Summer is full of long lazy days to enjoy the sun and warmth of the sun. These are the perfect days to enjoy fun educational summer activities with your kids. Activities which not only are educational, but create lasting memories of perfect summer afternoons with mom and dad.
5 Fun Educational Summer Activities
Summer Reading Programs
Libraries and businesses around the country encourage kids to read. Kids are rewarded for reading a number of books or a number of hours reading. Avid readers adore these programs, but they also encourage your reluctant reader to read. And they motivate a non-reader to learn.
But don’t just send your kid to their room to read. Make it a family activity with everyone curling up on the front porch with a good book. Show kids you value reading enough to spend an afternoon reading.
After all, more is caught than taught!
Butterfly Catching
Chasing butterflies with a net keeps kids going for hours.The kids follow the butterflies from flower to flower, hunting them as they go. Once a butterfly is caught, carefully examine the insect with a magnifying glass before letting it go. Keep a nature journal detailing the types of butterflies you’ve discovered.
Now that the kids are interested in butterflies, put a butterfly feeder in the yard. Keep track of the different types of butterflies attracted to your feeder.
How many different types of butterflies live in your region?
Make a Kite
Add a STEM activity to your summer by making kites. The first challenge is to make a kite which can fly. Start with a simple windsock kite. Does it fly? Now try adding decorations and change the shape. Does it still fly?
Encourage the kids to make a traditional diamond shaped kite. Can you get it up in the air?
Making and testing kites will keep your kids busy and learning all summer long!
Grow Flowers
Kids love growing flowers. You can dig a small plot in the yard or use pots. My suggestion is to do the easiest method for you. Purchase a few different types of seeds to start. I like to start my seeds in small paper cups filled with potting soil. Put them somewhere sunny and warm until they sprout.
As the flowers grow, point out the changes in the plants. Show the kids a diagram of the various parts of plants, such as roots, stems, and leaves. Don’t be surprised if your kindergartner uproots a plant in order to study the roots more closely! Once the flowers have grown to a good size, replant them into your plot or the pots.
You may even attract a few butterflies!
Use the Sun as a Compass
Point out to your kids that the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. This makes it possible to find which direction is north using only a stick and two rocks. Send your kids running outside to find their sticks and rocks and follow these easy directions!
It’s a fun way to introduce orienteering to your children.
There’s no better way to spend a summer afternoon than reading a book, chasing butterflies, making kites, growing flowers, or learning orienteering with your kids. Just think of the memories you’ll share!
What fun educational summer activities do you enjoy with your kids?
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