Printable View
So I have a sib set who are 5 and almost 10. This summer, I will have them full time for 9.5 hour days. Can anyone offer me some guidance? I will have toddlers, and live in the burbs, so we will be spending the majority of our time here in the yard and house. Any wise words on activities to give these guys a fun summer?
What about letting them make their own veggie garden? They can pick the seeds they want to grow, plant, water weed etc. Could be something to work on a bit everyday during the summer. Then they can eat things they grew themselves!
Why not create an activity jar with them that if full of ideas of things they can do, and you can either pick one or two a week to do as a special thing for good behaviour etc...
http://www.overthebigmoon.com/summer-jar-list-updated
You can make a slip and slide (tarps, dish soap and a hose), Have them bring their bikes and they can do a bike wash, make cool accessories for their bikes, lemon aid stand, have the 10 yr old come up and run cool activities for the little one (I loved doing that when I was younger), they could organize shows starring the little ones, make a fort they can work on all summer (older one mostly).
I was thinking about this. Seems like a neat way to teach the kids about how things grow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wonderwiper
For the morning they will more or less follow along with everything else you are doing but make use of them as helpers so they don't feel like they are a student but instead a teacher's aid even though what is really happening is everyone is sitting in a circle singing nursery rhymes - but they are holding the props or moving the feltboard pieces for you. Let the older one read to the little ones.
For the afternoon when it is naptime it is ok to tell them that they have to spend the fist hour doing something alone quietly.
You can also make use of them to create learning resources for later such as having them construct a spaceship out of boxes and spend all afternoon decorating it and then everyone gets to play in it when the little ones get up.
We are actually going to be doing the vegetable garden here. My father-in-law is a big gardener and he is going to help us start the seedlings etc indoors then move the garden outside. We will do the seed in a paper towel in a ziplock (hung on the window) first so they can see the process.
We are also going to hatch chicks soon which will be really cool. Plus a bonus I can really encourage that the children are quiet as the chicks don't like loud noises, bonus for me!