© Victor Ochieng’
Students who want to make wise use of the holiday should balance three things — home chores, personal study time and leisure. This is the best way to achieve it.
- Bond with your family
Holiday is the time to bond with your family. Firstly, it is good to write a thank you note to 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.
- Find time to read widely
During the holiday, students should cultivate rich reading culture by reading 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. It props up confidence and enriches word banks. Through reading, students become better writers of imaginative compositions. Books are not only sources of interesting and intelligent conversations but also boost ingenuity and creativity.
Furthermore, it improves the attention and concentration span while also promoting a good mood. It also reduces stress, expands the brain and exposes learners to novelty. Reading adds glamour to ones grammar and builds the verbal-linguistic intelligence.
- Complete given 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 but allot more time to books. For candidates, there is no time to waste on non-academic issues such as parties, hangouts, visiting relatives and sideshows.
- Compare notes with other learners
During the holiday, it is possible to meet and greet peers from other schools. Make it a habit to compare notes with them. Try to find out the Best Academic 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 and informative. Teens should choose music and movies that build character and enhance mental might. It is advisable to shun forms of entertainment that encourage lassitude – mental laziness. Watching dirty stuff such as pornography leads to aberrant sexual behaviour.
- Make wise use of media
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 Zoom and Google Meet. They can follow informative programmes aired on educative TV channels. They can use special sites such as YouTube to watch phenomenal speeches and didactic documentaries. They can find time to watch news during prime time to keep abreast with the current affairs.
- Participate in church activities
During the holiday, purpose-driven churches organize 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 the God. Participate in church charitable programmes hence learn to be kind, empathetic and altruistic. Attend mass and massive missions organized by the church. Tap floods of blessings by volunteering to clean the church compound.
- Learn more about careers
During the holiday, read relevant books and follow TV programmes that 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 your future career.
- Unleash your full potential
Talent is in-born ability. Gift is divine-driven ability. Skill is an acquired ability. During the brief 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, employability skills and people skills.
- Learn from right role models and mentors
Role models are people you can ape due to their admirable 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 good 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.
Laurent D. Daloz got it right, “Mentors are guides; they lead us along a journey of our lives, we trust them because they have been there before us.”
The writer rolls out one-on-one and group counselling sessions for high school students during the holiday. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
