Summer Sanity

Summer is finally upon us and chances are you’re already trying to figure out how to manage all the free time on your child’s hands now. Summer is a time to kick back and let loose a little. However, you want to be careful not to have summer be a total free-for-all or your child might return to school in fall with the dreaded “summer slide.”

Child psychiatrist Michael Brody says it’s important to find a balance for your child during the summer months. To some degree, Brody feels parents should expect the same discipline in their child over the summer, but he also points out that the freedom of summer is an important respite from a child’s otherwise busy schedule.

According to Brody, it’s okay—and important—to allow your child a little bit of unstructured time at the start of summer. This means time when kids are not expected to do tasks parents will soon be hounding them for—like summer reading or writing. Of course, as the summer drags on, this free time should be balanced with summer learning, allowing for continued growth and reinforcement on the months off.

Here are a few tips to balance summer freedom and scholarly pursuits.

Routines

No doubt your schedules will change in the summer. The important thing is to discuss what will not change—whether it’s chores, bedtimes or other house rules—so children know what’s expected of them over the summer. It’s okay to relax the rules a bit, but keeping some structure is important for development and understanding responsibility. Carl Pickhardt, psychologist and Psychology Today blogger, suggests incorporating unstructured time into the schedule so children feel they have a say and active role in how they spend their time—summer should still be fun after all.

Exploration

Summer is an excellent time for children to discover their own more personal interests without the pressures and demands of school. How do you decide how much time they have to explore on their own? Brody says it all depends on age and maturity. What works for the neighbor’s child may not be right for your own child. A good happy medium is to take them somewhere where they have free reign, but you can also observe from afar, like a park or play center.

Neighborhood Kids

This can be a tricky one. In the summer, neighborhood kids of all ages may find themselves together more often, which means your child may be around children and adolescents who are older. This isn’t bad in and of itself, but children can often be peer pressured by older kids to try risky behaviors, or they may learn things that aren’t age appropriate for them. On the flip side, older kids can also be positive role models for your child and offer great learning experiences. It’s up to you to decide who your child is allowed to play with, and the best way to do that is to know the child and the parents yourself before making a decision.

Summer Sleepovers

Sleepovers are a mainstay of summer and most kids love them. Pickhardt says sleepovers can be a great learning experience for children—learning to spend time away from parents, spending sustained time with friends, and respecting the rules of another household. However, some kids are more into sleepovers than others, and it’s not inherently bad if your child doesn’t care for them, or calls home wanting to leave halfway through. Being comfortable away from home is a something children grow into at their own pace, and it pays to be respectful of their needs. Knowing the other child and the child’s parents is a given for a safe stay away from home.

Screening Screen Time

Pickhardt suggests children spend about four hours a week going over scholastics like math, summer reading, or other areas where your child needed extra help last year. TV, iPhone and iPads, computers and video games will likely compete for your child’s attention over the summer so it’s important to regulate this too—too much sitting in front of a screen is not an ideal way to spend the summer. Pickhardt says 15 hours a week is plenty, as these forms of entertainment can undermine a child’s natural ability to entertain him or herself, and hardwire kids to need a high level of stimulation to capture their attention. Instead encourage them to get outside and enjoy the summer weather—which naturally results in more time spent being active and healthier.

sourceWeinstein, Anna“Summer Parenting: Tips for Good Behavior.”education.com
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