Summer Challenges

We are well into Summer vacation, as I am sure you are aware. Don’t worry if you haven’t made your s’mores yet or spent enough time swimming, there is still plenty of time.  However, in the back of your mind I am sure you are starting to think about school again, too.  For most kids school brings challenges of all kinds, whether academic, social, sports, time, money or energy management. So how do we help our kids get ready for those challenges?  The answer is to find a challenge that works on the same skills that isn’t academic.  If you have a kiddo who is dying to make a sports team, find a challenge for them that stretch them physically.  If your child struggles with time management, find a challenge to work on those skills.  Summer is a time to challenge a student in a different way than school would.

So do you need some ideas, here is what I have so far…and I am sure there are many other options!

                 Go Green!  Build a challenge that helps your student to reduce your family's carbon footprint.

                Olympics-With the Olympics starting this week, there are so many options here!  If you have an athlete who isn’t all about academics, why not help them to research a favorite athlete.         Olympic history is rich and ready to be explored through online videos.

                Cooking-Help your student learn some healthier cooking.

                Learn Something New-Fishing, Knitting, Sewing, Gardening, where food comes from, etc.  All of these create teachable challenging moments and memories that your kids will hold on to forever.

Summer is a time for recreation, which is if you break the word down, is re-creation.  Let’s help our kids to re-create themselves before the school year begins.