When schools close, students find time to break from the rigmarole of academic work. Ideally, it is the best time to press the pause button, and recharge the academic batteries. For when they rest, they do not rust. Albeit, students who want to make wise use of the holiday balance three things — home chores, personal study and leisure time. This is the best way to achieve it.
- Connect with family
Holiday is the time to connect well with the family. Firstly, it is prudent express gratitude for the parental support. Also, help parents to attend to home chores. If you know the way they make money, help them generate more. This may make them find ways to defray school fees and purchase for you academic materials with a lot of ease. Being in good terms with parents attracts the favour factor. Ephesians 6:1-3 admonishes children to honour their parents. For it is the first commandment with a promise — long life.
- Try Reading Widely
During the holiday, students should spare time and cultivate rich reading culture, and read notes, core-course books, storybooks, class readers, KCSE set texts, self-help books, newspapers and magazines. Nassim Taleb observed, “A good book gets better at the second reading, a great book at the third reading. No book is quite the same when you read it again.” A rich reading habit enhances content mastery and memory. Leading to peak performance in exams.
Reading props up confidence and communication skills. Again, reading enriches word banks. Through avid reading, students become better writers of imaginative compositions. Books are sources of interesting and intelligent conversations. Books boosts ingenuity and creativity. Reading improves the attention and concentration span. Reading best books promote a good mood. It reduces stress, expands the brain, and exposes learners to novelty. Reading adds glamour to their grammar. It builds the verbal-linguistic intelligence.
- Complete School Assignments
As students break for holiday, teachers have issued shedloads of assignments. Making wise use of the holiday means that they do not take it as a break from rigmarole of academic work. Students should allot a lot of time to books than any other thing. It is wise to spare time to complete assignments given out by teachers. Going back to school without doing assignments can foment conflict between students and teachers.
- Borrow Best Practices
During the holiday, it is possible to meet and greet peers from other schools. Make it a habit of comparing notes with them. Try to find out the best practices you can borrow from them. Let there be positive peer influence — with a special focus on learning literate habits, hobbies, routines and rituals.
- Engage in edutainment
Entertainment is important. Teens love life rife with fun. Things that make people laugh leave them in good mood. I am not writing to condemn such things. Albeit, I think that teens should choose edutainment instead of entertainment. Edutainment is entertainment that is educative. Teens should choose music and movies that build character and enhance mental might. It is advisable to shun forms of entertainment that lead to lassitude — mental laziness. Also, watching dirty stuff such as pornography leads to aberrant sexual behaviour.
- Use Media Wisely
In the distant past, Malcolm X, the African-American legendary leader observed, “Media is the greatest entity on earth. It has the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent.” Therefore, if a young person can access a phone, it is good to use it wisely. During the school stasis caused by Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, students used phones and tablets to learn.
Students can receive or read useful materials on WhatsApp. They can attend lessons through learning sites such as: Zoom, Google Meet, and more. They can follow informative programmes aired on educative TV channels. They can use special sites such as YouTube to learn useful topics, watch phenomenal speeches and didactic documentaries. They can find time to watch news during prime time: To build communication skills, and keep abreast with the current affairs.
- Participate in Church
During the holiday, purpose-driven churches organise mentorship programmes in form of seminars, conferences and camps. It is important to attend such meetings and learn. Attend church services to enhance your intimacy with God. Participate in church charitable programmes hence learn to be kind, empathetic and altruistic. Attend mass and massive missions organised by the church. Tap floods of blessings by volunteering to clean the church compound.
- Learn about Careers
During the holiday, read relevant books and follow TV programmes, which provide useful information about careers and future world of work. Consult career counsellors. Learn about careers through job shadowing — find time to visit places people are practising what you yearn to do in future.
- Unleash Your Potential
Talent is in-born ability. Gift is divine-driven ability. Skill is an acquired ability. Skill is competency. During the holiday, students should discover and nurture their talents. In turn, talent will be able to grow and glow. In 2 Timothy 1:6, Apostle Paul of Tarsus charged his protégé Timothy to fan his gift into flames. In Proverbs 18:16, Solomon in his winsome wit and wisdom wrote: “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.”
In addition, alongside hard skills learnt in school, use the holiday to develop soft skills, life skills, 21st century skills, transferable skills and employability skills and people skills. These skills will be of great help in future.
- Learn from Mentors
Role models are people you can ape due to the admirable character qualities they evince. Mentors on the other hand, are trusted people who are more experienced in life that can inspire you to achieve your dreams in life. We read that from a heroic book titled Unstoppable: Achieving Excellence and Beyond, co-authored by Rosemary Kibui and Timothy Kipchumba. Sometimes, young people mess and miss the mark because of wrong choice of role models and mentors.
Life is a journey, not a destination. Therefore, if you want to know the way, ask those who are coming back such as leaders and elders. Laurent D. Daloz got it right, “Mentors are guides; they lead us a long a journey of our lives, we trust them because they have been there before us.”
By Victor Ochieng’
During the holiday, the writer speaks in youths and teens’ meetings organised by families, churches, FBOs, NGOs, inter alia. Parents and guardians can also reach out to him for one-on-one mentorship and coaching at the Penman Centre in Nairobi and on Zoom Webinar.
vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
Get more stories from our website: Education News
To write to us or offer feedback, you can reach us at: editor@educationnews.co.ke
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
>>> Click here to stay up-to-date with trending regional stories
