Well Rounded Summer Resources: Reading, Art, STEM, Nature

Parks and Recreation Centers have great outdoor activities, too.

With a school break, there is time to read, do arts and crafts, hang around outside checking out nature--summertime, what a great gift. (And just for a little while of relaxing math, don't forget

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

NATURE 

Backyard Birdin

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birding/ 

Nature Activities & Nature Experiments

http://www.education.com/activity/nature-activities/ 

eButterfly
http://www.e-butterfly.org/contents/?portal=ebutterfly 

Bumble Bee Watch

http://bumblebeewatch.org/ 

Project Budburst

http://budburst.org/ 

Birding Tips for Families

http://education.audubon.org/birding-tips-families 

Community Collaborative Rain , Hail, and Snow

http://www.cocorahs.org/ 

eBird

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ 

Outdoor Activities:Taking Science Outside

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/outdoor-activitiestaking-science-outside 

Birding with Children

http://www.birdwatching.com/tips/kids_birding.html 

    

The sky is cheap entertainment.

SUMMERTIME: ONLINE AND OUTSIDE

Kids Astronomy

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/index.htmature-activities/

Nature Activities & Nature Experiments

http://www.education.com/activity/nature-activities/

Community Collaborative Rain , Hail, and Snow

http://www.cocorahs.org/ 

eBird

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ 

Outdoor Activities:Taking Science Outside

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/outdoor-activitiestaking-science-outside 

SCIENCE AT HOME

Flowers, like these verbena in my yard, will cross-pollinate creating blended colors. How cool is that?

Kids can also identify insects and their habitats, which is important for safety reasons. The critters become like family, and kids learn to respect their lives in the garden, rather then hunt and squish them.

Mojave lizard, eater of Black Widow Spiders. Bon appetit, dude.

Knowing native plants and birds, how to use water wisely. Kids are easily recruited from an early age to be assistant gardeners and landscapers. 

Checking out the weather by looking at the sky, feeling the humidity, temperature, and the wind patterns are also safety points. Plus, chatting about the weather is just a necessary social skill globally.

And realistically, the sky is cheap entertainment.

  1. Go on a Backyard Botany Hunt

 http://www.education.com/activity/article/Backyard_Botany_fifth/

2. What’s Up in the Sky this Month 
 http://liebacklookup.com/whats-up-in-the-sky-this-month/ 

3. Weather Wiz Kids

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/ 

4. Summer Science Projects

 http://www.hometrainingtools.com/summer-science-projects/a/1406/

5. Summer Birding Tips

http://birding.about.com/od/birdingbasics/a/summerbirdingtips.htm

ARTS AND CRAFTS

I want to make some chalk!

More time, more art! It's summer!

This site is great for little kids on up.

 http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/seasons/summer/

This site has listed a number of other sites with links.

One of a kind tie dye.

Got my backpack, let's go on a picnic.

http://thelongthread.com/?p=4054










Fun sewing will teach kids about needle and thread and maybe buttons. This site has more than this one project, but this looked the cutest to me.



http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crafts-by-type/sewing-fabric-projects/sewing-projects/backpack-shirt-922871/

More sewing. Lots of choices.

Its a softie!

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2011/06/21/sewing-with-kids-craft-camp/ 
This is just the beginning of a creative summer. 
READING 

This is Scholastic's program online. Looks like fun.

http://www.scholastic.com/summer/

Make a deal with the bookstore.


Barnes & Noble Summer Readinghttp://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/summer-reading/379003570

 This is sponsored free by Sylvan. Looks like fun! (Do I keep saying that? I guess I think reading is fun!)

Best sellers for kids of the last 100 years.

http://www.bookadventure.com/Home.aspx

This would be worth some research. And Chuck E. Cheese, too.
  

A List of Summer Reading Programs for Kids That Give Free Books, Money and More

http://freebies.about.com/od/familyfreestuff/tp/summer-reading.htm

Have a Do-It-Yourself with your kids' friends. Sounds like fun to me (doh! I said it again.)
I used to have a reading party with my tutoring students at the end of the summer--we'd dress up as favorite characters. Not too original, but really cool since they kids had just fallen in love with reading for the first time.