Well, at least sometimes! Summer vacation is a wonderful time to rest, watch TV, play video games and basically do nothing, after a long school year period. Your kids certainly need the extra time to feel a little bit lazy, wake up late, play all day long, enjoy sleepovers and parties.

Every long summer vacation is sure to be followed by a new school year waiting just around the corner, full of homework, exams, school assignments and some hard and intensive daily studies.

There’s no question about it, our children need the long holiday to relax and feel refreshed towards the new school year, and even get excited about a new class and going back to school.

However, after a few weeks, parents might get the feeling that all their kids ever do on summer vacation is watch TV or play online games.

Should we allow our kids to do absolutely nothing for weeks and weeks? Of course not, as I say to my own children, summer holiday is vacation from school, not from your entire life. Meaning, they must maintain reasonable sleeping hours, keep eating healthy and enjoying all kinds of activities, including sports, reading, meeting friends and family. No, you cannot sit in front of your computer or TV all day long.

The key to doing this the right way, keeping the arguments to a minimum, is first of all setting some ground rules, second explaining why you do so, third offer plenty much more exciting activities.

Decide each of your children can watch a certain number of TV shows a day, or at specific hours. For instance, do not allow to turn the TV or computer on at noon or after noon. These hours will be used for fun activities such as going to the pool, meeting friends, playing games, visiting relatives or reading.

Offer the kids fun activities to try, like new crafts ideas, cooking, inventing games or dressing up. Creating fun activities for your children is all about being creative and thinking as simple as possible. Remember the games you enjoyed best as a child? Invite a friend over, that will sure help making every activity even more appealing and fun.

Explain your kids that you must set some rules together, because you care for them, explain why it is important that they stay involved in different kinds of activities during the summer, why it’s important that they continue reading or playing all sorts of games and staying creative during the long period of summer.

When your kids watch TV or play online games, try to enrich these hours a little bit by playing games or occupying your kids with creative activities that are related with the game or show they’re watching. For instance, Draw a picture of their cartoon characters; build a house for their Webkinz dolls and so on.

With a little effort, summer holiday can be more than exercising your eyes watching TV, or playing the same video games over and over again.

Author Bio: Owner of Http://www.amazing-birthday-ideas.com where you can easily plan any birthday party with many birthday themes for all ages. Check all birthday ideas, read more creative activities for summer, and Dora birthday ideas for girls

Category: Parenting
Keywords: summer, vacation, school, online games, TV