Keep kids engaged and thinking while having fun outside on summer vacation

  • May 30, 2013
  • Lynnell Harris

With summer fast approaching, parents often start thinking of what activities they can do with children to keep them active and engaged. There are many options for us to choose from, including technology, home resources, reference books, educational websites, and workbooks, which are wonderful aids during the school year. However, I have found that children are eager to get outside and let loose after a full school year of sitting in a classroom.

I am lucky enough to live in Nova Scotia, Canada, where we have some fabulous parks and trail systems surrounding us. I have two daughters, ages 6 and 9, and our home is frequented by neighborhood children through the sunny days and weeks of summer. With so much energy surrounding our home, we love to spend as much time as we can outdoors, exploring nature. It provides an easy way for me to teach the children using hands-on experiences — things they may not learn while in the classroom all year.

 

One of our favorite places to go is a few minutes' drive from home and is a wonderful nature park with lots of acreage and a huge trail system to explore. I load up my truck with eager children and head into the park trails with a scavenger hunt in hand. Some of the items on the list include various colors, shapes, sounds, specific items, and so forth. For example, we might look for something yellow, then when one of the children finds a yellow flower, we try to identify it. If we can't, we take a picture and look it up when we get home. We also search for animal prints and scat, which the children find quite amusing to study and try to identify by owner. One of my favorite things to get the children to do is to stand quietly for a few moments and sound map. We share what sounds we heard and where those sounds came from. It's great to watch their faces light up when they hear something they didn't notice before.

You can also have kids organize, advertise, and hold a yard sale to raise money for a charity they all agree on. This one was actually their idea. I simply answered any questions and supplied what help they needed. The children drummed up donations for the big day, made some crafts to sell and signs to advertise, and had a lemonade stand. The children learned about money and entrepreneurship. They used word of mouth to tell people about their sale and then put in a full day's work — hauling the tables down to the end of our driveway along with all the merchandise and cleaning up at the end of the day. They had a blast and learned so many new skills. It's easy and educational to get kids outside and thinking for themselves. Kids are creative by nature; our job as parents is to help them use that creativity to learn in the style best suited for them. Similar to the lesson plans on the Mensa for Kids website, we enjoy thinking beyond the textbook and exploring the real world together.

MensaForKids.org Resources

The Foundation offers many tools for kids, parents, and teachers at mensaforkids.org. None of the resources requires registration, and the site is completely ad-free. Some of the resources include: