Great summer fun ideas from teachers who are parents, too

Summer always begins with such promise, time to spend with your kids doing all those great activities you don’t seem to have time for during the crush of the school year. But somehow time seems to get away from us and our kids spend way too much time with their favorite electronic diversions.

Here are two great suggestions from veteran educators who are also parents that are guaranteed to help you and your kids make the most out of your time together this summer. I will add more ideas in the weeks ahead.

(As I started looking for clever ideas for summer fun, I thought teachers who are also parents would be a great resource. So I asked several of the educators I’ve interviewed in recent months for advice. They offered suggestions that have gone over big in their own homes.)

“Every summer we focused our daughters outside. We figured they just spent the last nine months learning indoors; it was time to get them learning outdoors. We spent time camping in the desert or up on Palomar. We would collect bugs and leaves, or just spend time hiking.

I fully believe in the cautions that Richard Louv warns of in his book ‘Last Child in the Woods.’ Children need to have a connection to the outdoors to be fully rounded.”

(Note from Such A Smart Mom: Coincidentally, I am reading “Last Child in the Woods” and highly recommend it. The Children and Nature Network is also a great resource.)

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Five family-friendly hikes in Orange County

“One summer my kids and I formed ourselves into a film/book club and read books and then watched the movie, or sometimes we’d watch the movie first then read the book. We’d try to do one book and one movie per week.

Sometimes we had the opportunity to watch different versions of the same movie, for instance, “Around the World in 80 Days.” We read the book and watched the old version of the film, from the 50’s with David Niven and Shirley MacLaine. Coincidentally it was the year that “Around the World in 80 Days” with Jackie Chan was in the movie theater so we got to see that version, too.

We had wonderful discussions about the story and the different interpretations from the movie. My husband got involved too, even though he didn’t read the book he went with us to the movie so could join in the conversation, and my kids could fill him in on what was included in the book, but not the movie. They loved knowing something he didn’t know!”

Ms. Dunlevy recommends Based on the Book, an online database by the Mid-Continent Public Library of books that have been made into movies. The database includes more than 1,250 books, novels, short stories and plays that have been made into full-length movies since 1980.

Looking for more ideas? Read the next installment of our summer learning series, “Great summer fun ideas from teachers who are parents, too” and “Help your kids stay smart this summer”