If Life Gives you Lemons, Make Lemonade. I will always remember this quote because a much cheesier framed version of it hung above our picnic style dining table throughout my youth. We learned a lot of things at the table, but that mantra of positivity stuck with me my entire life. It’s probably why I’m an optimist to this day.…
Category: 60 Days of Summer Fun
60 Days of Summer Fun… #16- Improve Your Aim
This might be more of a summer bucket list item, but it’s a great way to enjoy sports indoor and out while improving a skill. Aiming is an important part of archery, playing pool, bowling, softball, baseball, basketball, golf, darts and so many more sports. Perfecting one’s aim takes practice, and here are some great games – minus the guns and knives-…
60 Days of Summer Fun… #15- Take the Opportunity to Teach- and Learn- a Life Lesson
I’m riding in the elevator with my 8-year old daughter and no one else is around. We’ve just sucked down the best and saltiest black licorice I’ve ever eaten, and with 40 more floors to descend, I smile at the mirrored elevator door to make sure there’s no black stuff stuck in my teeth. It’s just the two of us-…
60 Days of Summer Fun… #14- Document Your Summer
The film Boyhood was inspiration for this one. I’ve always loved the idea of a visual documentation of time passing. Documenting the summer can provide an opportunity for children to write, increase vocabulary skills, practice penmanship (especially as we lose our cursive writing to typing and texting), not to mention, provide great memories and a snapshot of the summer. Journaling, Blogging, Sketching, and making…
60 Days of Summer Fun… #13- Incorporate Math Creatively
Why torture your child with meaningless drill and kill math when there are plenty of creative ways to explore mathematical thinking this summer. Drill and kill may be useful when learning multiplication tables or when more practice is needed in an area of weakness. But the summer should be fun, and when incorporating math, do your best to lighten the load. As you…
60 Days of Summer Fun… #12- Be A Model for Your Child
‘I don’t want to take swim lessons!! I already know how to swim.” That’s what happens when I make the choices for summer activities, so despite desperately wanting my daughter to have stronger skills in an area she is improving in on her own, sometimes you have to let loose of the reigns a bit. I’ve learned to instead narrow down the choices…
60 Days of Summer Fun… #11- Cook Together
Let’s Get Cooking Now….For our 90 Days of Summer Fun idea, roll up your sleeves and get out your aprons because we’re heading to the kitchen! A study conducted by the University of Alberta, Canada found that children who help with food preparation and experiment with food in the kitchen are more likely to try new foods and make healthier food choices…
60 Days of Summer Fun… #10- Encouraging Entrepreneurship in Girls
Image owned by Rex F. May, via baloocartoons.com What better time than summer to encourage your kiddo’s budding entrepreneurial efforts? Opportunities abound for learning about financial literacy, entrepreneurship, scarcity, branding and marketing and so much more. And learning on your toes is paramount. With women holding less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions in 2013, fostering young girls’…
60 Days of Summer Fun… #9- Learn to Appreciate Technology
Remember your first Apple Computer? Mine was a Mac LC. To Mac purists I may have been late to the party, but I made up for it with the number of computers purchased since then– and hoarded: the Quadra, the 20th Anniversary Mac, pretty much every pro model since the LC. I consider our relationship a two way street- for the number…
60 Days of Summer Fun… #8- READING, Part 5- Great Summer Read Alouds
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has at least ten one-liners stored in her memory bank from the movie The Princess Bride: “My Sweet Wesley”; “This is true love – you think this happens every day?”; “You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles”; “I am not left-handed”; “You killed my father…prepare to die…”; “Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us…
PALNYC 