How to Make the Most of the Winter Breaks?

Finally, the wonderful and awaited winter holidays arrive. The ideal time to rest in the middle of the year. But how to do it so that these do not become endless demands? How to take advantage of the winter holidays in favor of our children and family?

First of all, it must be understood that winter vacations are a short period of time for children to rest from the demands of the school and not a space to program hundreds of perfect scenarios every day. On the contrary, vacations can be occupied in favor of many other aspects:

1. WORK AND POWER THE FAMILY LINKS

Winter vacations are an excellent time to spend more time together. Due to the long and demanding school days, children have little time to enjoy themselves with their siblings, cousins, parents, and grandparents. This is an excellent time to meet, to play board games: one, chopsticks, yoga, Pictionary … Children of this age love those types of games; they are very simple, but they keep them very entertaining and connected to each other.

2. PROMOTE SOCIALIZATION AND EMPATHY WITH OTHERS

Winter vacations are a great instance for children to have some panoramas with their classmates, cousins or siblings. Simple panoramas that favor socialization, empathy, yield, humor. The adult’s role is not to fill it with activities, but to encourage the child to be able to think about the other person; who wants to invite him, put himself in his place and wonder what things he would like to do with the other, how the other would have a good time and enjoy the moment.

This is an exercise that helps reduce self-centeredness and favors empathy, putting oneself in the place of the other, ‘what the other wants to do, what the other likes’, instead of being so focused on’ what I won’t do’.

The adult can regulate that these scenarios are simple and appropriate to the context and asking questions that favor these aspects. For example: Who would you like to invite? v / s “Invite this child”; “What do you think he or she would like to eat? v / s “Let’s eat pizza” … And if the child responds to something very exaggerated or great, it is also the occasion to connect it with the inadequacy that it can be and continue asking them questions until something more contextualized emerges.

3. POTENTIATING AN AUTONOMOUS AND PROTAGONIC POSITION

Holidays do not have to be transformed into parents filling their children with activities. It is also necessary for them to manage their times, to be able to take charge and deal with the ‘dreaded boredom’. Nothing bad happens if you get bored, on the contrary, there may arise different talents, resources or hobbies of our children. This item suggests that children at this age do not adopt a passive role, where others entertain them, but that they take charge of how they will take advantage of their vacations. This is not absolute freedom to put together expensive and demanding scenarios, but rather simple things, but that is able to take charge of how they manage their vacations and how they will take care of the ‘dead times’ or more boring.

4. POWER AND PROMOTE THE SELF-HELPED

Winter vacations are not synonymous with “I do what I want”, “I fall asleep at the time I want”, quite the contrary, it is an opportunity to rest the whole semester. Being able to sleep, regain strength, eat well, do sports. Here the role of parents is to encourage this aspect and be attentive and put shortcuts to excesses such as excessive junk food, going to bed very late several days, being most of the day or night connected to the computer or electronic games.

5. SET OBJECTIVES FOR THE SECOND SEMESTER

Winter vacations are a good instance to slow down, rest, observe more calmly the semester that has just passed, connect with aspects that I must maintain, others that I must modify. Connect with lessons learned: own, from others, facing difficult situations. Based on this analysis, you can work with the children, which will be the objectives for the next semester, at all levels: personal, social, family, school and recreational. It is very important that children have clear and concrete goals, objectives for their development and well-being.

6. THE VALUABLE HOBBIES

Winter vacations are a great opportunity for children to discover a hobby or hobby. If they already have it, it is an excellent period for them to spend time on them. Painting, reading, drawing, playing some instrument. The main role here of the parents is to be able to anticipate and dispose of the necessary materials so that the child empowers and occupies their time in their hobbies.

CHECKLIST FOR WINTER HOLIDAYS

If you can’t think of what to do with your children at this age during the long winter days, we give you this list of unmissable activities:

For vacations to meet the proposed objective, it is important to consider some issues.

Do not overload activities. Many times we make the mistake of thinking about vacations as a time to carry out all the activities that were pending during the year. The excess of plans and expectations increases anxiety generating the opposite effect and does not allow us to relax.

· Plan the activities we want to do. Visualizing in advance the type of activities we want to carry out and planning them is a good strategy so that the days do not go “without doing anything” or, conversely, start automatically with the usual routine; which will lead us to have the feeling of not having made a “cut”.

· Maintain a healthy diet. The change in routine and increase in social activities often leads to imbalances in food. Avoiding excesses is the key to not harm our health.

· Sleep between 6 and 8 hours of running. Rest is essential to achieve a good recovery and repair of the body.

· Keep active. Carrying out activities that allow us to keep moving favor the feeling of vitality and improve rest at night generating a healthier daily life cycle.

Winter vacations are highly anticipated by all of us, either because we love to travel or simply need to cut with the routine. In addition, this break is an opportunity to get the focus of the obligations and generate spaces for meeting and leisure with the family, with friends and, also, with oneself.

Sustaining daily activities without cuts for a long period causes wear on people by increasing the level of stress. Our body begins to record effort and gets tired more easily. That is why, during the second half of the year, everything we face feels “more uphill”.

Conclusion

Some studies show that mini-vacations are necessary and favor health, although there is no agreement on the optimal number of days for a good rest. During them, there are certain modifications in biological processes related to stress response, immune system activity, and longevity.

Making periodic cuts allows us to recover energy and enjoy everything we set out to do. If we are a long time without resting, we are more vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases and other complications that favor the early deterioration of the body. Therefore, we can say that vacations are a protective factor and are a necessary part of a healthy life.

Writer:
Juan M.
PapersHelm