Summer fun in the sun! As a working mom of five children, ages 4 through 14, it takes skillful planning to fill the summer months with “fun!” To do this, I either enroll them in enrichment academies or summer camps, have play dates at the pool, attend local events, take them on vacation, and the list goes on. Well, it is mid-summer, and the novelty of summer has started to wear off. Inevitably, I have heard one or all my five kids say at one-point things like, “Mom, I’m bored.” “It’s too hot!” “That? Again?”
“¿Y ahora qué? What now,” I ask myself. Well, I consider myself a life-long learner. I am also an educator by trade. Why not combine both things that I love and make summer fun synonymous with summer learning!
Start by working with your child’s interests. Find the things that your child is enthusiastic about and build learning experiences around these. The wonderful thing about this kind of learning is that your child gets to do what really interests them without any restrictions and within limits, of course. Once you determine a topic of interest, consider going to the library for books to read, talk about it, watch movies about the topic, do craft projects, find movement activities, and even take a trip that relates to the topic. The following are websites that I have found useful when planning summer learning/summer fun:
Summer learning plans and summer learning contracts:
https://www.familyeducation.com/school-learning/summer-learning
How parents can help their children stay on track to stop the summer reading slide:
https://www.smore.com/8ju62-stop-the-summer-reading-slide
Screen time contracts
https://www.sunshineandhurricanes.com/100-scree-free-summer-activities-for-kids/
Summer bucket lists:
https://eastcoastmommyblog.blogspot.com/search?q=summer+checklist
Ten tips to make this the best summer ever with your family:
https://www.ahaparenting.com/read/Summer-Activities-Kids-Home
Keep in mind that any of these suggested activities work best when accommodated to your child’s developmental needs. I am always looking for ideas or reminders of previous things I might have tried before that kept my five children engaged in the summer. While at our local grocery store, one of my kids got an activity booklet. When we got home, we unscrambled the following list of words: tag, swim, hide and seek, hopscotch, jump rope, sandbox, sidewalk chalk, and water balloons. I thought, now these are activities we have not done recently that I can accommodate and purposefully make connections to summer learning (for example, counting, numeracy, taking turns, writing) and summer fun!
