summer-activities-for-kids

Although many kids are heading back to school, quite a few schools throughout the country do not start for a few more weeks. This means many families still have a bit of summer vacation left, and here are a few great ways to spend the remaining few days before sending your child off to school.

Interesting Reading

One simple way of keeping children busy during the summer vacations is taking them to local library. Very often they have free reading programs that would allow kids to earn the prizes for the books they read. Even young children can participate by counting the hours that you read to them.

Swimming

Swimming is a great summer activity for children as kids usually adore water, and love spending hours swimming and playing in water. Kids get exercise, learn to stay cool, have fun, and really enjoy the swimming. If you don’t have a swimming pool of your own, visit your local city or county website to see if there are any community pools.

Watching Movies

Although I prefer to keep my children as active as possible during the summer, movies can be great options for a little down time, or when it is extremely hot outside. You can save money by renting movies and watching at home, but many local movie theaters will also have a summer deal for children; most of them usually have one movie per week at a very low rate.

Volunteering

If your children are old enough to take responsibility, try to involve them in volunteer work. In doing so, your kids will not only be busy during the summer, but will also learn to help other people and be a useful member of the community. These kinds of activities are very healthy for the mind and body of your kids. They usually take one hour everyday or once in a week. You may find such volunteer jobs for your children with the help of local library, online resources and local newspaper.

Artwork and Sport

Arts and crafts may be simple; anything from painting a page in the coloring book, to sewing a new outfit, to building a play house. You can find a lot of interesting books on such topics in stores or the local library.

Check out the local YMCA, the multi-generational center, your local park and rec, and local schools to see what sports programs are available in the summer. Participation in sports teams may vary from lessons to competitions, and may last from one week to all summer long.

Discourage Summer Couch Potatoes

Encourage your child to participate in various activities instead of staying at home or spending all day long lounging around. Take your children with you on as many outings as possible. It can be as simple as a trip to the shopping mall, or a visit to family and friends. In this way, they will socialize in their own way and won’t spend mindless hours staring at the television or sleeping the day away.

If your children are old enough to spend time away from home without you, safety is important. In order to ensure the safety of your kids you can try using mobile monitoring software in order to control the content of their cell phones, monitor text messages, and know their location at any moment. Using a service such as this can help put your mind at ease, versus worrying about the safety of your children all day long.