July is here, summer is in full swing! Here are some fun activities to do as a family!
1. Paint Popsicle sticks and glue together to make an American flag.
2. Print and color this connect the dots coloring page for the 4th.
3. Layer Cranberry Juice, Berry flavored Gatorade and 7-up in a glass over ice to make a patriotic beverage.
Bette Fetter Founder and CEO of Young Rembrandts and Author of Being Visual [email protected] Follow Bette on Twitter
If you have a visual learner, a summer reading program may scare you and your child.
But reading is an essential skill and you’ll both have to bite the bullet and do it. Never fear – there’s a light at the end of the tunnel…. your local library. They know how to make reading fun for your child, so it’s easy on you.
Our local library, like so many others around the country, has a variety of special reading events throughout the summer to keep kids reading. This year our library’s summer theme, Paws to Read, is built around Clifford the Big Red Dog. In an effort to get kids into the library they have a variety of interactive exhibits, game days and special events all centered on Clifford.
To get kids to read and keep reading throughout the summer – there’s a Summer
Defeating the summer slide can be accomplished in a lot of different ways. One of my personal favorites is the summer reading program that is held annually at our local library, Gail Borden. 
Like most local libraries, the summertime offers a lot of opportunities to engage with kids from the community and build a love of learning (especially reading)!
We love dad’s and want to honor them all year but especially on Father’s Day. Take a few minutes to enjoy this musical tribute to suburbanite dad’s. Get ready for to see how they use playful rap to share their thoughts on raising kids, Disney movies, barbequing and landscaping.
It was a rainy Saturday morning and four year old Brayden was looking for something to get busy with. He got out his crayons and drawing paper and came to find grandma. He thinks that because I can draw – I am his personal illustrator and coloring book. But instead of me doing all the drawing – we drew and colored together.
First I drew the rocket ship he wanted. Together we drew lots of circles that made the planets and far away stars in space. Then Brayden colored the rocket ship and all the planets – leaving me the dark, dark sky. He knew he left me the ‘big’ job, and was very complimentary about how well I colored. Good to know I can still impress a four year old!
As parents, we can look forward to summer as a time with lighter schedules, less structure and no homework. Let’s face it — we all need a break, 
and these warm, carefree days give us the perfect opportunity. However, too many lazy days can result in the well-worn phrase “I’m bored.” Today’s kids have so much technology at their fingertips — TV, movies, video games, the internet — that it can take some special effort to get them engaged in a wider variety of activities, activities that are important to keeping them “mentally fit”.
While the left and right side of our brain represent auditory and visual learning styles, there is one more learner that needs to be recognized. Kinesthetic learners, also known as tactile learners, represent those children that need to touch, see and move when they learn. Traditional classrooms, driven by lecture and large class sizes can be especially challenging for these learners. When we understand their need to be physically engaged, we can make adjustments to better accommodate these learners. Click HERE to take our quiz and find out if your child is a Kinesthetic learner!
Cooking with our kids is a great way to spend time together while involved in purposeful activity. But there’s much more that happens when we invite our kids into the kitchen. Cooking is an engaging, visual, spatial, tactile, hands-on activity that can reinforce classroom learning while developing fundamental cognitive skills.
After a late night reading stacks and stacks of books during our “sleepover,” my grandson and I were up early and in the kitchen to start our day, making and doing. Brayden, who is four years old, climbed on his special kitchen stool, while I got out the ingredients. Making breakfast quiche was going to be a great opportunity to measure, pour, mix and roll, all things that would thoroughly engage a curious preschooler. This multisensory activity is one that I often engaged my own children in as they grew, knowing the benefits go far beyond just having fun.
