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28/05/2026

"I almost did not send her."

That is what one mum told us after LVA 2025 ended. Her daughter was 14. Quiet. Preferred her room and her phone to most other things. Did not like being around people she did not know.

"I signed her up because my sister pushed me. I was not sure she would even last the first day."

By day two, her daughter had joined a team challenge and was the one organising her group. By Friday she had made friends from three different schools. She had given a short presentation in front of twenty other teens and a few visiting parents. She had learned to build a small fire.

"When I picked her up, she was different. Not a different person. But something had shifted. She held herself differently. She made eye contact with my brother at Sunday lunch. She never does that."

One week. That is all it took.

If you have ever watched your teenager come home from a week away slightly taller than when they left, you know exactly what this mum is talking about. Tell us your version in the comments.

26/05/2026

This is one of the photos I have been sitting on for months. Waiting for the right time to share it.

This teenager arrived on the first day of camp saying he was not a "crafts person." His mum had registered him partly because his school report said he struggled to finish projects.

By Wednesday he was the one helping the 12-year-old at the next table with her weaving pattern. By Friday he had finished his own basket and was asking if he could try a harder one.

The thing about weaving - and we did not realise this when we planned it - is that you cannot fake your way through it. Either the reed holds or it does not. Either your pattern is symmetrical or you can see exactly where it went wrong. There is no bluffing.

For a teenager who is used to performance culture at school, a task that is that honest with you is rare. And oddly freeing.

He is in the photo below. The basket in his hands is his second one.

25/05/2026

For three weeks I have been writing to you about teenagers and long vacations. What they need. What they carry. What happens in rooms where they are asked to try a real thing with real people.

I have not yet told you that I helped run one of those rooms last year.

In July 2025 we gathered twelve teenagers between the ages of 12 and 18 for a week. They came from Accra, from Tema, from Kumasi. Three flew in from the UK for the long vac. None of them had met each other before Monday morning.

We called it Long Vac Adventures. LVA for short. It was the first edition.

Over the next few weeks I want to share what actually happened in that room. Real photos (with parent permission). Real stories. Real moments where things did not go to plan. You will see the teens who stayed quiet for two days and then led the closing ceremony. The mum who cried when she picked her daughter up. The 16-year-old who taught a 12-year-old how to weave a bowl and then asked if he could come back next year as a helper.

This is the part of the conversation I wanted to get to slowly. Because the research and the thinking matters. But the proof is in the week itself.

More this week.

22/05/2026

Three weeks ago we started with a simple question. When school closes in July, what is the plan for your teenager?

Since then, in the comments and in the WhatsApp community, you have said some things I am going to sit with for a while.

You said you wanted your teens to carry:
- the ability to hold a conversation with an adult
- the confidence to try things without asking first
- basic life skills
- real friendships outside their school circle

All of those are built in the same place. Not in a classroom. Not on a phone.

Next week I want to start sharing what that can actually look like in practice - with real photos, real stories, and real parents who took a chance on something last year.

Have a good weekend.

21/05/2026

Open question for the parents here.

What would you love for your teenager to try this long vac that they have never done before?

It does not have to be exotic. It could be something as simple as "spend a week with my sister in Kumasi," "learn to cook one full meal without supervision," "do a project with other kids their age."

Drop it in the comments.

20/05/2026

Some numbers that I cannot stop thinking about.

The average Ghanaian teenager reports around 5 hours of phone use per day during term time, and closer to 7-8 hours during the long vacation.

Across a 7-9 week holiday, that is roughly 350 to 500 hours. A full-time job worth of attention.

I am not going to moralise about this. Phones are not the enemy.

But here is the question worth asking. Of those 350-500 hours, how many do we want back for something else? 20? 50? 100? More?

Pick a number. Whatever you pick, that is the number of hours of something real you want to design back into the long vac this year.

19/05/2026

Asking for something today.

If you are a parent of a teen, I want to know: what is the one skill, habit, or capacity you most want your child to carry out of their teenage years?

Not grades. Not university. Actual capacity. The thing that, ten years from now, you will be glad they learned before they left your house.

Write it in the comments, even just two or three words.

18/05/2026

One mum told me this after her son came back from a week away last year.

"He made his own breakfast on Sunday morning without being asked. He has never done that. I sat on the stairs and cried."

We think of confidence and independence as big things. Giving a speech. Running for a position. But most of the time they show up in the small stuff. Getting up before you are called. Making a decision without checking.

These things do not come from lectures. They come from being in a room, for long enough, where the adult nearby is not your parent.

One unplugged week can do that. Not always. Not every teen. But enough of the time that it is worth thinking about for this long vac.

17/05/2026

A small observation.

Last year I watched a group of teenagers stand in front of parents, teachers, and guests to present a solution they had designed for plastic waste in Accra. They had visited a landfill. They had researched the problem. They had argued over approaches and settled on one together.

One of the girls was 13. She stood at the front of the board, pointed to the pictures, and explained why her team’s solution could work. Her voice shook at the start. By the second minute it did not.

She came over afterward and said, almost surprised at herself, “I did not know I could speak in front of people like that.”

One presentation. One problem they cared about. A capacity she did not know she had, now permanently on her record.

16/05/2026

A second quick one, parents.

When your teen is away from you for more than 3-4 days (school trip, visit to family, anything), which of these is true more often?

A. They come back calmer, a bit more mature, easier to talk to
B. They come back the same, or harder to reach than before

I ask because the answer affects what kind of holiday structure actually helps them.

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