LivingSchool holidays begin: what we do in summer with...

School holidays begin: what we do in summer with the children

Summer vacations are here, and like every year the eternal dilemma between parents resurfaces: what do we do with the children while we continue working?

It is a reality: when these dates arrive, it is not easy to reconcile work and personal life. Not surprisingly, six out of 10 parents face school holidays with stress, according to data from a survey conducted by Lingokids among 600 families with children under 10 years of age.

The study also reveals interesting data on the organizational habits of families during the summer : camps, grandparents, caregivers, technology… What are the preferences of Spanish parents?

School holidays are a source of stress for parents

As we have just mentioned, 59% of parents begin to show signs of stress before the arrival of the school holidays.

For most parents, this stress is derived from the difficulty of organizing the logistics of all these weeks without school, while for the remaining 10%, the stress is caused by living with the children 24 hours a day. .

And it is that it becomes really exhausting to take care of the children throughout the day while we continue with our obligations (housework, shopping, errands…); making sure they don’t get bored, that they don’t resort to the excessive use of screens, that they don’t fight…

According to the survey data, only in 20% of households does one of the parents have the entire summer free to care for the children. Of the rest, 36% organize themselves together, as in a relay race, to cover almost all school holidays, and 44% resort to different alternatives to leave the children cared for while they work.

Camps and grandparents: the alternatives preferred by nine out of 10 families

When it comes to leaving the children cared for while the parents work , the camps are the most chosen option. Thus, more than half of the families (56%) have contracted one for their children this summer, with 22% of the cases being camps in English.

Given the young age of the children included in the sample, the percentage of parents who have chosen an urban camp (38%) is greater than those who have opted for the experience of sleeping away from home (17%).

The second most common alternative is to turn to grandparents or other relatives (35%), while only 9% decide to hire a person to take care of the children.

Parents want their children to do educational activities during the summer

Homework on vacation: yes or no? The eternal debate has also been contemplated in this Lingokids survey, and six out of 10 parents have been in favor of their children doing homework to reinforce the content learned during the course.

However, for 26% of parents, the idea that children do traditional homework does not convince them, but they are convinced that they carry out other types of educational activities that are more attractive.

Thus, 16% of parents bet on educational mobile applications with game-based learning content. For their part, seven out of ten affirm that they will resort to cartoons, movies in the original version or educational apps in English to practice the language during the summer holidays in a playful way.

In any case, so that the use of screens is safe, fun and contributes to children’s learning, experts recall the importance of responsible and age-appropriate consumption, supervising content and installing parental controls.

It is clear that the two months of school holidays bring headaches to most families, for whom the logistics organization with the children is a real challenge. Year after year, camps and grandparents are the main lifeline to keep children entertained during the summer while parents work.

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