Happy Summer Learning!

While June 21st was the National Day of Summer Learning, education should be a priority for our families on an on-going basis!  The National Summer Learning Council has some great tips for engaging brains during those long (and often lazy) days of summer!

1. The "write" stuff: encourage your kids to keep a journal about the books they are reading, their favorite summer events or activities, and the new friends they have made.

2. Do it together: volunteer in your community and bring your children along.  Whether it is cleaning up a local park or collecting supplies for an animal shelter, volunteering with your children will turn them into future volunteers.

3. Encourage creativity: Have your child write a poem, draw a picture, create a sidewalk chalk masterpiece or create a comic.  Just encouraging them to use their brain may be the boost they need.

4. Try something new: sign your child up to run a race, play an instrument or attend a new camp in the community.  Summer is the perfect time to stretch their routine and comfort zone.

5. Take advantage of free and low-cost local activities: from fairs to free lunch, summer activities occur in all communities and most are free or of little cost!

Happy Summer and remember to KEEP learning!

Fathering is an Important Job

Happy Fathers Day from Building Healthy Families and the folks at Baby Zone with this great article about the importance of Dads!

Good fathering is hard work, but the most important kind of work men can do. The consistent and frequent presence of a father makes a powerful difference in the development and socialization of a child.  Be prepared, Dad, because your stamina will be tested. Your child seems to have boundless energy—physically, intellectually, socially—and you'll be challenged to keep up. It's an important time for you to establish a healthy pattern of involvement in your child's life.  When you are involved with your son or daughter, you send a clear message to your child: I want to be your father. I am interested in you. I enjoy being with you. You and I have a relationship that is important to me.

Benefits of Dad Involvement

Children who grow up with fathers who stay involved in their lives enjoy all kinds of benefits:

• better school performance
• less trouble with the law
• better jobs and careers
• better relationships with others
• higher self-esteem

Being an involved father supports the development of your kids. Children become just as attached to their fathers as their mothers. Attachment provides a life-long relationship providing a secure base in the world.

Dads and Play

Fathers play differently with children, using more physical and vigorous play activities. Fathers use more physical contact and spend a larger proportion of time playing (40 percent vs. 25 percent for mothers).  Mothers almost automatically join at the child's level of play, often allowing the child to direct the play activity. In contrast, fathers are more likely to position themselves as the leader. Fathers encourage teamwork and stimulate children to experiment with new games, to learn new skills, to compete, and to push the limits of their knowledge and abilities. Children need both types of play interaction: a chance to direct and the opportunity to be challenged.

So Happy Father's Day to all those amazing fathers out there...and remember just how important you are in the life of your child!

A Smashing Good Time

Trying to beat the heat and find a great activity for your kids?!?!  Get them outside and active with this simple and inexpensive water balloon pinata! 

Materials
Balloons
Water
Heavy string or fishing line

How To
1.  Fill as many balloons as you would like with water!  Hint: The more full the balloon, the easier to pop!

2. Tie off balloons and add a piece of fishing line or heavy string.

3. Hang the balloons from a jungle gym, monkey bars or even branches from a nearby tree.

4. Form a line making sure kids are safe!  Have 1 child at a time hit the balloons with a bat to see if they can make them pop!  For added fun, try blindfolding the batter!

5. Be ready to be the most popular parent on the block!

7 Tips for Summer Reading

School may be out for the summer, but if you want your kids to be in teachers' good books come fall, don't forget about summer reading.  Children should be reading summer-long in order to maintain their skills and gain a love of reading. Try the following tips from PBS Reading Experts:

1. Pick a program: In order to keep kids motivated and on track, Ernst suggests participating in a summer reading program.  Most local libraries have engaging, interactive reading programs with positive reinforcements to keep kids reading!

2. Time it right: Children in lower grades should be reading 20 to 30 minutes a day and part of that time can include a parent or caregiver reading to a child, experts say. Children in the upper grades should be reading 30 minutes to one hour a day.

3. Quiet down: To facilitate reading, give kids a quiet place to relax and read.  Keep the space free from TV and other distractions so they can have uninterrupted reading time.

4. Mix things up: Provide children with reading material in a variety of genres. Elementary-aged children should be reading fiction and non-fiction books that cover a range of genres, like science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction. 

5. Many materials: Summer reading should include reading material of all lengths, from chapter books to short stories to magazines. There are times when you want to read something short so you pick up a magazine to read.  Kids should have the same things available for them.

6. Talk about it: Take time talk to kids about what they're reading and about what you're reading, too. If the parents are talking about books they are reading, then the kids see reading as being worthwhile. Let your children see you reading and enjoying it, and they're more likely to want to read, too.

7. Write it down: There is a strong reciprocity between reading and writing.  Children should be given opportunities to write, whether it be email or letters to grandparents or friends, so their writing skills continue to grow along with their reading skills.