Did you pack your bag with all swimming gear, sunscreen, and plan your vacations? Did you put away all of the winter clothes and pull out the slip and slide? Summer goes by so fast while the children grow so fast, too. What are skills you want to develop in your child (or in yourself) that you may not get the time to do during the school year? How can we all reduce the day-to-day nagging and enjoy each other more this summer?
Terri Moser, Director of Family Ministries at St. Catherine of Siena, attempts to answer these questions in her annual class, “Getting Ready for Summer”. We included some of her suggestions and some of ours, too.
Resources from her class can be found at https://stcatherine-austin.org/getting-ready-for-summer and include:
A LifeSkills excel file to learn chores and real life skills according to age
Visual chart to organize your day
Visual charts for screentime guidelines and other activities that reduce the negative talk
Tangram and origami activities
Boredom Jar ideas (all packets and centers to be created ahead of time)
Activity suggestions to strengthen multiple intelligence
Saints for each day and a prayer for summer
A juggling exercise and more
Theme based learning is a fun way to plan out your summer for a week or a month. Suggestions of themes range from flowers to outer space to animals to modes of transportation. Here is a guide created by one of our teacher’s that she used with her children and niece and nephew.
Creating a servant’s heart, developing leadership skills and a love of reading are all worthy efforts:
Ask your children what they are interested in and having them take the lead…they can start their own book club, service project or hiking club.
Volunteer to milk goats on a Friday morning at Community First! Village, serve in your local parish or organize a fundraiser to help Little Angels educate children in India.
Join our students in our summer reading as we prepare to study ancient civilization.
Be aware of screen time consequences and try journal writing, creating a movie, or developing a moral imagination with these books. instead. Watch Diane Sawyer’s Screentime on abc.com.
What are your tips for summer?