TRAVEL ACTIVITIES

Get road maps for older children.Have each child use a highlighterpen to mark your route as you

go. See if children can predict the nextcity that you will pass. Are you goingNorth, South, East or West? What roadare you traveling on? As children getolder, make the questions more difficultto answer.

Encourage your child to write to theChamber of Commerce for brochuresabout places you can go to on your trip.

Make a “Bingo Card” for things thatmight be seen on your trip. If yourchildren are young, use pictures that theyhelp you select, cut and paste from amagazine or newspaper. Reward the“Bingo” Players with comic books orother fun reading materials for vacation.

TELEVISION

Limit TV watching tofree up time for reading.

If it is available, have your older chil-dren watch close captioned TV with thesound off. This also builds empathy forthose who are hearing impaired.

As your child watches commercials ontelevision, ask him or her to invent aproduct and write slogans or an ad for it.

Using TV Guide or the TV section oftheir newspaper, have your childrenselect their shows for the day. Thenhave them give you a “persuasivespeech” as to why they should be per-mitted to watch that show.

BOOKS

Look for “garage sales” in your localnewspaper. Find sales near yourhome that may have books. Plan a

route, using a map of your area, usuallyin the phone book. Give each child adollar. Let them buy their own book!

Swap books with family and friendsso that your children will have morebooks to read.

Ask friends, neighbors, and teachersto share the titles of their favoritebooks.

Get library cards for your childrenand let them choose books to checkout.

Find your Library SummertimeSchedule - (Storytelling Time, YouthBook Club, Puppet Show, etc.)

NEWSPAPER

ACTIVITIES

Clip out an interesting news storyand cut the paragraphs apart. Askyour child to read the paragraphs

and put them in order.

Ask your child to read a short editorialprinted in your local newspaper and tounderline all the facts with a greenpencil and all the opinions with anorange pencil.

Pictures fascinate children of all ages.Clip pictures in the newspaper. Ask yourchild to tell you about the picture or listadjectives to describe the picture.

FUN IN THE KITCHEN

Let ‘Em Eat

ShapesCut bread intodifferent shapes—rectangles, triangles,squares, circles. Make atleast two of each shape. Askyour youngster to choose a pair ofsimilar shapes, then to put jam on thefirst piece, and to place the second pieceon top to make a sandwich. This is asnack plus a game to match shapes.

Sorting and StackingTeach classification skills with dinner-ware. Ask your child to match and stackdishes of similar sizes and shapes. Alsohave your child sort flatware - forks withforks, spoons with spoons. This is likerecognizing the shapes of letters andnumbers.

Find a simple recipe that yourchild will enjoy. Make a

shopping list together.Go to the store to “find”any ingredients that you

might need. Haveyour child read the

recipe to you.Enjoy the

food!!

FUN IN THE SUN

Lie on the ground and describe theshapes of the clouds.

Have kids “paint” their names withwater on a hot sidewalk, then watch theletters disappear! To sneak in somescience, have kids guess how long ittakes for wet footprints to evaporate,then time it. Challenge them to guess themelting time of ice cubes.

Drop items in a pail of water to see ifthey sink or float. Have children recordall guesses and results, and reward the“players” with frozen treats.

Use Sidewalk Chalk to write messagesto passers-by such as “Have a NiceDay.”

If you go to the beach,children can make letters in the sand by“walking.” Pretend you are writingmessages to airplanes that might pass by.

READING

Surround your child in

Reading Materials

Read a scary story to your childwith the lights out, using a flash-light.

Make an alphabetposter with yourchild. Print the letters inlarge type and let yourchild draw pictures.Capital letters are usuallyeasier for young children tolearn first.

Record your children reading a book andreplay it so that they can listen to them-selves. Repeat this activity so that yourchildren can listen to themselves im-prove.

Play reading tag by choosing a bookwith many words that your child knows.Each time you want your child to read aword, tap him on the shoulder.

Create a ”Family Reading Night” - picka theme such as, “western”, “multi-cultural” or “decades like the 60’s.”Have dinner and dress-up to go with

your theme. Selectbooks that are

appropriate -invite friends

andneighbors.

WRITING

Write new

words

to a

favorite tune.

Write and act out your ownplay or puppet show. Pup-pets are fun to make fromsocks or gloves with yarnand markers. Invite the neighbor kids andhave snacks. Videotape it if you can.

Help your child make his or her ownstorybook. Make funny drawings, or gluephotos of family members onto silly maga-zine pictures. A younger child can dictatethe story; older children can write it them-selves. Let creativity rule!

Cut out words from a newspaper or maga-zine and make your own telegram.

Use index cards and label all of the furni-ture in your child’s room.

Have your child write letters to familymembers. For younger children, you canhave them dictate, while you write. Leaveblanks for them to fill in some words thatthey can manage.

FUN AT HOMEGive your children supplies for writing, suchas a chalkboard, chalk, markers, highlighters,a marker board, paper, pencils and crayons.Give your children books as gifts on birthdaysand on special holidays.

Challenge younger children tofind letters of the alphabeton everydayitems likestreet signs,cereal boxes,or newspa-pers. By asking “How manyA’s can you find?” you alsoexercise counting skills.

Look out a window and tell astory of what you see.

TelephonitisGive your child practice inreading numbers left to rightby dialing a telephone. Makea list of telephone numbersyour child can read—forrelatives, friends, the weatherbureau—and have your child make a call ortwo.

Write letters on cards.Hold up the cards one at a time and have yourchildren say the sounds (for example, the dsound for the letter “d”).

Hide an inexpensive treat that your child willenjoy. Write out directions for finding the treator draw a map. Have your child find it. Youcan make it into a treasure hunt by having himor her go to several different places and get-ting new maps or directions before they find-ing the “treasure.”

MUSIC AND GAMESTeach your children songs and poems that arefun to sing and say (for example, songs like“Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and poems like“Wee Willie Winkie” or “Little Miss Muffet”).

Play games such as “Red-Light, Green-Light,”and “Simon Says” that require talking, listen-ing, following directions, and giving direc-tions.

Give your child these tonguetwisters to learn.

Then have them write their own:Six sick slick slim sycamore saplings.A box of biscuits, a batch of mixedbiscuits.A skunk sat on a stump and thunkthe stump stunk, but the stump thunkthe skunk stunk.

Cut a set of pictures of objects from maga-zines that are familiarto your child andhave names thatare easy to spell(un, man, dog,cat, fan, rug). Putthe pictures facedown on a table.Have the child turnthe picture over andspell it. If spelled cor-rectly, the child keeps thepicture. Use the pic-tures to make a posterof words that yourchild can “read.”

Make a “deck” of cards using index cards andsimple words such as the, said, are, don’t, have,one, two, love, you. Make two cards with eachword on it. Play “Go Fish” with the wordcards. As your child learns the words, add newones. For younger children, use the letters ofthe alphabet to make the deck of cards.