How to Find Purpose in Summer Break

Your school-age children have likely reminded you that the long-awaited end of school and onset of summer vacation is nearly here! Kids everywhere get pretty excited about their two or three months of freedom. The break is often well-earned and has an important purpose. Our children need those built-in breaks to thrive!

Unfortunately, it only takes a couple of weeks for that excitement to wear off and for stagnation to set in. That stagnation produces discontent and tries the patience of parents! Why does summer so often rapidly devolve into idleness, sibling conflict, complaints of boredom, and just general sluggishness in our kids, and what can we do about it?

Summer presents us with a golden opportunity to help our children find purpose and valuable action, from start to finish. I’d like to present six simple concepts that I hope will help us structure the summer in a way that will achieve a balanced, purposeful and profitable break for our children.

These practical steps won’t just help their sanity (and ours!); it will help them obey the God-given commands to redeem their time (Ephesians 5:16), bring God glory in our activities (1 Corinthians 10:31), and be “always abounding” in the work God has given us to do (1 Corinthians 15:58)!

Play

This one may seem to go without saying, but there is a reason for summer vacation! Times of recreation are important for our children’s physical and mental health.

But children need direction in order to maximize that intended benefit. For us, that means purposeful parenting in contrast to a hands-off decision to let them loose to determine play on their own. Their default will often be forms of play that involve electronic media. While those forms of play may have their place, over time they are proven to contribute to stagnation and lethargy.

We as parents must make sure purposeful play happens and make sure it includes some physical activity. Plan outings that involve physical activity, perhaps with friends. Schedule outdoor time every day and provide them with ideas or options for how to use that time. When there is a choice between two hours of video games and a trip to the neighborhood pool, make sure the pool often wins out!

If both parents work, find time in the evenings for these activities and vigilantly protect chunks of time on your days off for this purpose. This kind of intentional play takes effort from us as parents, but it is both necessary and worth it!

Read

Here’s a great way to beat the heat–read a book! Not every child is an avid reader. Every child is different, so this is not a one-size-fits-all suggestion. But reading at some level and for at least some period of time is immensely profitable for our children. Intentional reading will ensure that their minds are growing and profiting, even while on break.

Try utilizing a weekly trip to your local library to get started. In most cases, libraries have something for pretty much everyone. Nearly every child, no matter their hobbies, areas of curiosity, or level of eagerness to read, can find something that peaks their interest in a library. When a child picks out a book herself because it attracted her attention, she will be much more motivated to read it.

Perhaps schedule a reading time in the heat of the day where those books get devoured indoors! This will look a bit different for every child and family, but it’s unlikely you’ll come to regret some form of this commitment this summer.

Study

Structure your summer in a way that encourages your children to review some of their academics in a casual way, perhaps once a week for a short time. A simple online search will uncover endless resources for nearly every subject and grade level that are designed to be fun and brief while reinforcing what they have learned.

You or your kids may ask, “Aren’t we supposed to be getting a break from all that?” Yes, a break from the all-out nature of the school year is healthy. But continuing some non-invasive forms of review and reinforcement will help ensure that our children are always “increasing” mentally (Luke 2:52), not to mention helping ensure a strong start to the next school year.

Work

As your children age beyond the pre-school years, summer provides a great opportunity for growing their capacity for manual work. By allowing a summer dedicated only to recreation, we run the risk of subliminally teaching an unbalanced perspective on life.

When we teach them that work and play are both part of a healthy and fulfilling life, we are underscoring a biblical worldview for them and preparing them to be productive and healthy members of society. Summers are a perfect opportunity to teach that balance.

We already talked about the importance of being active rather than sedentary, but this applies beyond their forms of play. This summer, include in your expectations for them some projects or activities that involve them getting some things done. This can take the form of something as simple as a chore chart of things around the house that need to be done before play. Perhaps plan a large project in the house or yard or for a neighbor that they can tackle together as siblings or you all can do as a family.

Rest

This is an important point of balance to everything else we’ve seen. While being active vitally protects our children from a stagnant summer, we still must not neglect the need for rest. Rest is a lost art in western culture at large, and that trend certainly affects our children year round. Our family schedules can be so chaotic and our pace so frenetic; we must intentionally plan calm and peace into that schedule and pace. It is physically, mentally, and spiritually beneficial.

Just as you plan periods of activity, plan down times of rest. Consider interspersing some slightly earlier bedtimes amongst the later nights that we often default to during school breaks. The concept of rest doesn’t necessarily mean sleep, either.

Reading (see above) can be a form of strategic and profitable rest. Consider making the summer family vacation trip less about trying to fit in all the fun activities and more about slow-paced time together. The principle of the need for recovery after a period of all-out activity is a biblical one (Mark 6:31-32).

Serve

This is perhaps the most important and healthy recommendation of all. Families, in the midst of all the play and work and rest, use your summers to serve God and people!

Open your home for hospitality opportunities with church family members. Open it for outreach opportunities with neighbors. And in both those instances, make the kids an active part of that ministry.

Many churches are active in the summers with various outreach ministries. Involve your children in such opportunities wherever you can. Utilize their increased free time to visit older members of your church and help them around the house or yard.

Take some effort to be creative; you won’t regret it! Involve your kids in that brainstorming of where they can serve as well; that will enhance their ownership of each opportunity. Serve God and others in ways that may not be as feasible during the busyness of the school year.

Successful , Not Stagnant!

Your kids CAN have so much more than a summer that devolves into boredom, idleness, sluggishness, and self-centeredness. It doesn’t have to be stagnant!

We as parents have the opportunity and responsibility to guide them into profitable activity and encourage them in intentional use of their time. This honors God, grows their perspective on life and effectiveness in service to Him.

And hey, as a likely side benefit, it might just help keep you sane to boot! I hope you and your children have a wonderful, profitable, purposeful, memorable summer!