Get back to basics with ideas and activities that provide great learning opportunities as well as good, old fashioned family time.
Family activities aren’t just fun. They’re great ways for kids to learn and hone skills and develop self-esteem. Take advantage of the longer days and the upcoming summer months to keep the learning alive in your family with these ideas.
Family Game Night. Kids of any age can enjoy this. Pick one night a week and stick to it. Kids can choose the game of the night, or several suggestions can be made and choices can be picked out of a hat. For older kids, try continuing a game from week to week to help them learn to delay gratification. Help lift your child’s self-esteem by having them teach you how to play a game you’re unfamiliar with. Older kids can often teach you In the nice weather, leave the board games inside and go outside for horseshoes, badminton, or hide and seek. Game playing teaches kids the skills of patience, frustration tolerance, taking turns, losing and winning with grace, and teamwork. And they’re just plain fun!
Family Snack Night. With appropriate amounts of adult assistance, kids choose recipes and prepare snacks for their families. Help kids analyze the recipe: using math skills, decide how many servings are needed, make a food shopping list, and plan how much time it will take. If time allows, let kids help with the shopping task. This is a great opportunity to teach them about smart shopping choices: is it a better deal to buy the one pound bag or the five pound bag? What’s the difference between name brand and generic? Let kids bring a calculator and show them how to comparison shop and estimate their total. When it’s time to cook, help kids gather supplies, measure ingredients, follow the recipe, and decide how they will present their creation. Lots of skills at work here, and a great self-esteem builder!
Family Garden. Use math and mapping skills to plan the garden and purchase supplies and tools in the manner described above. Have kids make a list of tasks involved (planting, watering, fertilizing, picking, etc.) and use a calendar to map out responsibilities. There’s a job here for everyone: even the youngest kids can get into the act with tasks like covering seeds with dirt, watering, and (best of all) eating! Kids can also hunt up recipes to utilize their produce. This project is a great tool for teaching organizational skills and helping kids learn to delay gratification. Practice in caring for living things also teaches responsibility and care.
Family Reading Night. Keep kids’ reading skills sharp over the summer by turning off the TV for the night and devoting your time to books. Model the behavior you want to see: the concept loses it’s punch if the kids are reading while you’re folding laundry. Depending on the skill levels of your children, you can read the same or different books. Set a timer: when the timer goes off, each person has to spend one minute sharing an exciting thing that’s happening, or describing a character they admire, etc. Ask kids questions about what they read to take their understanding to the next level. Ask them about characters motives, ask them to predict what might happen next, and ask them to think of a time they had an experience similar to one of the characters. Let them ask you the same questions about your book.
See Also Learning Through Play Activities for more learning ideas. You may also be interested in Effects of TV on Kids and Queen of the Multitaskers.
