Do children get weak during summer holidays?

Hurray for the holidays. My two older kids (11 and 12) went to summer camp last week. And now they are home and really bored, so they ask me all the time. While I am at work, I get texts at 9am like: “Mom, what am I going to do for 10 hours? » or a photo of a bite, “Look what he did to me, he’s crazy.»

And I’m not talking about the constant negotiations to get it. more time on the phone, on the tablet, on the switch, on the TV. I alternate the desire to let go completely: “ Go ahead, numb yourself, binge on screen and Crunch all day »and force them to do things. However, I feel like I’ve exhausted all my options to entertain them and nothing really excites them. And I ask myself: Does summer make all children (teenagers) soft and shapeless? Twins, we can reassure ourselves, are not at all. Are the boys at their peak as they approach their third birthday?

This post is from the weekly newsletter “Le Balagan” by our editor-in-chief Candice Satara. Candice is the mother of four boys aged 2 to 12. To receive it, you can subscribe for free here.

Summer learning loss is real

Studies say some pretty scary things that I’ll share with you (I’m being kind, eh!): children ages 5 to 18 spend more time indoors and on screens during summer vacation. This sedentary lifestyle leads in particular to a deterioration in their health less good physical shape and weight gain. As they move less, their stamina decreases. Compared to their end-of-school-year performance, children burn out more quickly when they return to school at the beginning of the school year. Academically, it is not great either. The break with the school system leads to significant decline in learning ability.

By caricaturing, our children then become big, soft and stupid during the summer, especially when they come from disadvantaged backgrounds. How can we prevent this decline in exercise and learning? And should we even be concerned about it? I wonder.

Release the pressure

It is true, we fight all year roundWe stress them about grades, about going to bed, about manners, about screens… We ask as much of them as we ask of ourselves.. We shouldn’t give up on them (us) even a little bit in the summer. Let them eat two ice creams during the day or spend the afternoon on Fortnite? I say this even though I’m incapable of doing it.

I don’t plan on running them or reviewing them this summer, I honestly don’t have the energy, and even though I’m dreading the start of the school year. One enters 6th grade and the other enters 4th grade. I’ll buy two passports that we’ll do when we think about it and I’ll set goals for the book to read. No choice. After consulting several articles, I see that all the specialists agree that we need to give them a long break to recharge the batteries. Asked by BFMTV, Brigitte Prot, an educational psychologist, said “for holiday homework”but not before three weeks. “There must be real holidays”he insists. I conclude that we must start from there. And you, vacation for teamwork or nothing?