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Uncommon Summer Activities For Kids In U.s.

Discussion in 'General Discussions - USA & Canada' started by Rihana, May 27, 2016.

  1. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    It is summer vacation time for most elementary and middle schools in the U.S.

    Moms, or dads (after being reminded by mom via text, email and at dinner table) have pro'lly enrolled kids in camps or other summer programs.

    But, what are some uncommon summer activities that the kids and parents can use the summer for? Something they don't get the time for during the school year? These could be at home, online, outside the home, paid, free, outside the home, to do with skills, values, culture, family bonding, anything.

    Share your ideas.
     
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  2. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Aren't those two kids in the picture, the cutest? :) And how nicely they are bringing home only one big pencil and not a big bag of papers and art work and binders from school for mom to sigh and sort.

    Uncommon summer vacation activities I could think of so far:

    1. Memorize and recite some well-known short poems in any language, or slokas, dohas (couplets)
    While we move away from memorizing in learning, there is something soothing about it, and a memory worth making. Just one every 4-5 days. If child wants to!

    2. Cooking - a basic dish or two. Start with making a recipe that child can understand. Then, follow recipe together, child editing recipe with pencil, and that later becomes final recipe. Takes time... I taught my kids this at 9 or 10 yrs age for a fried rice version I make and they like.
     
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  3. Goodgod

    Goodgod IL Hall of Fame

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    @Rihana ...We can once a week sit , till the end ,with the kid in the family room with snacks of their interest and watch movie of their choice.
     
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  4. KashmirFlower

    KashmirFlower IL Hall of Fame

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    1. cleaning and arranging their stuff in closets as a family activity, making it fun by doing little by little and sitting all toghether and with breaks
    clothes : sorting all clothes, donating unused ones
    another day toys, donating box for this also.
    another day books

    Spring cleaning in summer!:blush:

    2. Introducing to some thing new , sports or adventure related, like horse riding, or some new games, every year something new, if they like it they can make it a part of their life. or later they can catch it from where they left, introducing everything a bit is important i feel

    3. learning music seriously or dance or theater/drama
    if they are good in story writing , poem writing, painting make it more serious learning

    4. deep friendship bonding for kids (by playdates, by learning some activity together) can be done with similar interests/values based family kids, so that they can bond strong and maintain that bond for long long time

    5. Just kids need to show interest in other activities,(instead of getting bored) instead of watching TV or sitting with tablet, there is lot to do,

    like everyday especially weekends so much local events happens, most of them are free or with less ticket price, going to them I personally like very much. ex, we have arts street festival for memorial day weekend. spending there would be nice, live music, food trucks, different art forms like pottery etc to try for kids. Memorial day parade
    earth day, arbor day, some library events etc.

    6 visting/meeting relatives or close friends in the context of kids bonding and socializing.
    overall socializing in all we do is good as other times we may not meet much people, as winter or busy schedule
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2016
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  5. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Good idea. It would surely test, and therefore, prove parental love. : ) If parent is not allowed to be on phone or computer, even more so.

    That makes me think - if somehow child could be got interested in short documentaries. Might be hard I think.. but worth a try.
     
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  6. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Nice list, KF. That is the idea - try something new.

    Spring cleaning reminds me - one summer few of us neighbors thought kids could organize neighborhood garage sale.. Turns out need permission from city or something.
     
  7. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Some more came to mind -

    Amazon reviews - Things bought for family or kid's use in past few months, kid can write a review for it. Or, they can go look up the amazon page of books etc that they like, and write review.

    Sell items on craigslist - Take pictures with phone, compose ad, and sell with parent's supervision. They get to keep the money. It's actually a good experience... if handled safely.

    Look at the stars - dinner outside in open air if possible.

    Scanning old photos - Buy a scanner and have them scan old print photos - applies to those who had kids before digital and phone cameras became so common.
     
  8. butterflyice

    butterflyice Local Champion Staff Member Platinum IL'ite

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    1.Camping outdoors or camping at home with a tent in the middle of the living room. Chairs and bedsheets get many avatars this way.

    2. Nature walks/trekking in local forest preserve

    3. Water activities like canoeing, kayaking if you live close to the water.

    4. Selling lemonade/juice/neer mor (buttermilk) I seriously need to try out neer mor and see American reaction :)

    5. Gardening at community gardens

    6. Older kids can babysit or tutor at community centers.

    7. This one is not really unconventional but has become uncommon now - lots and lots of unstructured play. No homework, no school means many many hours at the local parks.

    Will list more as I remember.

    I totally agree with you on the memorising part. Last summer we did just that - kiddos memorised slokas and they were thrilled. This year I am planning vernacular poetry, its a challenge though.
     
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  9. Ragini25

    Ragini25 Platinum IL'ite

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    @Rihana any ideas for a good scanner? is it too expensive?
     
  10. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    5-7 years ago, we bought the HP Scanjet G4050 Photo Scanner for $250 plus, it is now around $190. It is good, but there seem to be many more and cheaper options now. A quick search shows that main deciding feature is whether we want to scan negatives (films) also. I would like to look at the Epson Perfection series and compare features, they seem to range from $100 to $280

    It is like buying a treadmill... is worth the price and floor/desk space it takes up, if it is used! We used it initially, but, couldn't find the contiguous time such projects take. There are businesses that provide this service. Scancafe is one such, with facilities in Indianapolis and Bangalore. I've used them, and they are very good... but it takes a leap of faith to mail precious photos/negatives to a U.S. address, more so, if the company is in turn going to send them out of country. I did for wedding pictures, but couldn't take the risk with childhood pictures, so bought the scanner. Now I use the scanner to now and then scan old pictures and post them to <gulp> FB and whatsapp. :)
     

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