A change of environment and a break from routine offers great learning opportunities for children... and parents, too!

Holidays such as school term breaks are crucial for the advancement of brain development in children. The memories created during these holidays tend to be ingrained in the limbic system — the part of the brain that controls our basic emotions (such as fear and anger) and primal instincts (such as hunger and more).

In other words, these beneficial side effects are not just temporary — they actually help shape your child’s disposition, which is something that is important to us at The Learning Lab.

While it's great to give your child a break from schoolwork over the holidays, you don't want your child to forget what he or she has learnt throughout the year. In fact, the arrival of the holidays doesn’t mean that learning has to stop — it just means that there's time to expand on your child’s learning and to reinforce the skills he or she has developed.

To help your child maintain learning momentum during the school holiday, try some of the following ideas.

This could be something as simple as being in a natural environment where your child can witness the harmonious natural cycles of life.

In Primary 3 and 4, for instance, students learn about the characteristics and life cycles of plants, as well as the characteristics of mammals, birds, insects, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

You could help your child identify these living beings in a ‘real-time’ setting, consequently strengthening his or her memory of the subject.

Because contact with nature is proven to sharpen vision, concentration, curiosity and creativity, it works in your family’s favour to enjoy the great outdoors.

More importantly, being in a natural environment helps teach respect for our extraordinary planet and the ways all life are inextricably connected. This is a lesson your child can carry with him or her through life.

Start with looking through your child's past work. Analysing past errors and identifying the root cause(s) are important — it helps your child to reflect and review topics that were covered from the start of the school year.

Your child's teachers may have given him or her review worksheets as holiday assignments. These worksheets, which may be subject-specific, are great in helping to reinforce your child's topical knowledge and understanding. 

A strong foundation will pave the way to a greater understanding of the newer topics that will be introduced in the upcoming terms.

This is a creative way of teaching your child that there are many other ways to express himself or herself.

It is also helpful to be specific with your questions. For example, if you want to learn what happened in a situation you were absent from, you could say, “I noticed so-and-so. Did you know what happened?” instead of simply jumping into the scene and demanding to know what happened.

Remember that the weight and emphasis we put in words can have psychological consequences. According to psychological studies, when we structure our sentences by choosing to use positive words that invoke happy images, it decreases the number of unconscious negative thoughts.

Mindfulness in communication goes a long, long way.

Reading and storytelling can foster a love of books and narratives, refine the distinction between reality and fantasy, understand the chain of events and consequences and strengthen intuition and social sensitivity.

But also, go beyond books. You can, for example, read packing labels together with your child when doing some grocery shopping or read street signs and billboards when you’re out and about. You can read menus in restaurants and cafes or even texts on people’s clothing. Comics and magazines with plenty of illustration are also interesting materials for developing minds.

Making time for this activity during the school break helps develop your child’s hindsight, insight and foresight through making visual observations and comparison.

Find out more about the enduring life-long skills that your child can pick up from reading and how to go about kindling a passion for reading in your child here.

As your child progress through the academic year, he or she will have to manage busier schedules, tighter deadlines and heavier workload. This is why it’s important to ensure to help your child: 

• find joy in the day-to-day process

• learn about the value and rewarding nature of independence

One way to do so is to explain the intangible rewards of achieving a goal or for good timekeeping. For example, you can get your child to finish a page of a colouring book by explaining the positive outcome of his or her hard work and commitment. Once he or she is finished the page, it can be gifted to grandma and grandpa, which would undoubtedly make them happy.

By doing this, you can give your child extra motivation to keep learning, keep exploring and keep finding joy in taking ownership of his or her work.

Check out our collection of exclusive learning resources that includes fun activities for your child, useful guides, informative articles and more that can help your child learn at their own pace with the company of their loving family.

Take your pick  from the myriad of enjoyable and educational activities and guides such as: