Do your kids spend the summers moping around the house, watching television and complaining of boredom? Put an end to summer sluggishness by providing your children with activities and ideas that will get them motivated and moving. Squash summer boredom and have a wonderful season!

Culinary Projects

Are your children always underfoot in the kitchen? The summer can be your opportunity to teach them how to cook their favorite dishes. Plan out meals, make shopping lists, and hit the grocery store together. Cooking is a fun way to spend time with your kids while teaching them something new. Plus, they’ll have the satisfaction of being able to say, “I made it myself!”

Go to a Museum

At the start of the summer, check out your local museum’s schedule and search for exhibits that your child might find interesting. Mark them on your calendar, and read up on the exhibit and the subject matter before you go. Challenge one another to remember facts and data, and turn this learning experience into a fun day that your child will look forward to.

Summer Scrapbook

Encourage your child to create a scrapbook that documents her experiences throughout the summer. A scrapbook can be more fun - and less demanding - than journaling. Your child can draw pictures, paste in concert or movie tickets, and use bright colors and glittery accessories. This arts and crafts activity will motivate her to stay active so that she will have more experiences to describe in the book.

Volunteer

Check out churches, soup kitchens, or community centers in your area for volunteer opportunities that are appropriate for kids, and encourage your child to get involved. Volunteering will do more for your child than just keep him busy: it will offer him a new perspective and introduce him to new and interesting people. Best of all, he’ll feel good about helping others.

Put on a Production

Let your children experience the thrill of the stage by organizing a play, a film, or a dance with them and their friends. Have the group develop a story idea, write a script, and make costumes. Once the production is ready, assemble family members to watch the performance and perhaps videotape it. This is a fun and creative way for your kids to spend their time, and they can be proud of the end result on show night.

Garden

If you enjoy gardening, share your hobby with your kids. It’s a great way to get your children away from the television and out into the sunshine. Gardening can be hard work, but your kids can help with the lighter tasks, and they’ll enjoy learning about the plants and flowers that grow in your yard. Enjoy making the outdoors beautiful together - it’s a great way to bond with your family!

Summer Festivals

Along with summer come fun festivals throughout the country. Did you know that the teeny town of Spivy’s Corner, North Carolina holds an annual Hollerin’ Festival, where a contest is held to determine the screamer with the most style? In Wisconsin, citizens of Prairie du Sac are challenged to see who can throw cow dung the farthest. You may not find a festival quite as wacky in your local area, but there is sure to be some sort of festival nearby. Take the whole family for a summer celebration.

Take a walk

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. Summer weather doesn’t last year-round, so take advantage of the balmy breezes and head out for a stroll with your child. Leave your cell phone at home and enjoy the day. Consider this a chance to chat with your child and find out what is happening in his life.
 

Students can pick which scores a school sees…Attention, high school juniors:  Starting next spring, you can determine which of your SAT scores a college gets to see.  The College Board’s current policy is that if you send one score to a school, that college also sees the scores from every time you took the test.  But starting in March 2009, students will be able to hide SAT-taking blemishes.

Some counselors worry that the new policy will give a boost to kids who can afford to take the $45 test multiples times and sign up for tutoring sessions.  The college Board says the average score gain on the first SAT retake is 40 points and “there’s no advantage to taking the SAT more than twice, and our fee waivers let low-income students take the test (free) twice.

Admissions offices will have to figure out how to handle the new policy.  The University of Southern California, for example, opposes the new option because it obscures the context in which a score was earned, and may still require applicants to submit all SAT attempts.

The I Spy Games

I Spy is one of the first car games your kids will probably ever learn. It’s the kind of game you start playing with kids long before the first car trip. You may have played it for the first time with your little one in the doctor’s office—when you were waiting … and waiting … for your name to be called. It might be one of the first games that pops into your head to keep your child from getting bored. It’s a great game to play one-on-one or in a group.

I Spy with One Child

If you’re playing with one child, you start by saying “I spy with my little eye, something that is …” and fill in with a color. The child is then required to guess what it is you’re looking at. You can pick any color, of course. It’s a great way to help your child build an understanding of colors.

When the child guesses the object, it is then the child’s turn to “spy” something. You keep going back and forth, alternating turns.

If the child is a little bit older, you can use letters. “I spy with my little eye, something starting with the letter B.” If the child knows some basic reading skills, you can easily play this game with him or her.

If one of you never guesses the object and “gives up,” the person who did the spying gets to take another turn.

Who Am I?

When I was a kid, we called “Who Am I?” 20 Questions. One person thinks of something—person, place, or thing—and asks, “Who am I?” To figure it out, the other players have to ask questions like:

• Are you an animal?
• Are you blue?
• Do you swim in the ocean?

The person answering should only give “yes” or “no” answers to make the game a little trickier. With little kids, you might want to allow full answers so they don’t get too frustrated with the game.

Camping Trip

Camping Trip is a game my friends and I used to play when we couldn’t sleep at night. It can be a memory or guessing game, and for some reason, stretching my memory always made me sleepy.

There are a couple ways to play the game. You can play it as strictly a memory game or you can play so that the other players have to guess the rules of play as you go along:

The first person starts off by saying:

“I’m going on a camping trip and I’m going to bring …”

At this point the person says something he or she would want to bring on the camping trip. Let’s say it’s a “toothbrush.” The next person would then say:

“I’m going on a camping trip and I’m going to bring a toothbrush and …” This person would then have to add something else that they would bring on the trip. But this time, the object must start with the last letter of the pervious object. In the case of “toothbrush,” the last letter is “h,” so the person would have to think of an object that starts with an “h.” Let’s say the person chooses “horse.”

The third person would then have to say, “I’m going on a camping trip and I’m going to bring a toothbrush, a horse, and an electric guitar.” The game continues until someone forgets an object on the list. That person is out and the game continues until there is only one person left.

You can simplify this version of the game by taking away the memory element. The children don’t have to repeat the other objects on the list; they just have to add another item to the list that starts with the last letter of the previous item.

Alphabetical Version

You can also play Camping Trip using objects in alphabetical order. For example: “I’m going on a camping trip and I’m going to bring an asteroid.” Then “I’m going on a camping trip and I’m going to bring an asteroid, and a baseball ….”

The game continues the same way until there’s only one person left who didn’t forget an item on the list.