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5 Tips for Keeping Your Kids Busy During This Summer
Los Angeles, CA – May 8, 2008 – For kids, the summer months mean lazy days at the beach or pool, and playing with your friends until the sun goes down. Yet parents need to recognize all of the recreational adventures and opportunities available to expand a child’s mind during this downtime.
“On summer break, you have to motivate and stimulate your child’s mind and body so they can continue to grow,” explains Vielka McFarlane, a veteran educator and CEO and Founder of Celerity Educational Group. “You have to provide them with choices and opportunities to expand on the classroom knowledge they gained during the year,” she explains. Although she maintains that how you keep a child busy depends on his or her developmental stage and grade level, there are, nevertheless, key activities that will enrich and stimulate any child’s mind.
- Build – Have them build a kite, a birdhouse, a boat or even a Lego structure. Building accesses spatial temporal reasoning and improves fine motor skills. More importantly, most kids get absorbed in the process of creation.
- Cook – Have kids help in the kitchen or become Chefs for the Day. Cooking utilizes reading skills, math skills and basic judgment. The finished product will produce pride and self-confidence. It also gives the parent a mini-vacation.
- Chess and Scrabble – Chess accesses math and sequencing skills. It is an excellent way of keeping children’s minds active and quick. Also, many public libraries have chess clubs that offer children the opportunity to compete, should they so desire. Additionally, Scrabble is an excellent way of building vocabulary and perfecting dictionary skills. You can also play with your child to hone his or her skills while having fun together.
- Art – Summer art projects can be the best way of keeping your kids busy. To get them outside, have them work on landscape paintings or drawings. Or have them work on a fun art project. Looking for components for their project can become a treasure hunt. The art supplies you provide can be minimal. The point is to give them ideas for their creation.
- Write – Activate your child’s story telling abilities by reading them a portion of a story and having them finish the story in their own words. Younger children can also illustrate their stories. Writing flexes the entire brain and is beneficial for a child’s development and success in school.
These ideas may seem basic, but they utilize key mental and physical skills. The best way to keep a kid busy is to get them absorbed in a task and to almost trick them into learning. These five tips, with some preparation on your part, can keep a child active all summer and get them primed for the school year.
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