Arts and Crafts

Summertime plans often lean toward travel and vacations, but some of the best parts of summer are the relaxed days that families spend together at home or close to home. There are lots of fun, inexpensive ways to spend time with your children and to help them develop a healthy, receptive attitude toward learning new things about the world around them as they explore their own skills too. You can help your kids discover an interest in science by simply spending time in your own backyard or at a local park and observing nature. While eating lunch outside, see how many different animals you can notice, from butterflies to squirrels. Be sure to listen as well as look for animals. Educational websites like Scholastic.com have lots of ideas for nature-themed activities for the youngest children. For example, if your child is curious about bugs, try scooping the flesh out of an orange or grapefruit, turning the empty halves upside down, and leaving them outside overnight; in the morning, turn them over to see what insects have come to visit. Plant life also catches the interest of tiny scientists-in-training. Take a nature walk around your neighborhood and collect bits and pieces like leaves, twigs, and blossoms. If you buy a pack of solar print paper at a local toy or craft store (or online), you can then arrange the pieces you collect on a piece of special photo paper to leave in the sun and make a sun print. Kids enjoy arranging their collections of treasures from nature on the photo paper and then seeing the shapes left behind when the print develops. Gardening is another fun learning activity. You can incorporate skills like counting as [...]