Summer Fun For All!!!!

School's out for summer!!!  Let's take time to help our children become independent thinkers who can learn to occupy themselves, their friends and continue to develop their bodies and minds the entire summer.  It just takes a few simple supplies, a little planning and everyone will enjoy their summer while building friendships and family relationships that will be preserved in memories for years to come.  First you need to determine your child's interests beyond watching television, videos and/or playing video/computer games.  We want children to be active throughout the summer.  Remember it is not a time for the child's mind or body to take a vacation.  It is still important to make sure children of all ages are active each and everyday to maintain physical fitness and health while they continue to build on all their other skills, academically and socially.

Once you have honed in on your child's interests build a summer plan to keep them motivated and involved in a variety of activities.  Summer camps are usually available for most interests but can become rather expensive.  So this may not be an option for many families.  However you can create similiar activities in your community or neighborhood especially if you have a strong parent group.  Parents can create their own 'summer camp' in the neighborhood.  Parents take shifts as the camp counselors sharing the time committed rather than paying for a camp counserlor that you do not know.  You may have one family that has a large pool in your neighborhood, so the days they are available swimming is available or another neighbor has a trampoline, slip and slide, horses, etc., etc.   Maybe you have one or two parents that know how to use power tools to build things out of wood, create a community project the children can learn from; another that sews, paints, draws, cooks or has a green thumb.  You can have small classes going on all summer right within your neighborhood.  Create a neighborhood garden.  Have the children go around the neighborhood (supervised) and collect all the trash or debry that doesn't belong as community service.  Have them go to a nursing home and sing to the elderly.  If you have some parents who love the outdoors, they can be in charge of hiking on local trails; canoe the rivers; day at the beach or park.  Create outdoor games within the neighborhood like croquet; badmitten; teatherball; tennis (if courts area available); basketball; volleyball; sandlot softball . . . Plan weekly organized neighborhood outings to the library.  Add another field trip to keep the children interested- movie theatre (come areas offer free or reduced movies); museums; botanical gardens; local zoos; water parks; roller skating, or the beach (if nearby).  You can also go on long bike rides as a caravan, roller blade, etc.  Make it fun  by creating scanvenger hunts with small incentives.  Have the children prepare and serve each other lunch and snacks.  Work around the schedules of all the parents in your neighborhood.  You will not only be helping each other out but you will reduce the cost of child care while building lasting relationships for yourselves and your children.  And don't forget to award the adults periodically by having a block or neighborhood party.   This idea can be achieved with as few as five famililes or as many as you can handle.  The more families added the more difficult transportation becomes but more adults to share with supervision and activities.  Just remember to include reading and trips to the library in your plan as well as talking to the children about the activity and helping them learn about it.  Have the older children help and give them responsibilities with built in incentives to assist with their motivation.  Be creative and share your ideas, successes and failures if any with others by posting below.

Here are some of the things your child will learn from the suggested activities in this blog-

• Swimming- coordination; physical fitness; increase hand-eye coordination by having children dive for things or play games to help with taking turns, following directions, sportsmanship, cooperation and communication.
•  Trampoline- physical development and control; coordination and dexterity; physical fitness, taking turns, following directions
•  Horses or other animals- compassion; care of another; riding with lessons and directions; communication; following directions; empathy for animals; unconditional love animals give in return
•  All of the ball games- coordination; dexterity; physical fitness; keeping score; following directions (rules of the game- cognitive dev.); cooperation; sportsmanship; teamwork; communication
•  Museums, zoos, local sites or botanical gardens- learn about the community (subject-animals, plants, history . . .); being a good citizen; acceptable public behavior; communication; cooperation; following directions and much, much more
•  Outdoor adventures (hiking, biking, etc.)- learn about the community and rules as they pertain to the activity; being a good citizen; plant and animal life in the area; physical fitness; safety; cooperation; following directions; communication
•  Woodworking- proper use of tools; measurements; following directions; teamwork; cooperation; communication; building a product to be proud of.
•  Sewing- proper use of tools; measurements; following directions; ability to express self; communication; creating something to be proud of.
•  Cooking- proper use of tools; nutrition; health; measuring; reading and interpreting a recipe; create something to be proud of.
•  Paint/Draw/Crafts- following directions; free expression; proper use of various mediums and tools; creativity; creating something to be proud of.
•  Gardening- following directions; plant life cycle; care of plants; final product to be proud of
•  Community Service Projects- compassion; empathy; citizenship; ecology/recycling; importance of giving; following directions; communication; cooperation; teamwork
•  Weekly trips to the library encourage children to read.  You may want to allow time for children to share their books with one another or choose a book for all the children of a given age group to read at the same time and discuss.  Allow time in all the activities to discuss what's being done; why it's being done; how it's should be done; provide guidance as necessary; and any safety rules or parameters related to the activites.  Communication is essential in every activity with children- Also allow time for children to write thank you's to the adults who help and you may even create a pen pal club for the neighborhood to encourage writing all summer long.

As you can see each and every activity allows a child to lean while they are actively involved and having fun.  The activities suggested do not include sedentary activities.  We want the children to be active, not sitting in front of a screen all day.  Good luck and look for more simple, inexpensive ideas to be shared throughout the summer.