It's Summertime: Do You Know What Your Child is Doing?

Have children start a collection?rocks, stamps, baseball cards, bottle caps, labels, marbles, leaves, bugs. Arrange them in some orderly fashion, in a box, by categories, by color, or alphabetically, for example.
Ask youngsters to organize photos in an album by date or activity. Save newspaper of magazine photos of favorite athletes or heroes to create a scrapbook.
Suggest that kids swap paperbacks, comics, or magazines with extended family and friends. The local library might help organize a swap.

Ask children to take charge of family recycling (get containers, wash the jars, stack the papers, etc.)
Teach boys and girls how to take care of their clothes; sort and fold laundry, use the washer and dryer or help at the laundromat, sew on buttons, iron, polish shoes.
Have children plan all aspects of a party (the family Fourth of July, perhaps). Kids can help decide on the guests, phone or send invitations, plan the food, get the house ready, greet and introduce the guests, and clean up. They'll be very proud of themselves.

Recommend that children keep a diary?a journal of their activities or the family's.
Take time every day for the whole family to read by themselves or together. Even 10 or 15 minutes is fine! Allow children to choose reading materials.
Introduce children to the library's summer reading program.
Have kids follow a favorite newspaper comic strip all summer.
Have children write letters or send postcards to cousins, grandparents, and friends.
Review cash register receipts. Kids can check them for accuracy when you're unloading groceries. Adding the prices up each week will keep math skills sharp.
Teach youngsters to compute gas mileage.
Hold a yard/tag sale. Allow children to set prices and make change.

Check the Newspaper for volunteer activities. Make a weekly visit, for instance, to an elderly person in a nursing home.
Visit the animal shelter, the fire station, or a hospital to show children what goes on at these institutions.

If possible, collect photos of all grand- and great-grandparents. Have children write their names and birth dates on the back of the photos. Tell stories about the family.
Discuss the meaning of holidays with children; most newspapers print background material. Try to celebrate in the "old-fashioned" way, i.e., go to the parade on the Fourth, rest on Labor Day, remember those no longer living on Memorial Day.
If you take a trip, visit the historical sites along the way; save the information brochures. Check out library books or videos to reinforce new learning from the trip.
Visit a cemetery. Find the oldest stone, read the inscriptions, talk about the past with your children.

Give children a garden plot in the yard, or a window box or planter on a balcony. Be sure the child has full responsibility for the plants.
Read the daily newspaper's weather map. Let children figure out what the weather is where friends and relatives live.
Camp out for a night on the balcony, your yard, or at the state campgrounds.

Source URL:
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/45

Links:
[1] http://www.naesp.org/