Summer is a good time to gain new experiences. Students get enough time to relax, recharge, and get work experiences. Taking up activities like internships, volunteering, and summer camps introduces different life skills in students. These activities also keep them motivated and interested to learn more. Top colleges prefer students who have a diverse resume. Thus participation in such activities helps your child in building a strong application for college as well.
There are a lot of choices for how your child can spend summer. They can attend a summer camp, take vocational classes, do volunteering work, or learn a new skill. Some of the factors based on which you can plan your summer are:
- Think about your child’s long-term goal like a future job, dream college, etc.
- List the activities that your child loves to do and would be enthusiastic to learn more.
- Choose the activity based on the time your child can spend. Too much exhaustion will burn out your child.
In this article, we have consolidated some activities you can engage your child in.
Volunteering
Places like animal shelters, museums, retirement homes, etc. provide volunteering opportunities to children during summer. You can find volunteering work through your school or organizations that offer these programs. Participating in this activity teaches selflessness and inculcates the habit of helping others. Your child can even take volunteering activities in other countries as well.
Such exposure will teach your child a lot of cultures and people around the world. Having this experience on your child’s resume is good to have while applying for good colleges. Volunteering work can get tedious and repetitive, but you have to do it over a long period of time for colleges to consider it.
Hobbies
Summer is the best time to upgrade your child’s skill in a hobby or talent. The hobby could be related to sports, arts, music, computers, cooking, etc. Firstly, your child will get more time to practice your talent or hobby during the summer. Secondly, he or she can also enroll in a talent program for their hobby of interest. Potential colleges and employers like to shortlist applicants who have interests outside regular work. They use these criteria to judge a child’s passion and commitment to improving an existing talent or interest. If your child doesn’t plan on continuing their hobby, then there is no point in investing in it during summer.
Online Summer Classes
Some students join online summer courses to improve their grades in the class. These classes help them stay on track for school and prepare them for college. Your child can take school courses, college courses, or advanced classes during the summer. As they learn more about a subject their confidence and performance improve in the class. Having these extra credits also helps with the college application.
Internship
Internship is similar to a job where your child has to work for a company or organization. In some of the internships, your child will be paid as well. The internship is directly counted towards work experience and enhances the resume.
Your child can pick their hobby and do their internship in that domain. He or she will not only make money but also get exposure to practical aspects. For example, if your child is planning to pursue electrical or mechanical engineering, then they can do an internship in a robotics company. An internship on the resume tells that the child is focused and dedicated to fulfilling their professional goal.
Summer camp
Summer camp is a unique experience that teaches life skills to children. Summer camps are focused on developing skills like cultural diversity, wilderness skills, performing arts, etc. A camp offers a structured and intensive experience in the summer break. Some students join summer camps to learn new skills.
Others join the camp to get exposure to life skills like leadership, self-awareness, and confidence. Participation in some activities in a summer camp counts towards academic credit. If you are looking for activities that help in the learning process and enhance the personal growth of your child, then you might want to consider putting him or her in a summer camp.
It is important that your child spends summer productively. He or she can do so by engaging in different activities or learning new topics. All these efforts will pay off once your child gets admission in a good college or lands a well-paying job.
