It is the essential object during this summer period: vacation notebooks, sold 4.5 million copies in France. And this year, sales are still up 25% compared to last year, according to Hatier editions. Notebooks especially very popular after a complicated end of the school year because of the covid. But caution, however, warns education professionals: children must be given a little rest. Our report on the ferret du Nord in Villeneuve d'Ascq Maximilien Carlier.
You can't miss them at the entrance to the bookstore: the famous holiday notebooks, all very colorful, from CP to Lycée. Syrine is in the process of choosing one with her parents. "This one looks good. I'm 6 years old, it's important to have a vacation notebook, to know more things." "It occupies the children, at least, they do not lose the habit of school too much", adds his mother.
"Children need to breathe and have time to rest. We release the pressure!"
And sometimes, it is also reassuring after this health crisis as explained by Mohamed Bouazama, director of Furet du Nord in Villeneuve d'Ascq: "The 2 months of confinement, the 2 months of vacation ... There is a real fear of school dropout. Especially in college, because it is a pivotal period, between school where you learn the basics and high schools where you learn knowledge.
So learn with the vacation notebooks, yes, but be careful not to redo school at home. Driss Rharhi is an educational psychologist: "School notebooks can be more of a constraint on the development of the child than anything else. Children must breathe and have time to rest. We release the pressure!" And for this specialist, in order to avoid the tension around the school task, it is necessary to privilege the playful activities to be done together. Board games, reading, cooking.