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Monday, June 6, 2011

Help Me Name My BOX!

     As if today's after-school-kite-flying-beach-trip wasn't enough proof, A gets out of school in two weeks.  And that means summer is nearly here!  The extended Fam invited us to vacation in Poipu, Kauai and while I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to go, I feel that it isn't good timing.  It's not really fair to take a glorious Hawaiian vacation with the kids and Matt's family while Matt's enduring 120 degree heat, insufferable bugs and COMBAT living in a cave in Afghanistan.  We went to Kona last year, this summer we'll have to be content with a family reunion in a Humboldt trailer park (with my Dad's family, lol) and season passes to the Safari Park and Zoo.  I can still enjoy the Kona Brewing Company's Lavaman Red Ale that I had at their restaurant last summer, though, and that will be enough.
Now about my box!
     My kids fight when they get bored or are under-stimulated.  This fact is obvious, but we can't go to the Zoo, beach, ball game etc. everyday or those things will become boring, too.  There are lots of places to visit locally, but I still have responsibilities at home, so I came up with "The Box."  It's a box full of some fun-but-educational materials to challenge my little ones to grow and engage their minds through creativity.  Read: art supplies, books about things we can go explore, little games, drawing and lettering workbooks and other fun things I've yet to discover.  Basically, it's a box of imagination.  I'd like to use ideas and materials from "The Box" two or three days a week.  I know that school teachers with classes of young children pick activities that develop small motor skills, large motor skills and further math and literacy.  I'm pretty sure I can do that without full on home schooling during the summer (my kids would be bored next school year, lol) and help my kids to understand the world and cultures around them. It could be a simple recipe for popsicles and a conversation about solid/liquid state matter, or  a book about fish and a trip to the aquarium.  It could be a list of things to find in a backyard scavenger hunt.  I've already got some workbook type stuff for E, but I'm still looking for just the right thing for A.   And let's face it, with Matthew and I as parents, my kids already treasure learning and reading.  A is excited about college because I told her she gets to pick out what she studies, lol. 

Please don't think I'm crazy for talking to my five year old about college.  It came up in normal conversation, I swear!

I want the box to be a fun tool to help us be intentional about what we do this summer, and stave off summer doldrums.  So here are my questions for you:

1) What should I call this box?  I want to give it a fun and catchy name so things are fresh and exciting!
2) What do you think I should be sure to include?

If this turns out well, it could become a summer tradition.  I'll keep you updated!

1 comments:

Adri said...

My vote is for the Imagination Station. Then as they get older you can just call the games/activities/learning center 'The Station' because it sounds cooler ;)

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