Healthy Vacations: Using Free Time to Build Healthy Habits

The holiday season is near, and what better way to use vacation time than to relax and build healthy habits?

We can’t believe it’s been almost one year since we started our online teaching and learning arrangement as per the government’s request due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are saddened that our students must sit in front of their devices to interact with their teachers and peers on a daily basis. So we highly encourage our students to break free from this unhealthy routine and at least spend the holidays in the sun, in the beautiful outdoors, and spend more time interacting with people face to face.

Here are some things that we wish parents would do for a healthy vacation time:

1. Getting kids to pick up a sport and lead an active life

This holiday season offers a lot of time, and we hope that students use this time to get active and enjoy the outdoors — to make up for the hours of screen time. After all, the three dimensional world that God has created is always far more beautiful than the two dimensional world of pixels. A great way to appreciate the sun and the morning fresh air is to pick up a sport that your kids can play as a family.

For a healthy vacation, we highly recommend badminton, tennis, cycling, rollerblading, and jogging as the best family exercise activities that are good for the body and the soul.

2. Helping kids revisit old hobbies or explore new ones

Before the pandemic, your children may have had lessons — swimming lessons, dance lessons, and ice skating lessons. Many of the places that accommodate these lessons are currently closed. However, your kids may have multiple hobbies and interests, and even if you can’t accommodate the activities which are currently available, fear not.

Allow your children to explore or revisit other hobbies and interests. Please make sure that it doesn’t involve screen time. Sorry kids, but let’s do something other than playing video games, at least for the holiday.

3. Encouraging kids to sleep on time

Your kids may not like this, but it’s for their own good. You may notice that during school days, before and during the pandemic, your children tend to sleep late to make time for homework or studying. It gets worse during the pandemic as they don’t find it necessary to wake up early to prepare for school, so they found even more reasons to sleep even later.

This routine is unhealthy; growing up children and teens shouldn’t compromise their sleep, otherwise their body will suffer in the long term. Teach them the value of sleep, and have them accept that our time is limited and that we shouldn’t waste time on things that do not add value.