Summer Break Activities

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My son’s summer break this year is so laid-back. Yes, he just laid, on his back, on the bed for the most part of his summer break. He wanted to go to the beach but the summer heat is just so – well, HOT! And the humidity is not tolerable. Going out under the heat of the sun Ra (bear with me, I’m in the middle of finishing up The Kane Chronicles book) is just not my thing.

He didn’t want to play with the guitar anymore, such a waste of money because we just bought him his third guitar. But he did enroll in basketball camp, learned how to code in javascript and practice his drawing/ sketching skills. So it’s not that an unproductive summer after all.

summer activity for kids: guitar lessons

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RJ is again taking guitar lessons this summer break. He finished a few days of piano and guitar lessons last year. But completely forgot everything he learned when we got back in Manila. He doesn’t have a piano in the house and he only learned a few basic chords in guitar so it was understandable that he lost interest and didn’t even tried to practice those few chords.

So this summer break I asked him if he wants to enroll in piano, guitar or both. He chose guitar lessons.

He can now play “I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane”. Although he’s still a bit slow in changing chords, I’m glad that he’s not wasting his summer break by just playing computer and handheld games.

Do not waste your talents

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As much as I want to encourage, and not force, my son to not waste his talents -art and sports doesn't stand a chance with psp, nintendo, iOS, android or PC games. It's a never-ending quest for me, as a mom, to find the right amount of patience and understanding to encourage and not force him to improve his talents.

Although art, music and sports classes doesn't come cheap, letting him join these classes is still the best option. It saves me from nagging him to research on how to paint or draw something new, practice his swim strokes or play basketball in the backyard when he's doing nothing productive when he's in the house (count the above mentioned gadgets as non-productive producing things).

I try not to tell him often that his art works are good. Because he feels that "you're just saying that because you're my mom". That only worked when he's still in preschool. Now that he's older it's very important to properly tell him what he needs to improve on.

Yes, it's hard to let kids realize that they have lots of talents and God gave it for them to improve and use properly. But that's the job that God gave us and we parents should accept it whole heartedly.