Summer Help for Parents and Grandparents

     “Help!” parents cry everywhere during the summer. “My kids are bored and driving me crazy.” It’s also echoed by grandparents and other caregivers of these precious gifts from God. I know, they are gifts we sometimes want to re-gift, but with this summer help for parents and grandparents offered here, it might change that.

General Tips

1. Kids need structure and routine.
2. Have suggested activities on hand, along with materials.
3. Remember, the more children are in the sun and exerting energy, the more sleep and quiet activities they’ll need.
4. Kids still enjoy learning by participating in whatever you’re doing. Conversation goes a long way.
5. Mix up activities between large and small muscles, recalling skills (memory), learning new things, and creativity.

Routines 

Having a routine at some level will help your kids stay in better moods than most things. Sleeping in to whenever, playing video games all day, and staying up all night with friends for prolonged periods of time isn’t healthy or beneficial to either of you. It’s important to have a set bedtime and a wake-up time, even though it’s later than during the school year. It’s important to have meals close to the same time each day. And, it’s important to have quiet time built-in the routine, usually after lunch or after playing outdoors while you’re preparing dinner. Teens aren’t exempt either, although not at a specified time. They need time to zone, listen to music, chat on the phone, but not play video games (non-stimulating activities).

Planning activities 

When I taught special education, I sent an activity calendar home with each student at the end of the year to post on the refrigerator. It provided a 1-2 min. simple, daily activity to do with their parents, reinforcing skills learned earlier that year. It might ask them to count change in your mom’s pocket, find five objects starting with the letter b, or ones rhyming with cheese, etc. This gave them something simple to look forward to, as well as to keep track of time.

Knowing some about your child’s skill level and interests will help in your activity planning. 

• Do they read chapter books or picture books? 
• Can they add or multiply?
• Do they count money or tell time? 
• Are they young enough they are learning colors, numbers, and the alphabet? 

Whatever the age, I believe a calendar or chart on the fridge is most helpful. It could be a scheduled routine, chore chart, or an activity calendar. Kids just like visuals. It aids in predicting expectations and events. Surprising them with an added photo or piece of artwork every day would add extra anticipation. These gestures are definitely mood improvers. Placing scriptures to memorize to receive a reward is fun also.

How to plan

Here’s some examples of how you can take one activity and adapt it to children of all ages. Use these as a guide and plan daily or weekly activities. Let’s take counting money. Grab a jar of change and let the kids do the following:

• young kids can sort by categories of size, edges (smooth or rigid), or by pictures
• teach names of coins
• teach value of coins
• count by 5’s or 10’s
• count a handful of change
• roll into coin wrappers
• learn to count change back
• an older child can do one of these activities with a younger child

Got old magazines or newspapers? If so, you can do the following with crayons, colored pencils, or highlighters. 

• circle letters
• underline words recognized
• put boxes around nouns
• divide sentences into subjects and predicates
• pick a heading and write your own story
• choose a heading and draw a comic strip
• learn how to find newspaper sections
• practice cutting, using scissors. Cut larger articles or photos.
• find all the names on one page and look up their origins
• use a photo and write your own caption, or even a story

The best suggestion to help this summer is an activity jar. Click on this freebie of mine to download and create. Simply cut, fold and put in a jar for when your kids start fighting or yell, “I’m bored!” send them to your newly made activity jar. This list isn’t comprehensive in any way, shape, or form, so feel free to add or take away, depending on age of children, interest, and supplies on hand. Enjoy.

What idea did you find most helpful? What ideas could you add?

Thanks for stopping in during your busy summer. I appreciate every one of you. 

© 2022, Jena Fellers. All rights reserved.