Salient Benefits Of Village Vacation

Our busy city life, concrete structures, digital screen distractions make us forget our very existence. We get so engrossed in our day to day life that we lose touch with the simple pleasures. A four-day winter break in our native Aravayal has been the most enjoyable and pleasant vacation in recent Covid times. An absolutely refreshing break, as there were no screens, no arguments over screen time restrictions, no sulking because of barred screen time. 

The little ponds were filled with rain water, the lush green fields, water filled channels and less crowded streets were a visual treat for our sore eyes. Blessed were we to feel the breath of fresh air, physically active days and cousins bonding time of three generations.

Aravayal is located approximately 93km from Madurai, a 2 hours’ drive and a great get away from the buzzing city life.

The benefits we realized were immeasurable, some of them are listed here.

• Socially Engaged: Cousins were in the age group of 3 years to 12 years, they interacted with each other, took care of each other, expressed their love and warmth by big hugs. The children were delighted to have interactive grandparents and cousins. As a parent of a single child or two kids, we might need to make a huge effort to keep them socially engaged, but a simple break away from malls, tv’s, internet and school does the magic. Children interact with cousins with no peer pressure, all day long they play, eat and play. Their mind is stress free, as there is no eye strain due to long hours of online classes or stress due to lack of free play, as a result they tend to become more expressive and communicative. A change of environment helps us break from the boredom of a monotonous routine.

• Gadget Free: Freedom from gadgets like mobiles, tab is a great blessing in disguise for children of this era, as they are glued to only sofa play and not active play. This village vacation became a boon for all of us, who craved a break from the hectic online school routine and work schedule. A day or two, the best four days to feel the true relaxation and children tend to adapt to the new mode of play. The craving for gadgets tends to disappear when the distractions are more. A visit to the local temple, a walk around the temple pond, a moon light dinner, car park as a large slate to doodle with chalk, role play with kitchen set, running around and playing in the indoor courtyard, a trip to visit ancient historic sivan temples and every meal at a different house are all simple joys but leave lasting memories.

•  Children eating behavior: One or two children in each family, being choosy in eating habits make the family devoid in peace sometimes. Generally, kids prefer to eat more fried items in both vegetarian and non – vegetarian rather than masala or poriyal. It is good to follow and teach our kids a balanced diet with more healthy recipes and less junk recipes. We made a variety of food such as idly, dosa, chutney, chapati, paneer gravy, kolukattai, noodles, vadai, paniyaram, chicken biryani and gravy, soup, sweets, milkshakes. milk etc... I can’t say every kid likes the menu for every meal but still all the children sat together for every meal, ate on their own and attempted to taste what they disliked too. The children had a long outdoor play as much as they could, so they really felt the hunger and ate whatever was made by the grandparents. Many children do not eat by themselves, parents run behind the children to feed as they do not feel the hunger due less amount of play. Here we had around 8 children eating behavior that was completely normal and independent. The special mention was no argument between parent and children.

Though you lead a busy life in a metro city, doing your hectic chores, children attending various classes based on academics or non-academics do not matter, take your children yearly once or twice to your home town village where you were born and brought up to know the values and ethics what has to be followed by the next generations.

 Here are some tips on Providing A Consistent Nurturing Environment To Your Kids

Lakshmi Sakthi Alagappan lives in Thanjavur in Tamilnadu, India. She is an  administrative officer at Blossom Public School. She likes reading books, listening to music and surfing.

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