If you do not have teenagers at home, don't skip this information! There are some important things for you to know to keep yourself and your family safe on the roads.
If you have, or have been around, a teenager in the last few years, I'm sure you are aware of their obsession with texting. Texting is the new talking, and teens (who naturally love talking) love to do it. They text at home, at school, at work, at play and everywhere else in between...including in their car! Teens send and receive an average of 300 texts per day and unfortunately many of them are being sent while they are driving.
Here are some troubling statistics when it comes to teens and driving:
Automobile accidents are the number one killer of teens.
80% of all accidents are caused by distracted driving.
Texting is the number one form of distraction.
Teens have the highest rate of texting and driving among all drivers.
These facts make it clear that eliminating texting and driving is the number one way to reduce a teen's chance of being in an accident and should be a priority in your home.Texting and driving is the new drunk driving. In fact, studies have shown that people often perform worse while texting and driving than when they are legally impaired. Adult drivers (age 25+) also have alarmingly high rates of texting and driving, but teens have far more accidents per driver. No one would argue that teens have far more experience texting and are far better texters than adults over the age of 25, so why do they have such a higher rate of accidents?
One big reason actually relates to their superior texting skills. Teens are so good at texting while engaged in other activities that they believe they have the necessary skills to continue texting when they get behind the wheel. Unfortunately, teens have a false sense of confidence in their texting and driving abilities. Another contributing factor is their lack of experience in driving. A teen driver may posses all the necessary skills to be a very safe driver, but the lack of time on the road causes them to text in more high risk driving situations. An adult driver may choose to put the phone away during high traffic situations even if they choose to foolishly text and drive at other times. A teen may not make that same choice, causing them to have a higher chance of causing an accident.
While there are many other factors that contribute to a teen's higher texting and driving crash rate, it's important to know that there are simple steps you can take to make sure your teen does not fall victim to a texting accident. As the father of a teen driver (who could probably qualify for the texting olympics, and maybe even com;e home with a medal) I launched a mission to stop 1,000,000 drivers from texting and driving and save teen lives. It's called the "Million Pledge Mission" and has allowed me to work with schools, sheriff's departments and organizations all across the country to educate teens on the dangers of texting and driving. I recently wrote an article titled "Top 4 Ways To Stop Your Teen From Texting And Driving" that is a must read if you have a teen driver at home.
Senin, 02 Oktober 2017
Selasa, 12 September 2017
My Child Seems Angry and Depressed! Understanding the Role of Nutrition in Your Child's Behavior
Often when we think of kids being angry, depressed or unmotivated, we think of stresses in life that children go through. In today's society, there certainly are a lot of things that stress children. They have homework issues, social pressures, bullies, hormone changes and much more. We'll relieve the stress, work through the issues and everything should be fine. However, most of us tend to not acknowledge or fully understand the role of nutrition and diet in our child's life. We give kids what they love to eat because we love them and want to make them happy. We fret that they may starve themselves rather than eat "healthy balanced meals" sometimes.
The truth is, we may not even realize that bad food choices can literally starve a child's brain and body. That starving may even be taking place under layers of excess pounds. Your child may be so deficient in basic body building nutrients that anger, depression, lack of energy and even diabetes may result from those unhealthy choices. It's following the Standard American Diet (SAD) that has gotten us into this position, where nearly 1 out of every 3 American children and teens are overweight according to the American Heart Association's 2011 statistics. Our kids today are consuming too much candy, pre-packaged foods, soda and fast food which all literally rob the body of health and life span.
By feeding our children a SAD, we are actually putting them at risk for cardiac problems, high blood pressure and many other food-related illnesses. The American Academy of Pediatrics has even discovered high blood pressure in some toddlers. We have become too complacent and too tired ourselves to prepared fresh home-cooked meals of old. It's so much easier to hit the drive through and be done with it. However, fast food was not created to be healthy. It was created to produce a profit. Current agendas such as growing meat in a laboratory from bovine stem cells should be of concern to our society. Hearing that it twitches as it grows should appall anyone and make us want to research today's standards of food production and what we are potentially putting into our children's bodies.
If you experience constant fatigue, it may well be caused by the foods you are consuming. Nutrition and quality of life are tightly woven to create the very fabric of our lives - physically, emotionally and spiritually. We must take a closer look at the role of nutrition in our bodies and how it affects our lives.
White, nutritionally deficient sugar and flour (even if it has been 'fortified") cause us to experience fatigue and hit bottom emotionally. Food affects our feelings and our moods. The rising rates of depression and mood disorders in the United States parallel the increase of obesity here according to the National Institutes of Health. Nutrition deserves to be placed in proper perspective and given the importance it truly deserves.
Schools do not teach children much about nutrition and the classroom worksheets given on the subject resemble nothing that is continually served in the lunch cafeteria. We must make a conscious effort as concerned parents to begin picking up the pieces of the misconstrued path of bad nutrition to appease taste buds and heal our own bodies with good healthy, wholesome foods. Hippocrates, the great Greek physician and the father of western medicine said "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food," but we westerners have completely ignored his sage advice, and we are paying the price with high mortality rates, cancer, diabetes and cardiac arrest in unprecedented numbers.
Choosing a healthy lifestyle for your family is actually quite easy. It also gets easier the more you practice it. Sure it may be different than what you've been doing until now, but the benefits will be worth the effort. Think of it as learning to fall in love with you again, learning to care for your family, your children and yourself in a new way that will give you exponential results with even small efforts. You do not have to begin all at once, and for some families it's better to take baby steps. But if you really want to help your child achieve and maintain a healthy emotional balance - nutrition combined with unconditional love, of course, is the place you must start. Love alone may not cure diabetes or other nutrition-related illnesses, but good nutrition can.
The increasing popularity of the raw food diet has proven successful in curing even diabetes (Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days - the movie). Start by incorporating more fresh fruits and vegetables into your life. Our plates should center on fresh vegetables and fruits rather than meats and white carbohydrates.
Even after one week of incorporating more raw fresh fruits and vegetables into your mealtime, you will see dramatic improvements in everyone's moods and emotions. Healthy live foods make people feel healthy and alive. Be mindful of the foods you choose in the grocery store. Are they living, life-giving foods that will build your child's body and brain? If you stick to the produce area, you know you will be buying real food, everything else is already dead and cannot properly nourish a living, growing body.
In the 1930s, research was conducted under Dr. Paul Kouchakoff at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Switzerland. It has been known that an effect of eating cooked foods produced an abundance of leukocytes - white blood cells (the fighter cells). This was called digestive leukocytosis and was a known phenomenon. However, in his study, Dr. Kouchakoff found that no digestive leukocytosis was experienced in people who ate raw, natural food. Blood did not (and does not) respond to cooked and processed or refined foods the way it does to raw foods in their natural state. The natural conclusion is that cooked and refined foods are not a natural energy source of the human body and the body experiences them as foreign invaders thereby producing leukocytes. While you may not decide to abide by a high raw food diet, you certainly can make small changes to base your eating style more around fresh vegetables and fruits and eat less processed and refined foods. In this way the whole family will benefit. By choosing to incorporate fresh, wholesome foods into your diet and paying careful attention to what you serve and buy, you will find a new, clean, healthy emotional balance in your family and happier, healthier kids who can deal with normal life stresses much better.
The truth is, we may not even realize that bad food choices can literally starve a child's brain and body. That starving may even be taking place under layers of excess pounds. Your child may be so deficient in basic body building nutrients that anger, depression, lack of energy and even diabetes may result from those unhealthy choices. It's following the Standard American Diet (SAD) that has gotten us into this position, where nearly 1 out of every 3 American children and teens are overweight according to the American Heart Association's 2011 statistics. Our kids today are consuming too much candy, pre-packaged foods, soda and fast food which all literally rob the body of health and life span.
By feeding our children a SAD, we are actually putting them at risk for cardiac problems, high blood pressure and many other food-related illnesses. The American Academy of Pediatrics has even discovered high blood pressure in some toddlers. We have become too complacent and too tired ourselves to prepared fresh home-cooked meals of old. It's so much easier to hit the drive through and be done with it. However, fast food was not created to be healthy. It was created to produce a profit. Current agendas such as growing meat in a laboratory from bovine stem cells should be of concern to our society. Hearing that it twitches as it grows should appall anyone and make us want to research today's standards of food production and what we are potentially putting into our children's bodies.
If you experience constant fatigue, it may well be caused by the foods you are consuming. Nutrition and quality of life are tightly woven to create the very fabric of our lives - physically, emotionally and spiritually. We must take a closer look at the role of nutrition in our bodies and how it affects our lives.
White, nutritionally deficient sugar and flour (even if it has been 'fortified") cause us to experience fatigue and hit bottom emotionally. Food affects our feelings and our moods. The rising rates of depression and mood disorders in the United States parallel the increase of obesity here according to the National Institutes of Health. Nutrition deserves to be placed in proper perspective and given the importance it truly deserves.
Schools do not teach children much about nutrition and the classroom worksheets given on the subject resemble nothing that is continually served in the lunch cafeteria. We must make a conscious effort as concerned parents to begin picking up the pieces of the misconstrued path of bad nutrition to appease taste buds and heal our own bodies with good healthy, wholesome foods. Hippocrates, the great Greek physician and the father of western medicine said "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food," but we westerners have completely ignored his sage advice, and we are paying the price with high mortality rates, cancer, diabetes and cardiac arrest in unprecedented numbers.
Choosing a healthy lifestyle for your family is actually quite easy. It also gets easier the more you practice it. Sure it may be different than what you've been doing until now, but the benefits will be worth the effort. Think of it as learning to fall in love with you again, learning to care for your family, your children and yourself in a new way that will give you exponential results with even small efforts. You do not have to begin all at once, and for some families it's better to take baby steps. But if you really want to help your child achieve and maintain a healthy emotional balance - nutrition combined with unconditional love, of course, is the place you must start. Love alone may not cure diabetes or other nutrition-related illnesses, but good nutrition can.
The increasing popularity of the raw food diet has proven successful in curing even diabetes (Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days - the movie). Start by incorporating more fresh fruits and vegetables into your life. Our plates should center on fresh vegetables and fruits rather than meats and white carbohydrates.
Even after one week of incorporating more raw fresh fruits and vegetables into your mealtime, you will see dramatic improvements in everyone's moods and emotions. Healthy live foods make people feel healthy and alive. Be mindful of the foods you choose in the grocery store. Are they living, life-giving foods that will build your child's body and brain? If you stick to the produce area, you know you will be buying real food, everything else is already dead and cannot properly nourish a living, growing body.
In the 1930s, research was conducted under Dr. Paul Kouchakoff at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Switzerland. It has been known that an effect of eating cooked foods produced an abundance of leukocytes - white blood cells (the fighter cells). This was called digestive leukocytosis and was a known phenomenon. However, in his study, Dr. Kouchakoff found that no digestive leukocytosis was experienced in people who ate raw, natural food. Blood did not (and does not) respond to cooked and processed or refined foods the way it does to raw foods in their natural state. The natural conclusion is that cooked and refined foods are not a natural energy source of the human body and the body experiences them as foreign invaders thereby producing leukocytes. While you may not decide to abide by a high raw food diet, you certainly can make small changes to base your eating style more around fresh vegetables and fruits and eat less processed and refined foods. In this way the whole family will benefit. By choosing to incorporate fresh, wholesome foods into your diet and paying careful attention to what you serve and buy, you will find a new, clean, healthy emotional balance in your family and happier, healthier kids who can deal with normal life stresses much better.
Senin, 28 Agustus 2017
Healthy Foods For Kids - Transitioning to Whole Grains
Healthy foods for kids are the same foods that are good for the rest of us to eat. There is no magical combination of foods that are specific for each age group.
However, getting kids who may be used to consuming the worst foods to eat, the fast foods and junk foods wrapped in cellophane, can be a chore. Even this impediment to healthy eating can be overcome with a little diligence and effort on your part.
Any healthy diet plan begins and ends with the foods you allow in your house. Yes, you truly are the master of your domain and it is up to you to make sure only good healthy foods get into your kitchen.
Balanced Healthy Diet
Getting kids to eat healthy may seem like a formidable task but it can be done. You just have to take baby steps to wean them off junk food and get acclimated to healthier foods.
A good place to start is the whole grains because kids love carbohydrates. Besides, the transition from refined grain breads, pasta, and cereals to whole grain products is relatively easy.
These are definitely healthy foods for kids and you will like them also.
Daily Nutritional Needs
Whole grains should make up a large part of your daily diet.
Whole grains comprise healthy diets for teens, are foods that lower blood sugar, and help avoid some of the causes of child obesity.
The list of whole grains is long. But of more importance to you is the list of healthy foods to eat available in your supermarket that contains whole grains.
Healthy Diet Menu
Many inexpensive healthy recipes can be used to make delicious meals from the whole grain category.
That list includes:
* Whole grain breads.
* Whole grain cereals from oats, whole kernel corn, or whole wheat.
* Whole grain pasta made from whole wheat or spelt.
* Corn meal that has not been degerminated makes great corn bread.
* Corn chips made from the entire kernel of corn.
* Brown or wild rice (or mixes of both).
Even snacks may make up a large portion of a kid's daily nutritional needs. So you better put some effort into supplying them with healthy foods at snack time.
Many kids will choose to eat a raw carrot stick instead of a gooey, sugary snack if given the choice.
Sometimes it is easiest to find healthy foods for kids if you just provide the foods then allow them to choose on their own.
Once you look beyond fast foods and begin making healthful food choices the list of healthy foods to eat begins to seem almost endless.
However, getting kids who may be used to consuming the worst foods to eat, the fast foods and junk foods wrapped in cellophane, can be a chore. Even this impediment to healthy eating can be overcome with a little diligence and effort on your part.
Any healthy diet plan begins and ends with the foods you allow in your house. Yes, you truly are the master of your domain and it is up to you to make sure only good healthy foods get into your kitchen.
Balanced Healthy Diet
Getting kids to eat healthy may seem like a formidable task but it can be done. You just have to take baby steps to wean them off junk food and get acclimated to healthier foods.
A good place to start is the whole grains because kids love carbohydrates. Besides, the transition from refined grain breads, pasta, and cereals to whole grain products is relatively easy.
These are definitely healthy foods for kids and you will like them also.
Daily Nutritional Needs
Whole grains should make up a large part of your daily diet.
Whole grains comprise healthy diets for teens, are foods that lower blood sugar, and help avoid some of the causes of child obesity.
The list of whole grains is long. But of more importance to you is the list of healthy foods to eat available in your supermarket that contains whole grains.
Healthy Diet Menu
Many inexpensive healthy recipes can be used to make delicious meals from the whole grain category.
That list includes:
* Whole grain breads.
* Whole grain cereals from oats, whole kernel corn, or whole wheat.
* Whole grain pasta made from whole wheat or spelt.
* Corn meal that has not been degerminated makes great corn bread.
* Corn chips made from the entire kernel of corn.
* Brown or wild rice (or mixes of both).
Even snacks may make up a large portion of a kid's daily nutritional needs. So you better put some effort into supplying them with healthy foods at snack time.
Many kids will choose to eat a raw carrot stick instead of a gooey, sugary snack if given the choice.
Sometimes it is easiest to find healthy foods for kids if you just provide the foods then allow them to choose on their own.
Once you look beyond fast foods and begin making healthful food choices the list of healthy foods to eat begins to seem almost endless.
Sabtu, 12 Agustus 2017
Points to Remember While Scouting for a Kid's Modeling Agency
One fine day, you suddenly might see your three old daughters dancing to the song on the recorder, or your five year old son posing with his toy guitar in front of the mirror and suddenly you get the idea that she or he is gorgeous enough to appear before the camera. You are not alone. Many young parents feel that their children are cute enough to pose for the commercials. But just a sweet face is not enough and there have been hundreds of instances where the child and the entire family had to suffer a setback which was even traumatic in certain cases. So while looking for a kid's modeling agency here are certain things that you should definitely check for the best interest for you child.
The modeling agency should be experienced in handling children of your age group. That is, some agencies do not work with children below six years because they are very young and need very careful handling whereas some agencies do not work with pre-teens since they complain of the kid's tantrums. It is important that you hand over your kid's to the right kind of people.
Avoid working with agencies that will not allow the parents to visit the site or will not allow them to see their kids during breaks at the shoot. You never know how they will be treating your child and in some case, toddlers have been known to have gone into shock due to mistreatment and they are so young that they cannot even talk about what happened. It is sad that some people are only interested in money and they do give the care to a child that he or she deserves.
Do not work with agencies that demand a lot of money in advance. There are potential scams in this kind of business and good agency will initially require only some good snap shots to determine how the child will look on the camera or on print.
By taking note of these facts, you will be able to determine which kind of modeling agency is right for you child. After all, they are just kids and it is of utmost importance and you duty to see to their well being.
The modeling agency should be experienced in handling children of your age group. That is, some agencies do not work with children below six years because they are very young and need very careful handling whereas some agencies do not work with pre-teens since they complain of the kid's tantrums. It is important that you hand over your kid's to the right kind of people.
Avoid working with agencies that will not allow the parents to visit the site or will not allow them to see their kids during breaks at the shoot. You never know how they will be treating your child and in some case, toddlers have been known to have gone into shock due to mistreatment and they are so young that they cannot even talk about what happened. It is sad that some people are only interested in money and they do give the care to a child that he or she deserves.
Do not work with agencies that demand a lot of money in advance. There are potential scams in this kind of business and good agency will initially require only some good snap shots to determine how the child will look on the camera or on print.
By taking note of these facts, you will be able to determine which kind of modeling agency is right for you child. After all, they are just kids and it is of utmost importance and you duty to see to their well being.
Sabtu, 22 Juli 2017
Animation Software For Kids - Tips On Choosing The Right One
Any parent who's taken their child to see any of the latest blockbuster animation movies cannot fail to see their child's enthusiasm for this wonderful craft...so much so that many kids want to have a go and make their own animations at home.
Trouble is, it's not always easy to find the right animation software, as most of the professional software out there is just way too complicated (and expensive!) for kids to use.
Therefore, I've outlined a few tips below that should help you make your decision and find the best animation software for your child.
Style of Animation
The first question you'll need to ask yourself is what kind of animation will your child be doing?
Is it cartoony drawn animation or plasticine stop motion animation? Or maybe it's 3d computer animation in the style of Pixar or Dreamworks?
Each software is designed with a specific style in mind, so make sure you consider this when choosing.
A quick note: While computer animation is super popular these days and the largest part of the modern animation industry, I wouldn't recommend it for very young children. The software is normally too complicated for young kids and they're likely to get bored real easy.
It's therefore better suited to teens and older children or those who already have a good grasp of animation fundamentals.
Age and Experience Level
As mentioned above, your child's age is a major factor in helping you to make your choice.
For very young children I would recommend an animation software that lets them get hands-on experience as quickly as possible - you don't want them to have to spend ages on learning how to use the software, because they simply won't - and they may end up forming a dislike of animation in general if they find it too difficult or boring.
For this reason either a 2d software or a stop motion software is often the best choice as they can do their own drawings or make their own models and get animating straight away.
3d and more complicated softwares are better suited to teens and older children and can be used to help them get a head start on developing future career skills, as there are many economical educational versions of the professional high end softwares.
Budget
The final factor you have to consider (and some would say the most important) is the budget you're willing to spend on animation software for your child.
There are a number of free animation programs out there which are fine for some folks. The only problem is they don't always have the right kind o support network or customer service that you would get from a paid program.
Most of the best programs can be bought for between $50 - $100, so they're not particularly expensive, especially when you consider the price of video games today, and the benefit your child will get out of practicing animation.
Trouble is, it's not always easy to find the right animation software, as most of the professional software out there is just way too complicated (and expensive!) for kids to use.
Therefore, I've outlined a few tips below that should help you make your decision and find the best animation software for your child.
Style of Animation
The first question you'll need to ask yourself is what kind of animation will your child be doing?
Is it cartoony drawn animation or plasticine stop motion animation? Or maybe it's 3d computer animation in the style of Pixar or Dreamworks?
Each software is designed with a specific style in mind, so make sure you consider this when choosing.
A quick note: While computer animation is super popular these days and the largest part of the modern animation industry, I wouldn't recommend it for very young children. The software is normally too complicated for young kids and they're likely to get bored real easy.
It's therefore better suited to teens and older children or those who already have a good grasp of animation fundamentals.
Age and Experience Level
As mentioned above, your child's age is a major factor in helping you to make your choice.
For very young children I would recommend an animation software that lets them get hands-on experience as quickly as possible - you don't want them to have to spend ages on learning how to use the software, because they simply won't - and they may end up forming a dislike of animation in general if they find it too difficult or boring.
For this reason either a 2d software or a stop motion software is often the best choice as they can do their own drawings or make their own models and get animating straight away.
3d and more complicated softwares are better suited to teens and older children and can be used to help them get a head start on developing future career skills, as there are many economical educational versions of the professional high end softwares.
Budget
The final factor you have to consider (and some would say the most important) is the budget you're willing to spend on animation software for your child.
There are a number of free animation programs out there which are fine for some folks. The only problem is they don't always have the right kind o support network or customer service that you would get from a paid program.
Most of the best programs can be bought for between $50 - $100, so they're not particularly expensive, especially when you consider the price of video games today, and the benefit your child will get out of practicing animation.
Selasa, 11 Juli 2017
Summer Learning - 8 Fun Ways to Keep Your Kids Learning All Summer Long
Most kids look forward to three months of nothing but fun and games, but, as a parent, you know that learning should take place year round.
And while it can be hard to get your child's attention among all the swimming pools, video games and television shows that they'd rather be spending their time on, it's important that you keep the learning going (at least at some level) during the summertime. That way, when they return to school in the fall, they'll be enriched and ready to learn.
Here are eight fun ways to keep your kids learning all summer long, including some educational websites your kids will love.
1. Start your summer learning adventure by heading to your local library. Most libraries offer reading programs each summer that challenge your child to read. They may have flyers to help your child stay on track and reading suggestions divided by age group. Taking a weekly trip to the local library will be a great family activity to look forward to each week.
2. Instead of letting your child sit in front of video games all summer long, why not make the process educational? There are many educational computer games and games for video game systems that allow your child to have fun and can help them keep up to date with their basic skills at the same time. Keep in mind though that too many computer games, educational or not, will reduce your child's activity level, so make sure to use the video games in moderation.
3. Check out some free learning websites for kids. Three to try: Funbrain.com, math.com and abcteach.com (which has printable worksheets). If your kids prefer online communities, try Webkinz.com, which requires the purchase of a webkinz toy; ClubPenguin.com, which is geared for 6 to 14 year olds and is free to play but also has activities that required a paid membership; and WhyVille.net, a free online community for pre-teen and teen boys and girls.
4. Summer is a perfect time to discover, or re-discover, the unique learning opportunities in your neighborhood. If you haven't been to the local museum or other historic location within driving distance of your home, now is the time to do it. Make sure to talk about the history, science or other subject you'll be learning about so your kids can get the most out of the experience. Big metropolitan museums, zoos or landmarks are also great destinations during the summer. Even though gas is expensive, a road trip every now and then may be just what the teacher ordered.
5. Allow each of your children to choose a comprehensive workbook that they can work on a bit each day. Some workbooks cover math, reading, social studies and science. You might want to work out an incentive program to make sure they get their worksheets done each day. For example, each worksheet equals one ticket. Once they reach five tickets, everyone is rewarded with a few hours at the pool or a run through the sprinklers.
6. Play some educational, age-appropriate games, such as Scrabble, Boggle or chess. Purchase some family favorites in travel editions so the kids can play them on car rides and on vacation.
7. Learning during summer vacation can also take a more formal role in your child's life. If there was a subject your kids struggled with during the school year, now is the time to get tutoring or enroll them in a program to help them catch up. Make the experience fun by balancing their study time with some good old-fashioned family fun.
8. Vacation is the perfect time for sharing non-traditional lessons with your child that expose them to concepts they won't find in regular school. If they learned about plants this year in school, help them plant their own garden so they can see the concepts in action. Reinforce their knowledge of fractions and measurements by having daily or weekly cooking lessons with you in your kitchen. Many schools have had to cut back on arts and music, so summer gives you the perfect opportunity to let your child's creative side flourish.
If you tried to pack all of these ideas into one summer, you'd have a tired kid on your hands! Pick a few to try and keep the learning going throughout summer. By making learning fun, your child won't realize they are learning at all.
And while it can be hard to get your child's attention among all the swimming pools, video games and television shows that they'd rather be spending their time on, it's important that you keep the learning going (at least at some level) during the summertime. That way, when they return to school in the fall, they'll be enriched and ready to learn.
Here are eight fun ways to keep your kids learning all summer long, including some educational websites your kids will love.
1. Start your summer learning adventure by heading to your local library. Most libraries offer reading programs each summer that challenge your child to read. They may have flyers to help your child stay on track and reading suggestions divided by age group. Taking a weekly trip to the local library will be a great family activity to look forward to each week.
2. Instead of letting your child sit in front of video games all summer long, why not make the process educational? There are many educational computer games and games for video game systems that allow your child to have fun and can help them keep up to date with their basic skills at the same time. Keep in mind though that too many computer games, educational or not, will reduce your child's activity level, so make sure to use the video games in moderation.
3. Check out some free learning websites for kids. Three to try: Funbrain.com, math.com and abcteach.com (which has printable worksheets). If your kids prefer online communities, try Webkinz.com, which requires the purchase of a webkinz toy; ClubPenguin.com, which is geared for 6 to 14 year olds and is free to play but also has activities that required a paid membership; and WhyVille.net, a free online community for pre-teen and teen boys and girls.
4. Summer is a perfect time to discover, or re-discover, the unique learning opportunities in your neighborhood. If you haven't been to the local museum or other historic location within driving distance of your home, now is the time to do it. Make sure to talk about the history, science or other subject you'll be learning about so your kids can get the most out of the experience. Big metropolitan museums, zoos or landmarks are also great destinations during the summer. Even though gas is expensive, a road trip every now and then may be just what the teacher ordered.
5. Allow each of your children to choose a comprehensive workbook that they can work on a bit each day. Some workbooks cover math, reading, social studies and science. You might want to work out an incentive program to make sure they get their worksheets done each day. For example, each worksheet equals one ticket. Once they reach five tickets, everyone is rewarded with a few hours at the pool or a run through the sprinklers.
6. Play some educational, age-appropriate games, such as Scrabble, Boggle or chess. Purchase some family favorites in travel editions so the kids can play them on car rides and on vacation.
7. Learning during summer vacation can also take a more formal role in your child's life. If there was a subject your kids struggled with during the school year, now is the time to get tutoring or enroll them in a program to help them catch up. Make the experience fun by balancing their study time with some good old-fashioned family fun.
8. Vacation is the perfect time for sharing non-traditional lessons with your child that expose them to concepts they won't find in regular school. If they learned about plants this year in school, help them plant their own garden so they can see the concepts in action. Reinforce their knowledge of fractions and measurements by having daily or weekly cooking lessons with you in your kitchen. Many schools have had to cut back on arts and music, so summer gives you the perfect opportunity to let your child's creative side flourish.
If you tried to pack all of these ideas into one summer, you'd have a tired kid on your hands! Pick a few to try and keep the learning going throughout summer. By making learning fun, your child won't realize they are learning at all.
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