smart summer challenge: make summer learning F-U-N

Summer is here.

Whether parents like it or not, school’s out and kids are home.

For many of us, it’s a hard transition, and I’ll be the first to admit that the move from school schedule to summer schedule is not always that easy for us. The routine that my family was accustomed to for the last nine months came to a screeching halt on June 16.

But this summer, I’m totally looking forward to starting a new summer routine–of course much more lax than our school year runs–but one that’s filled with exciting, sneaky, on-the-fly interesting activities and lots of long and lazy pool days.

This summer, I’ve joined forces with two of my totally incredible pals–two of my buddies who just happen to be professional educators, moms, bloggers, and all-around awesome women, MaryLea of Pink and Green Mama and Candace of Naturally Educational.

We’ve got something really awesome up our sleeves, and it’s something that everyone–every. single. mom, dad, grandparent, babysitter, child, teen, pet, you name it–is invited to join us in. It’s the Smart Summer Challenge, and it’s going to be fab-u-lous.

Here’s the skinny:

• Smart Summer Challenge: The Smart Summer Challenge is simple–it’s a challenge for all parents to pledge to incorporate at least one learning activity into their child’s day over the summer vacation.  That’s it.

The learning activity can be as simple as reading a book or as involved as packing up the crew and taking a hike.  It’s as involved as you want it to be, and our focus is to help parents realize the important role they play in helping their kids avoid the summer learning slump.

And we want to reward everyone who joins us in this Challenge by awarding prizes–super-cool ones–each week.

So we’ve worked hard to prepare a sample calendar of ideas, aimed at children K-3, with adaptations for preschoolers and upper elementary students that can be downloaded and printed and hung on your fridge. Our calendar is merely a list of themed suggestions to get you started–you are the expert on your children and you know what they will find most engaging.

Here’s the calendar:

Smart Summer Challenge Calendar 2011

 

And if you are up for joining us in the Smart Summer Challenge–which we hope you are!–here’s what you can do:

• Step 1: The first step is to “Like” the Smart Summer Challenge on Facebook, if you have an account. We’ll be using the FB page to share ideas, questions, and successes from challenge participants.

• Step 2: If you are a blogger, we would love for you to grab our “Smart Summer Challenge” Badge for your sidebar and/or Smart Summer posts.

The Smart Summer Challenge button: grab the code on the right sidebar!

 

• Step 3: Each week, from June 27 through August 5, we will be posting daily activities on our blogs. We would love if you would blog along as often as you wish (even once a week is great!) and share what you are doing to keep the learning going over the summer.

• Step 4: On Friday of each of the Smart Summer Challenge weeks, we will post a themed “linky” on our blogs where you can share your recent or archived posts. If you do not have a blog, please feel free to share your activities and pictures on the Smart Summer Challenge facebook page! We will highlight posts from participants on our blogs and on facebook.

We hope you will visit and comment on each other’s posts so we can all learn together!  You can find the Smart Summer Challenge linky each Friday here, on teachmama.com or on PinkAndGreenMama or NaturallyEducational.com.

Don’t forget to check out the we teach Summertime Learning eBook for even more cool summer learning ideas on we teach–you can download the whole thing for free and you’ll have a good 30 ideas!

Interested to know what kind of prizes we’re giving away to participants? Here are a few. . .

• $100 to your local book shop or toy store of choice, thanks to Juice in the City
• $150 to your local book shop or toy store of choice, thanks to Juice in the City
• $150 to use at Rosie Hippo
• $200 gift pack of LeapFrog products
• $200 to use at Guidecraft
• and more!

Looking forward to making this a Smart Summer for everyone!