As wonderful as technology can be, it’s important to include a bit of offline fun in your children’s summer.
Pack a snack or a picnic lunch and head outdoors. If there are no nearby parks, visit a local school playground.
Borrow a few nature guides from your public library and identify some of the flowers, trees, birds and bugs in your neighborhood.
Have a backyard camp out, complete with tent, sleeping bags, and flashlights. Watch the fireflies dance, identify the constellations, and sing silly songs. If the weather won’t cooperate, construct tents from chairs draped with blankets and improvise indoors.
On a hot day, make squirt gun designs on the sidewalk or walls. When rain keeps children inside, hold an impromptu cooking class, then get out the card deck and board games, just like you would in a Northwoods cabin.
Don’t just preach exercise and fitness - make it interesting, make it fun and maybe your kids will start requesting unplugged days!
Diane Cordell is the mother of two adult, married children. In her position as a K-12 teacher/librarian, she interacts with students of all ages on a daily basis - good practice for future grandchildren! You can read more about Diane here. Diane also blogs at Journeys and can be found on Twitter as dmcordell. Click here to read more of Diane’s posts.
“Is That a Plug Tree?” by B. Cummin
“IMG_7185″ by eyeliam
Oh so true, Diane! My kids are too young to be online, but I make sure to limit my own time with technology as to take advantage of the summer weather and enjoy it with my kiddos. I can just tell that I’m going to be the mom that kicks the kids outside when they get older and doesn’t let them back inside except for meals - it’s the way I grew up and my moments of boredom playing outside quickly turned into fairy houses and mud bakery explorations. We completely dammed up our farm country creek and caught hundreds of crayfish……..just a few of countless unplugged moments from my not-so-long-ago childhood!
Thanks for this
Kate,
I grew up in a small town in the 1950s and ’60s. Kids were expected to play out of doors in all types of weather. TVs were controlled by the adults and watching was usually limited to evening hours (except for the American Bandstand shows we watched devotedly after school once we reached MS/HS).
We had mostly uni-sex toys, like bikes, wagons, trucks, sleds, etc. and there were regular bike trips to the library for books.
Everyone needs to find a balance between online and offline. That will be one of my biggest challenges, once I retire and begin to work full-time from home!
Diane Cordells last blog post..Hard Questions for Tough Times