Creative Ways to Keep Your Kids’ Brains Active During Summer

Summer is sailing by quickly and many parents are working on keeping their kids busy during the summer. The family has changed their routine and there is more downtime and no homework so kids still have to keep learning during the summer or retain what they have learned from the past school year. This can be a challenge for some children that have learning problems. This is why it’s important to find creative ways to keep your kid’s brains active during summer break. There are many ways to find creative ways and have your kids help you as well. Their input is just as important because parents can get a lot of ideas from their children and what they are interested in learning.

Children work hard all year long at school and at home. When summer comes they deserve a mental vacation just like their teachers do. This doesn’t mean that they have to take a whole summer break from learning though. There are many other interests your child may have that they can do at home or in the community.

Cooking or Baking

Meal preparation involves a lot of math and this makes cooking fun. If you have older children, you can make cooking a bit more competitive by asking which one knows how to double the recipe you are making.

Reading

Books are always a good way to keep your kids using their minds creatively. You can put reading on the summer schedule during the evening time slot and have them read out loud to you or you can read to them. The point is to keep on reading daily. If your older children are reading a novel they like, there is Story Online to read to younger children for something different.

Board Games and Cards Games

Board games and card games include math, reading and using critical thinking skills when playing checkers or chess. You can choose to play as a family during summer break to help them keep their minds going.

Puzzles

Jigsaw puzzles help kids problem solve, think logically, use their cognitive skills and include spatial reasoning. Puzzles are good for increasing memory and helping kids to concentrate.

YouTube Channel

You can search through the Youtube channel with your children and find some ideas that are fun for a summer day. There are science experiments that just need a few ingredients to make goop, math channels where kids use math to create something funny, joke channels that are age-appropriate and other things like Yoga to help them increase their mental focus and concentration. Look at Cosmic Kids YouTube channel and there are lots of kid-friendly yoga workouts as well.

Crafts

Crafts are always a hit in the summer so get out the paper, stickers, glue, glitter, tape, string, ribbons, boxes, cotton balls, paints or whatever you have including popsicle sticks and see what your kids will make for the day.

Nature Hikes

Take your kids to the park for the day and see if you can rent a paddle boat and go look for some turtles, snails, fish and different water life. You can bring a lunch and sit in the shade and look at all the animals scurrying around for food. See if your kids know the names of all of the animals. Look for eagles, robins, bluebirds, etc; and see what they eat. You can research the information when you get home. Take a notebook and write down everything that is interesting to your children and have a research party. They will be able to do a lot of reading as well. Look for different stones and see if you can find any fossils in the stones and do some research on those too. Make sure you include recycling in your hike so your kids understand the importance of recycling.

Museums

Take a small drive if you live in an area that doesn’t have a museum. There are many small towns across America that have free museums or a small entrance fee. These museums talk about something historically important that happened in that particular area. This includes the first settlers, battles, frontier life and pictures of the town from the days it was started. One little museum is in Peshtigo, Wisconsin and is called the Fire Museum. This museum is open from May through October and you can find out about the Peshtigo fire and what happened to the people that went through the event. The Peshtigo Fire occurred the same day as the Great Chicago Fire. There is also a great World War II museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is a much larger museum and takes a few days to see everything but is a good trip through history. There are thousands of museums all across the United States that you can take your kids to and have a great day that includes a history lesson.

Programs

Many kids like going to summer school because there are quite a few fun classes offered during the summer and it gives them time to socialize with their friends as well. There are many physical programs you can register your child for in the summer. Church, social, recreational and schools have events during the summer. Have your child pick what they like to do because that is what they are interested in. They might surprise you and find something new to try.

Physical Activity

You can always check out physical activities for the summer for your child. It’s important they run around and stay active so they don’t sit around all day. They are growing and need to build their muscles and eat whole foods. Kids need an hour of physical activity daily. Which includes, muscle strengthening, aerobic activities, biking, walking, and swimming.

The best and most important thing you can do for your kids this summer is to spend time with them and show them you love them. Summer is a good time for bonding, relaxing and doing family things together. Life goes by very quickly and in no time they will have families of their own so enjoy them while you can.