With most national curriculum and some international schools back to routines (and thankfully for parents in the physical world), parents whose Monday-Friday schedules are now packed with school drop off and pick up times and classes after school hours to coordinate, find themselves scratching their heads about the weekend. From my experience, it ranges from a super active, action packed weekend to a complete relaxation in routines that leads to the Monday morning blues. And especially if you are in a part of India, where the rain gods are active, this becomes a tug-of-war to get to school in a ‘happy’ and relaxed mood on Monday morning.
So what’s ideal?
Well, we are not authoring a fiction book, so the ‘ideal’ itself puts pressure on parents because it feels like there are some ‘goals’ to be met and incase they are not, failure is on the cards.
Well, it isn’t so complicated. For starters, simply treating weekends as some time-off to recharge batteries will help you approach this calmly and without the pressure of expectations.
Here are some tips:
1. If you are a working parent, and have the luxury of a weekend off, make most of it! Sleep in for an extra half an hour, and allow your child to do the same.
2. If possible, have breakfast together with your children and make an effort to make something different with your child (cooking activity) which is not always possible during the busy week. Labour over this one, as it allows you to catch up. Even if you are a WFH parent, schedule your calls later so that the ‘breakfast’ time is about family, conversations. Play some music, lighten the mood and pace yourself so that you are not hurried and your body gets the necessary rest it deserves. And this is what you are telling your child. This could hold true for the lunch and dinner as well. Going out to grab a meal could work for some but the old good fashioned way of doing this at home, also works beautifully especially if it can become a cooking activity.
3. Pack some physical exercise together – could be a swim, or cycling, or a walk or playing a sport together. While I understand the need for classes for some parents as they do not have access to groundspace and kid’s coaches need them on the park, I feel the bonding that happen over the weekend with a sport – just pure fun is essential so factor this in at some time.
4. Watch a movie together, and pick one that everyone can watch. Imagine the discussions that precede this – always a negotiation about which, why etc. Again, great for building that bond with your child. It’s amazing how much you may land up learning about the changing nature of your child’s tastes as they explain why they want to watch that film.
5. Make an effort to organise a playdate for the younger children to build those bonds off school hours. If possible with non school friends, so this broadens the child’s friend circle.
6. Reading should dominate these days more than anything because it one opportunity to extend time which tends to get restricted. They will get their ‘screen-time’ which may be a few hours extra but the trick is to do ‘other’ stuff to reduce their need to ‘watch’ or ‘play’ online. Make distraction your strategy!
7. Schedule a visit to a museum or the zoo, anything outdoor that introduces the children to a new experience and valuable time away from gadgets. Even a simple drive involves music and visiting a new place in the city! It’s not where it is about movement and bonding, remember.
8. Ensure that your children schedule their homework time in a way that is paced over 2 days and not cramming on Sunday night. Also important for your child to organise his/her school gear, tidy up the room themselves, so that they can approach the week ahead knowing they have everything. Run errands with the child including a trip to the supermarket to get the essentials for the snack box!
9. Oversee the school’s requests over the weekend so you are organised and planned yourself and not running early morning to the stores to ‘pick’ something up.
10. Play board games, encourage your child to accept defeat. These are valuable learning experiences!
So my 10 hacks were relatively simple, devoid of fancy experiences, not costly and while some weekends you can plan getaways, the idea is to treat weekends as opportunities to build stronger bonds with your children, spend quality time while sticking to the routines you set, except ofcourse extending some hours here and there but not so much that the child is tired, exhausted and troubled to get to school the next week!
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Fatema Agarkar, Founder , Agarkar Centre of Excellence (ACE)
Veteran of 3 educational start-ups , now Founder of the Agarkar Centre of Excellence, Fatema’s passion for teaching-learning and children defines the different roles she has crafted in 20 years – as an edupreneur, educator and mentor.
Fatema who is a State and University topper as part of the prestigious Mumbai based Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics, holds a degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Birmingham (UK), apart from her B.ED and ECCE degrees amassed when she decided education was her calling. Having kick-started her career in the corporate world and working with premier organizations like Commerzbank, Times of India and Egon Zehnder International, she always had an inner urge to bring about an enhancement in the sphere of education..
As an educationist and life-long learner, she has come a long way to intertwine modern methods of learning, teaching and customizing education as per the student’s intellectual requisites thus eradicating stress that stems from the education system. She has been sedulous in making comprehensive alterations in the education field in India. Being a risk-taker, Fatema has been focusing on the generation of innovative educational modules and her in-depth academic know-how, nothing but truly defines her ceaseless passion. Her name is synonymous with successful education models of the country and she is adjudged as Education World’s top 50 Educators in the year 2020. Adding more feathers to her hat, she has also been the recipient of several prestigious awards for her outstanding contribution to the field of education in the years 2013 and 2015.
Fatema has been awarded by Giants Group for her outstanding contribution to the field of education in 2012, the Young Achiever’s Award in the year 2017, Singapore based, Best of Asia’s, ‘Enterprising Educator in the year 2018 and as an entrepreneur ‘Best Edupreneur 2019 and Best Leadership’ by Progressive Academic Excellence India (Maharashtra 2019) and one of the 10th finest inspirational educators in 2019 by TKR, India . Her name is synonymous with successful education models of the country and she is adjudged as Education World’s top 50 Educators in the year 2020. Adding more feathers to her hat With close to 2 decades of experience in education, Fatema is the recipient of several honours including the Indian Achiever’s Award 2021. In July 2023, Fatema was also awarded the ‘Mumbai’s top Women Leader’ award by the CMO Asia National Awards’ (10th edition). Fatema is also a Jury Member for Cambridge School Recognition Awards 2025.
Having being associated with leading high school brands like DRS International, Hyderabad, NSS Hill Spring International, Mumbai, The Gera School, Goa, D Y Patil High School, Talegaon (Pune), SVM, Ratnagiri by the Gadre family, The Excellere World School, Gurgaon, JBCN International Schools, Mumbai, Fatema has now close to 40 pre-schools and high schools that she has set up from the grassroot level including a school for special needs’.
Fatema is on the Advisory Board of several Trusts including EduTech India, Wockhardft Foundation as well as a jury member, Education World Awards, a platform that recognizes the efforts of educators pan India. Fatema is also the Vice President for Early Childhood Association (ECA) and the Mumbai Territory Head for Association for Primary Education & Research (APER) in India. Fatema has been appointed as the global ambassador of the Commonwealth Entrepreneurs Club. . Fatema is on the advisory board of the All-India Gaming Federation (AIGF) and currently appointed as the National Council Member for Financial Literacy & Management by WICCI. Given her access to parents and her ability to provide age appropriate strategies to enable them to make more informed choices, Fatema’s passion remains counselling in the hope that effective parenting will enable children to benefit the most.
Fatema is also the special advisor of the Child Chapter Association (CCA), a non-governmental organisation registered as a Section 8. company under the Companies Act, 2013 whose mission is to spread awareness and eliminate child abuse, including child sexual abuse. Her role as a special advisor of CCA includes providing advice and guidance for their special outreach programs for Schools and teachers that tap into the child psyche and help them raise their voice against abuse. Fatema also played an instrumental role in the development of the CCA comic books and characters for their global campaign for child abuse awareness and prevention.
Currently, Fatema is the Advisor & Mentor to Finland International School, Race Course and on course to start her own school in 2026. As a TedX speaker, and a avid blogger, Fatema is passionate about sharing her knowledge amassed and inspiring stakeholders be it teachers, parents or students.
Her vision includes set up up of Soup Kitchens, Foster Homes and a community centre for the elderly under the Agarkar Foundation in time.
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