Summer is definitely around the corner. While your kids are still in school, "enjoying" their last few weeks with their classmates, now is the time to get ahead of the game and begin drawing up a master plan for the long summer days ahead. If you are not organized, you will end up cleaning after the kids for the entire summer and wasting a precious opportunity to strengthen your ties with them. Through this article, we provide ideas for activities that will allow you to supervise them and not spend a fortune just to keep them productive. With these suggestions, you can teach your children about the environment, various artistic expressions such as sculptures and abstract canvas art, and international culture. Now, how cool is that?



Growing a Garden:

With the advent of global warming, you might want to do your share by teaching your kids early on about the environment and the basic biological and chemical processes that occur within it. Rather than teach them outright, why not encourage them to grow their own gardens? As you tend the garden together, you can explain how our actions impact the environment, and that we must be responsible in order to minimize these negative impacts. You can also teach them the virtues of patience and hard work as they wait for their plans to grow.

Visiting the Museum:

We all know that knowledge is best taught through visual means. Just by reading about art through their textbooks, they will not be able to appreciate the full impact of such works. By taking your kids to the museum, they will have a 3D experience and see the actual art forms as they really are. You can begin their art education by viewing famous works such as portraits, landscapes, and even abstract canvas paintings. Viewing these paintings can greatly enhance their capability to appreciate art and may even inspire them to take up related careers in the future.

Learning to Cook International Cuisine:

Another great activity to help broaden their perspectives is to teach them about food from other cultures. If you are part German, for example, why not teach them how to prepare basic German meals. As you do so, explain how and why these are used in their culture. If you have Mexican neighbors, teach your kids how to cook and appreciate Mexican cuisine so that they can understand other cultures and strengthen their tolerance of these. Of course, this would mean that you will have to do a bit of research, but wouldn't that also mean that you will learn something from it? Just in keep in mind though that you don't have to be scientific about it. Even if you are not an expert yourself, there are hundreds of online sources you can consult.

Consider these activities as wonderful opportunities to enjoy the process of learning together and fostering open communication. At the same time, you can change your kids' notions about different things (for example, abstract canvas art is not just for adults to enjoy or that you don't have to be Mexican to appreciate Mexican food) and broaden their points of view, all while having fun.