Summer is a great time of year — the sun shines, days get longer and our schedules loosen. This makes it the perfect time to have a little fun and a lot of R & R, but how much of your family’s downtime is being spent in front of the TV or the Xbox? We’ve compiled a list of our favorite activities for your kids and your family to do this summer…
Summer is a great time to get children involved in outdoor activities. When our children were young, our favorite family vacations were spent in northern Wisconsin. Each summer, we gathered our own four kids and a group of carefully chosen friends and headed north to play. Our plans included swimming, hiking, boating, fishing, game playing, bonfires — just about any kind of unstructured family fun. When we started the Wisconsin cabin tradition, our first cabins were pretty rustic, with few perks beyond running water. Over the years, the cabins have included a few more luxuries. I was determined to keep the focus on interactive play, so the first thing I did when we arrived was unplug the television and bury it in a closet. Initially, the kids were confused, but quickly caught on and took great pride in their ability to go without.
A few days ago, I shared the hours and hours of summer fun my kids had with Klutz books. Today I want to share a bit about what makes these books so special, along with some favorite titles and where to find them.
When my kids were young and it was time to plan their summer activities, I wanted to provide them plenty of multisensory opportunities. The “lazy days of summer” are not enough to keep kids happy and stimulated. They are much more engaged and satisfied when they’re busy making, doing, learning and playing. All throughout the summer we would sign up for a variety of organized activities, such as swimming lessons, sport camps, theater programs and art classes. And we stocked the house with lots of fresh new creative play options.
I have been a long time fan of Michaels stores. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time searching their store aisles for art and craft materials for my kids and myself. And I am now delighted to say – the folks at Michaels are fans of Young Rembrandts!
As your child moves through her scholastic experience, chances are her favorite class will vary from year to year depending on changing interests. However, depending on her learning style, certain aspects of each class may always appeal to her. If you have a kinesthetic learner, gym class may jump start his engine each day. Your visual learner will favor any class that uses lots of pictures, videos and objects. Your auditory learner will like reading and algebra because she’s comfortable with words and logical processes to reach her answer.
“Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.” Lewis Grizzard
Spring is a fun time of year to engage with nature. These education games, activities and crafts are a great way to get your kids excited to get outside and get moving. A learning activity, Find an Animal Mate, teaches kids to imitate an animal and observe their surroundings to find the child who is their matching animal. Learn more about how to do this activity here .
With shortfalls in education budgets, the arts — visual art, music and theater programs — are first to be eliminated from school curriculum. Sadly, they are considered “non-essential” as they cannot be tested in the same way as other subjects. School funding and teacher performance evaluations are based on student test scores.
