Now that children are out of school for the summer, I’m dreading summer brain drain. This is the condition my children suffer from the second school lets out. I love having lazy days lounging by the pool or the beach. There’s nothing more relaxing than sleeping in late and coasting through a day without a care in the world. But I know that isn’t reality. I know that in order for my kids to succeed in their education I have to keep them stimulated throughout the summer and during other breaks.
I want to keep my kids engaged and interested in more than just fun in the sun this summer. I’ve thought about a few different activities we can do to keep it fun. If I tell them they have summer homework that isn’t going to go over well. If I spin it into something entertaining we will have success.
We are going to put on a play. In order for this to happen we have to choose a story that fits a wide range of ages since my children are five, ten and seventeen. This also means it would have to be a story I have to read also since my 5 year old won’t be able to do this on her own.
Harold and the Purple Crayon would be a fun outdoor performance with a large roll of easel paper wrapped around the fences. But there is only one character; not exactly the group project I was hoping for.
I think Pinocchio has plenty of characters but not too many at one time that we couldn’t pull off our own little routine. There are also so many variations of the story that there is definitely some wiggle room for story line adjustments.
How to Eat Fried Worms is one of my all time favorite stories. This might be a good choice just to get my kids to read something that I enjoyed many years ago. This is also an ideal opportunity for my children to eat candy/gummy worms.
An ideal story full of wild imagination and cool costumes is Heckedy Peg. A mother and her 7 children need to overcome a witch’s spell using reasoning and a little trickery themselves.
Our story needs to fit our personalities and of course our family size. If I gather the other kids in the neighborhood we could pull off a much grander show with a stage and full costumes. I realized this would involve convincing other kids to read over summer break but the overall all production might be too much fun for them to stay away.
How do you keep the kids engaged over the summer?
image courtesy of The Consortium via Flickr