Holidays - At last! There’s so much to do, and finally time to get things done that you could not get round to do before.  

In order to recover as much strength and energy as possible, you should try not to commit yourselves to doing or planning too much - try to give yourself time to relax. If you feel like it, you could wake up without an alarm and live your days spontaneously, as your moods and fancies take you. Enjoy the time you can devote to your hobbies, friends and family. Then you‘ll be all the more motivated, creative and well-balanced and enjoy going back to school in September.

But then, at some point boredom sets in. Maybe you seem to have done everything and carried out all your ideas, acted on your moods and fancies. And the holidays aren’t over yet. What can you do?

The Association of Austrian Psychologists advises: Just do nothing! They say that doing nothing is healthy. Children, like adults, do not need to be busy all the time. Quite the contrary, boredom awakens creativity and new interests.

It is important to sleep in. To wake up without an alarm is pure luxury and you should enjoy it. Especially during puberty, sleeping enough is extremely important.

Getting outside, into nature, whatever the weather and whether you are in your own village or town or abroad is great. It’s fun walking with others, in the forest, over the fields, by the sea or in the mountains, where there are always masses of things to discover and plants and animals to spot.

In company each of you can contribute your ideas, your fancies and your moods, so that you can enjoy doing things that appeal to everyone or give everyone a turn at doing something they like. Within the family we all need to have time to ourselves to give us a chance to do things with friends or simply on our own . On YouTube Lotti gives 10 Tips to combat boredom which you can try out alone or with your friends: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD3E7jgmARc.  

Lotti’s 10 Tips are: reading (newspapers or books); drawing or painting just for fun; getting out of the house alone or with a pet; sport; helping out with the washing or folding clothes; playing a musical instrument  or singing, again just for fun; making something, sewing or doing something else creative; baking or cooking for yourself or sharing with others; a full make-up or new hair-do; sleeping, tidying or cleaning your bedrooms (why not change them around?); making yourself useful, so that afterwards you have a sense of satisfaction.

Perhaps you’ll almost forget how to use your smartphone and internet. Guard against using your computer or surfing the internet more than you do in school time. Perhaps you should try an internet-detox cure for a couple of days or even a week?  Maybe even go without TV for a couple of days or a week or so? One idea might be to keep a diary and write down things you‘ve noticed when you’ve been without the internet or TV for a short period.

In the last two to three weeks of the holidays you can also prepare for the new school year. In order to get back into the rhythm of a normal schoolday it‘s useful to make time for a short daily learning period (primary school children could do 15-30 minutes, secondary school children about  45 minutes). This will get you familiar with your school subjects again. It‘s also a good idea gently to get used to normal bedtime again, so you can adapt to term-time and get up earlier.

If you have to re-sit any exams it’s helpful to make yourself a study timetable and discuss it with your parents. But even so you should take a rest from school, relax and get a bit of distance from it all at least for the first three weeks.

If you have any questions, just write to the Online Help of Kanner-Jugendtelefon, www.kjt.lu. For parents there is the Parents helpline too.