Kick out all the exam stress and buckle up for summer vacation youngsters! You can now play video games and binge-watch movies because, after your exams, you just want to sit on a comfortable couch and enjoy lazy days and late-night multiplayer sessions with your besties.

But what if I told you that summer vacation is the best time to learn new skills and grow exponentially?

You would probably reply, “You just told us to get rid of our exam stress and relax, and now you are saying that learning is the best way to spend our vacation?”

Hear me out, when I say learning, I don’t mean the conventional classroom learning or and I am not asking you to pick up the books again. What if I told you that you can learn so much so fast while having fun? Yes, you heard it right, while having fun! You probably never even saw the words “learning” and “fun” in the same sentence ever.

I have a few activities for you that you will find more fascinating than playing video games all day, all the while learning practical life skills. The following activities can be performed by children as well as adults and with a little help from the internet, you may pick multiple activities if you can.

Set up a sherbet stand

Summer in Pakistan can get extremely hot and humid, so how to handle hot vacation days at home? A cool beverage stand?

The next time your parents go to the supermarket, grab some extra sherbet bottles, or a drink of your choice, bring it back home and start making the drinks, make sure to have extra ice-cubes, because your customers would definitely want cold refreshing treat! Grab an average-sized household table, disposable glasses, a cooler for ice and set up your stand outside your house.

You will need your parents’ permission and also an adult presence, so ask an adult to be with you to help and keep an eye on things. You can also set up your drink stall near a neighbourhood park, because that is where your target audience is. The kids playing and adults rocking in the park would certainly want a piece of that action.

Charge a small amount that would be enough to make a decent profit. This little venture will help you develop marketing skills, people management skill, customer services skills, as well as financial management, an important set of skills you will never learn in a classroom.

After you are done, you can use the money you made to buy your favourite toys or any other thing you desire.

Learn a new language

Well, what’s fun in learning a new language? You must be wondering, keep reading and you will find out.

Learning a foreign language has many long-term benefits which will serve you well throughout your life. I would personally recommend one of the following languages, French, Spanish, Mandarin and German.

You can hire a language tutor or learn through free online YouTube courses. When you speak more than two languages, there are really high paying side hustles like translating scripts/notes/books etc., that you can pursue and earn by working as a part-time freelancer.

Now the fun part, while you are learning your desired language, make an international friend through social media who speaks the language you are learning and make him your pen pal!

Once you are fluent enough, talk to him/her in the language you are learning, get to know each other and learn about your pen pal’s culture and hometown, trust me it is more enjoyable than it sounds. You will learn about other cultures and their tradition and ways which is amazing exposure. But make sure you have verified the identity of that person and has it approved by your parent or older siblings. Do not become friends with someone who is not your age group or share personal details.

Grow a tree

You may have heard on the news or from grown-ups, about climate change and how we need to plant more trees to save the earth, that’s exactly what we’ll do! Remember you are not just planting a tree, you are doing your part in saving the planet. Look at you, you little superhero!

The first thing you need to do is find a suitable spot with soft soil and other plants around, buy a few seeds, or young tree saplings, from a nearby plantation nursery and plant the seeds into a deep dig hole in the spot of your choice. You may look at YouTube tutorials or Google about planting trees if you encounter an issue.

I would suggest you make it a group project with your family and friends. Through this activity you will learn to be responsible as well as learn the importance of the environment.

Try origami

A fun and enjoyable activity which is more interesting than you think is origami. Origami is the art of folding paper or pieces of paper to make 2D and 3D object, cool isn’t it? This is more on the lighter side of our list of ventures.

As a beginner, Origami.me is your best teacher, you can also watch YouTube tutorials if you wish. I would personally recommend you start with paper planes; you will be surprised how many cool paper planes you can make with very little material. You may also start with animals if you wish, starting from rabbits and dogs as a newbie to dragons as an advanced paper folder.

It will help you develop your right brain, your creative powerhouse, as well as the ability to follow instructions precisely. Once you get into origami, you will never be able to look at a piece of paper without your mental gears rolling.

Make chores enjoyable

You hate household chores? I know, most of us don’t like it, but we will make them entertaining and fun with a little technique called “Token economy”. Token economy is a way you will be rewarded tokens for each chore, let’s say 10 tokens for doing the dishes, 15 for sweeping and 20 for mowing the lawn. You will collect physical tokens, which can be made out of paper or plastic, rewarded by your parents or guardians upon completing the task.

And then a price, of let’s say 150 tokens, will be set for a toy car and 200 for a doll house. Once you have enough tokens, you can claim a prize that you can afford. Tokens may also be taken away for misbehaviour or failure to do the task, a penalty of 5-10 tokens is sufficient.

See how we made chores not only more enjoyable, but rewarding too? You will learn the importance of earning things yourself instead of being given to you. It will also shape your behaviour and help your family out!

So, spice up your vacation with these insightful and fun activities while learning practical skills that will never be taught in schools. Hope your summers are full of sunshine and rainbows, happy holidays!

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 10th, 2023