Summer is coming! Do you have a plan for your kids? Or do you at least have an alternative for your children besides devices and videos?
When I was a kid, my family did not have a television, and of course, we did not have any devices. I read voraciously, went on bike rides, swam, and played board games (by myself.) It’s a different age for my kids, and I am not great at keeping my kids off their devices. My youngest has just discovered Minecraft. Even though that might be considered a good app, I still don’t want her playing it all day.
Of course, I want her to read. I have bought the third grade Sonlight Language and Reading program for her next year. She has already started reading some of the books and really enjoys them, especially The Third-Grade Detective series. Although she enjoys reading, she is not going to read all day either. I want her to do at least 5 minutes of math flashcards a day and I will probably use Singapore math as a review some days.
One thing I have also done is buy a 3 months subscription to I Create Art Kit. I bought a three month subscription for a birthday present for Kiley, and we really enjoyed it. The other kids are going to a week of camp or have a cousin coming to stay with them, so this will be like art camp spread out over the summer at our own pace. If you want to try it out, there is supposedly a loyalty program that I am part of where I can get rewards for referring a new member, but I can’t figure out how it works. If you see a place where you can say who referred you, write my name in! But if not, that’s okay. You’ll have fun doing this with your younger kids (around 6 – 8), and 9 and up can probably do it by themselves. I feel like they get good art materials that they can continue to use for other projects plus detailed directions for two projects in each kit.
And after we have exhausted reading books, math work, art kits, swimming, piano practice, and games (right now, Kiley loves playing Golf using Skip-Bo cards), it will be nice to have these activity books on hand. I received all of these book from Quarto Press, and they will be a nice addition to our summer activities, especially when we do our 42 hour round-trip drive to go see our family.
Here are the activity books I received:
This book has coloring pages, activity books, and 4 stories that you can read to your child. If you were reading the books to your child, it would be good for children that are 3-5 years old. The activities would be more for a 1st -2nd grader. The colors were bright and it was a nice, thick book that would last for a while.
I love these sticker, shape, draw books. For kids that don’t love to color, they will love to make the shapes with the stickers at the back of the book. They have to follow the sequencing directions to make the animal shapes, and the shapes get progressively harder as they do the book. Then they can embellish the shapes with crayons, pencils, or markers if they wish. It’s an easy book to bring on a trip, and it’s different than regular coloring books.
This book has activities that go with actually being on a plane. I wish we would have had it when we went on our long trip to South Africa. From the meals you get, to knowing the rules, to different mazes and puzzles, tic tac toe, and more, this book has more plane games than I thought possible. At the end of the book, there are all the answers in case your child can’t figure out a page!
This book is just like the On the Farm book, except it’s all about different kinds of vehicles. 21 different kinds to be exact. So if you have someone who loves cars and planes and trains, then this is the book for you.
This book is another travel activity book, but you could use it in a car or a plane — or a train! There is Sudoku puzzles, word searches, crossword puzzles, and more. This book also has the answers in the back of the book.
One of my readers has the opportunity to win all 5 books from Quarto Knows!
Winner must reside in the United States. Creative K Kids is not responsible for the fulfillment of this prize.
I have made cards in the past, but I’ve never gone to any parties or meetings where they give instructions on the “correct” way to do it, so although creativity is really the only thing people need in card making (besides supplies), this book gives us different ideas we can use and includes templates that go along with the ideas that are given in the book.
