Spring Vacation Survival with an Academic Twist

Here are some short and sweet activities that you can do with your kids. If you just do one a day it can relieve you from the guilt of letting the television run all morning. Many of these ideas came from an ancient, yellowed paged book I found tucked in the book shelf of my childhood bedroom. It belonged to my aunt who was a home school teacher. Funny enough it was written by Jean Marzolo, the writer of the" I SPY" series and Janice LLoyd . She has a wonderful website filled with great books for parents and children at www.jeanmarzolo.com. The name of the book is "How to Help Your Child Learn Through Play". Here are a few simple activities (in some cases I have abridged the instructions):

Inventory

Find out how many

Together take an inventory of things in the house. Keep a written record of the results. Count everything! How many chairs? Sofas? TV's? Tables? Cans of soup? Windows? How many socks do you have? You get the point. You can also have children make a personal inventory. Help your child make a list of the things he/she can do and count how many times he/she can do them. Ask, How many times can you hop on one foot?"..."Snap your fingers?", etc.

Doodles

Help your child think of different points of view

Have children draw a single object from different points of view (you may have to model or take turns drawing) and write the view of the object. For example: a table from beside and from above, a tree from beside and from above, a hamburger from beside and above.

Name Nuts

Label everything in sight

Using index cards have your child name different objects in your home. As they name, you write them down and let your child use masking tape to tape the index card on to the object. Ideas: refrigerator, sister, mommy, bread, closet, coat, toothbrush, bathtub, boat, door, window, curtain, car, wagon, etc.

Later print the same words on another set of cards. Place the cards face up on the floor and "say", Which of these words so you know? If you think you know a word, take it to the thing it goes with and see if it is the same as the label." Your child can keep the ones he know. ( a shoe box is a good place to store them.)

Each activity can certainly replace one and a half television programs. So get planning and stay tuned for some more clever activities for Spring break!

Sara Lise