vacation a meaningful one by preparing them holistically for their next level.
