Summer Fun With Kids

July 21 - Talk about a free activity to do with children.

 A few summers ago, I spent 10 weeks teaching at a college prep school. I taught some math catch up classes for students who were to be attending the school in the fall and needed some help to get caught up to their peers but mostly I taught fun summer school classes. I taught a photography class, a cooking class, lots and lots of science classes, a nature class, and a 'let's get outside and run around so we fall asleep at the dinner table' class.
Ok, maybe the falling asleep at the dinner table was what I did - not what the kids did.

Anyways, I found that kids love the weirdest stuff. They don't care if you go out and buy super expensive water toys - they just want to throw sponges at each other. They don't care if you buy all the fixin's for ice cream sundaes - they just want to pour the chocolate sauce in their mouths. They don't care if you spent three hours the night before cutting out objects for your lesson plan - they just want to fold them up and make paper airplanes out of them.

I'm making it sound like I have no classroom management skills at all - which is not true in the slightest; I'm pretty decent at using my "teacher voice" and getting a classroom under control - but my point is that kids are going to be kids and that they just want to have enjoy their summers and have fun! They don't care if you spend all kinds of money on something because most likely they just want to spend time with you & their friends while having a great time!

My students loved a lot of free activities - here are just a few:

1) Go to the library and get as many books as you can carry. When it's rainy out or the kids aren't feeling well, books can be a wonderful alternative to movies and TV.

2) Cut up sponges and tie them together to make "water bombs".

3) Get out a hose and let the kids go wild. Pair this with #2 and you've got a water fight!

4) Head to the park and let the kids run until they can't run anymore. You'll thank yourself for doing it when they're in bed by 8 with no complaints :)

5) Go fishing, go camping, go exploring in your local state/county parks. Kids can collect leaves/stones/whatever to make their own "collections". If you want to get educational, have them figure out what each kind of rock is/what kind of tree each leaf is from/etc.

6) Start a garden. Flowers or vegetables - your choice! {looking for gardening tips? check back tomorrow! there's a whole post about gardening scheduled!}

This post is part of the Summer Blog Challenge. 
To see more posts inspired by the challenge visit my Summer Blog Challenge page!