Category: Summer Fun

Are you ready for some fun ideas to keep your kids busy this next week?

Here are five ideas to get the creative juices flowing (and please, take these ideas, build on them, make them your own, use them as a springboard for bigger and better ideas):

Day One – Take your child on a field trip – take him/her to work with mom or dad. Even the most mundane place is fun and new to a child.

Day Two – Count the number of steps it takes to walk to the corner with your child.

Day Three – Have your child look for bugs. How many different kinds of bugs can he or she find? Size? Color? (Here are some handy homemade bug traps: Bug Inhaler | Bug Hotel | Lady Bug Inn

Day Four – Have your child list all uses of math around the house. Take him/her shopping and have the child keep track of what’s being purchased – great lesson about budgeting!

Day Five – Cut pieces of paper into shapes and paste them in a quilt pattern with your child.

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Here is a fun activity from the book, “A Lithgow Palooza!”:

Starry Night

This palooza directs our gaze to the sky in search of the art and poetry there.

What to do:

Explore the nighttime sky and find the art in the stars. Translate what you see into images and words.

Take a look at Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. This famous painting isn’t an exact representation of the stars, but an expression of how they made van Gogh feel.

What do you see in the stars?

Start with a little stargazing. Choose a good viewing place and time: a clear night far from a city. If you live in a city, save this palooza for when you’re on vacation, or hop in the car and drive to where the city glow won’t disturb your view.

Turn off all yard lights and inside lights, then go outside with a pair of binoculars. Let your eyes get used to the dark while you’re setting up — it can take up to ten minutes for your eyes to fully adjust to the darkness. Spread a blanket on the ground, lie down on your back and look up.

You’re seen stars so often that you stop noticing them. Try now to really look at them. Let the sky full of stars wash over you and surround you. Think about the stars in relation to your five senses. What do they look like to you? Jewels? Pinpricks of light? Observe how they’re grouped, how they shine. Note the words that come to mind about what you’re seeing.

If stars were music, what would it sound like? Something light and tinkly, from the high end of the piano? Or complex and dramatic – a symphony of sound? Do stars have a scent? Have you ever tasted anything that reminds you of stars? If you could reach up and touch the stars, what would they feel like? When you get back inside, jot down any impressions you had while looking at the stars and any words that describe them. Think about colors, shapes, sounds, tastes, textures; use nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.

Try writing some poetry about the stars. Start with a simple haiku, a non-rhyming poem that has three lines and seventeen syllables. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and there are five syllables in the third. Look at your star word notes and see if there are some that seem to connect well. For example:

Bright stars glimmering
Against the dark sky at night
Are smiling at me.

Your turn. 🙂

Are you ready for some fun ideas to keep your kids busy this next week?

Here are five ideas to get the creative juices flowing (and please, take these ideas, build on them, make them your own, use them as a springboard for bigger and better ideas):

Day One – Make up a board game with your child.

Day Two – Have your child put an ice cube outside. How long until it melts? Until it evaporates?

Day Three – Look up events on the day your child was born.

Day Four – Make finger puppets with your child. Cut the ends off the fingers of old gloves. Draw faces on the fingers with felt tip markers, and glue on yarn for hair.

Day Five – Help your child find your town on a map. Take a virtual trip – start by helping your child find cities on the map, and then Google that city.

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Here is a fun activity from the book, “A Lithgow Palooza!”:

Tableaux Vivants

The Victorians endlessly entertained themselves with tableaux vivants, or living-statue scenes, depicting classical paintings or allegories or moments in history. Elaborately costumed tableaux were the entertainment centerpiece of many a high-society ball, while simpler though no less inventive versions were created every night in ordinary homes. This is a thoroughly modern take on a classic Victorian amusement.

What to do:

The twist to this palooza is that you won’t be acting out a scene, but rather staging a shot, kind of like dramatic freeze tag. Choose a scene or theme to depict, forage in closets for costumes and props, then create the picture. Think of scenes from your favorite books or movies, from the breakout in Holes to the melting witch scene in The Wizard of Oz. Or re-create a famous image, say Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware or Auguste Rodin’s Thinker. Or explore a theme more abstractly, like a series of tableaux depicting the four seasons.

Another approach is to skip the costumes and props entirely and depict a scene very simply, relying only on the staging and dramatic execution. You don’t need to be dressed like Washington crossing the Delaware and standing in a boat to stage a wonderful, evocative — or even funny — tableau of that scene. Every figure could be precisely, unmistakably arranged in the scene — all wearing pajamas, or with Washington wearing a cowboy hat. There’s no end to the simple, witty variations you can create.

Take turns being the director, placing subjects in their positions, adjusting props. Create one elaborate tableau or several tableaux, as time and resources allow. Finally, take a photograph of each tableau to memorialize the creation, and perhaps keep them in an album of family tableaux.

Are you ready for some fun ideas of things you can do with your child this next week?

Here are five ideas to get the creative juices flowing (and please, take these ideas, build on them, make them your own, use them as a springboard for bigger and better ideas):

One – Make a trip to the craft store and buy a fun memory book to keep all of your summer photos and crafts in. If you can afford it, buy your child(ren) disposable cameras (or give them a camera they can “use” all by themselves) to use this summer. Allow them to take pictures of anything they wish. (You’ll put some of those pictures into the album at the end of summer).

Two – Share family history, photos with your child.

Three – Watch an educational television show with your child and discuss it.

Four – Pick up a library reading list appropriate for your child’s age and help your child get a library card.

Five – Read a newspaper article about the environment with your child.

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Here is a fun activity from the book, “A Lithgow Palooza!”:

Author, Author

Kids are constantly making up stories, whether it’s about a trip to the beach or a favorite stuff animal’s fantastic adventures. And when two people alternate telling one story, with multiple doses of creativity at work, you never know quite how the story will end. Collaborative stories, part creative endeavor, part keepsake, can be kept on the bookshelf with the other books you read at bedtime.

What to do:

Write an ongoing story with an adult or another child. You can wrok on the book side-by-side or mail it back and forth — especially fun to do with grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins. Start with a blank book — a small scrapbook or a blank journal. (Or bind the book together, if you prefer).

This project is all about collaboration. Each author takes turns adding to the story, following up on what has already been written. The work can be split sentence by sentence or page by page. It’s more fun not to plan out or discuss the plot in advance. Instead, be as random and freewheeling as you want.

The book can be about anything. Dream up an imaginary character or cast of characters, or base them on friends, pets, or toys. More ambitious writers might choose to write several chapters, each one a different adventure. Create a sequel or a prequel to a children’s book you love. Or tell a real-life adventure that you have had together. Then again, it can be an ongoing daily log, like a two-sisters-reporting-from-the-front-lines-of-camp journal.

Experiment with embellishing the format of the text. Different emotions can be about in different colors, and perhaps different characters talk in different fonts. You’ll probably want to illustrate what you write. You can also create a comic book together, complete with frames and speech bubbles, telling a story more with pictures than with words.

Three …

Two …

ONE!

It’s official!

Summer is HERE!

Yay! …. er …. maybe?

The sun hasn’t even set on the first day of summer yet and you already hear the two most dreaded words you can hear from your child in the summer time:

I’M BORED.

Swell. What now?

I was listening to a radio show this morning and today’s guest was a clinical psychologist who was advising parents to take control of the summer-time blahs right off the bat.

She suggested that parents sit down with their children and give them options when they hear the dreaded “I’m bored” singsong.

“Katie, would you like to clean the bathrooms, or sweep the kitchen floor?”

Yes. She suggested giving the kids chores to do. Not only are they learning responsibility and household duties, they are keeping busy AND learning a valuable lesson:

They can either find something to DO, or DO household chores.

She said she wasn’t suggesting this as a form of punishment for the children, children should be asked to do chores to begin with, but she was betting that after doing so many chores, children were going to learn that it was better, and more fun, to figure out something to do on their own because …

News Flash!

Parents aren’t cruise directors. They are not responsible for entertaining their kids. They should not be asked to spend their time making sure their kids are not bored every waking moment.

Being bored is PART of being a kid. When children are bored, they start using their imaginations. They discover new and different things to do and they become just a bit more self-sufficient.

She also suggested that children who AREN’T motivated to DO anything outside video games and/or computers (like my kids), be forced to do something else. They can help CHOOSE an activity, but they will be required to do something.

For example: Boy Scouts. A sport. Practice a musical instrument. Go bike riding. Go swimming. Etc, etc.

But instead of telling them, again, give them a choice, “Would you like to go swimming or bike riding?” and allow the child to pick an activity.

I thought this was all sound advice. I told my children a long time ago I wasn’t going to entertain them – they needed to find something to do or I would find something to do for them.

They quickly learned to stop asking me.

Now that’s not to say we didn’t go DO stuff, but it eliminated the whining when our activities were over and it was time for ME to do other things – sans children.

When I was little, my mom made out a summer schedule for us. Every day, she would plan one activity for us to do. One day, we went to the movies (back when they had a summer movie program for kids – do they still have those?), another day, we went swimming, another day, we hung out with my cousins, another day, the park, another day, the zoo, another day, make a craft … etc, etc.

These activities took several hours and afterward, we were usually too tired to do anything else, let alone whine about how bored we were. But having that schedule was comforting – we KNEW what we were going to do, we PLANNED for that activity and we DID it – together.

I’ll never forget those summers. They were always so much fun.

So, if you’re having trouble keeping the kids busy this summer, make a schedule. And ask for your children’s input. Ask them what THEY want to do and then schedule it on a big summer calendar that you can later hang up for everyone to see.

If money is an issue (and isn’t it always?), let the kids know that you only have so much money to spend on summer activities and then work out how much certain activities will cost and subtract that from your budget (do this in front of your children). Children can add and subtract, they will soon realize what is doable and what is not.

And it might cut down on the whining if they know there’s simply not enough money to do something.

But there are so many FREE, and cheap ways to keep your kids entertained, you just have to keep an open mind and take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves. In fact, I plan on posting quite a few ideas to help you have fun with the kids this summer.

(Notice I didn’t say “keep them entertained this summer?” 🙂 )

In fact, here are some ideas you can implement now, or at any time during the summer months that will be sure to be a hit with the kids AND provide you with some awesome memories of them.

If you can swing it:

Buy them their own disposable camera, or allow them access to an old camera, and don’t restrict what they take pictures of. Allow them to be artistic in their own way. OR, teach them photography tips and schedule picture time on your summer calendar to take a trip to the park and take pictures of birds, or flowers, or anything that catches your eye.

Allow them to use an old video camera, or the video function on your phone, and tape themselves putting on a play, imitating a news broadcaster, interviewing family members, or playing detective. Then you could schedule a family movie night, pop some popcorn and watch their movies.

Buy a digital voice recorder (if you can swing it, or just use an old tape recorder) and allow them to act silly just recording themselves.

And what ever you do, keep track of these pictures, videos and recordings because they are SO FUN to look at, watch and listen to later, and for many years later.

We did this with our boys when my nephews came over to stay the night. They used my digital voice recorder and made up all sorts of silly games and took our old video camera to the park and acted out some sort of story which absolutely cracked us up. In fact, Kevin edited the video and you can watch it here, if you like.

The point is, allow them to just have some unstructured fun with the technology and tools that are available and BE kids. You’ll be amazed at their imaginations.

Trust me. 🙂

And how about encouraging their writing skills? (Always a personal favorite of mine – but I have yet to interest my boys in this). Help them start a blog! Then they could chronicle their summer activities in their journal. Help them set it up, customize it and show them the blog ropes. This would teach them a bit about the computer (if they don’t already know more than you do!), AND it would give you an opportunity to teach them about online safety.

Don’t want to do the online thing? How about taking them shopping for a funky new diary? What pre-teen girl wouldn’t want a pretty little pink diary to write her innermost thoughts in?

Oh, I just thought of one more thing the psychologist from the radio show suggested to do:

Take the kids to garage sales and thrift stores. You could teach them to be smart shoppers AND the old adage is true, “one person’s junk is another man’s treasure.” You could also pick up some cheap clothing to make costumes out of – which is part of a suggestion I’ll be posting in the Summer Fun articles coming up. 😉

And speaking of the Summer Fun articles – I’ll be posting suggestions for things to do with the kids every Friday (beginning tomorrow!). You can keep track of the posts on this page. AND, there could be a give away some where in all this fun, too, so stay tuned!

Whew! And just think, we’re just getting started!

Stick around! Together, we’ll get through the summer months. 🙂

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