Have you taken the pledge to make it a Smart Summer? We hope so!!
Show us what you’ve been doing this week, and you can win $150 at Rosie Hippo!
I’ve been sharing my family’s Smart Summer activities this week:
- word a day cards, set 2 — and getting the whole family involved
- park explorer playkits – backyard exploring made fun
- garden stepping stones — beautifying our yard and garden
- baby house wrens — learning, loving, and leaving the nest
- flower fun — dissecting, examining, and learning about flowers
Share YOUR ideas! We’d love for you to share your ideas–you can add a link to a post on your blog or even a photo set on Flickr or any types of publicly viewable “journal” entry on a social media or community site.
Not a blogger? If you do not have access to posting entries on any public site, you can also leave a comment on this post, sharing the learning opportunities you incorporated into your week with your children.
Your post (or comment) can be something from your archives that speaks to our theme for the week (Me on the Map) or it can just be a general post about how you are fitting fun learning into your summer activities. You can find our weekly themes on our calendar of ideas but ANY learning activities, big or small, are welcomed!
Just add your link(s) (as many relevant links as you would like) to a specific post or page (i.e. http://teachmama.com/2011/06/smart-summer-challenge-make-summer-learning-f-u-n.html NOT http://teachmama.com) to the link widget below.
WIN PRIZES!
Every link you enter in the widget below (or your comment) during the week will also enter you to win our AWESOME prize of the week: $150 to spend at Rosie Hippo!
At Rosie Hippo, you will find beautifully handcrafted wooden toys, made from organic fabrics, toys from individuals, companies, villages, and cooperatives around the world, and books and games that stimulate creativity and independent thought. We offer toys that will evoke a sense of fun, curiosity, and wonder for that special little one in your life. And all of our toys are produced under conditions that are fair to workers and kind to our environment. Kim Bloom runs Rosie Hippo, inspired by her successful battle with cancer, her son Ethan’s delightful curiosity, and her interest in child development. Read more of her ideas on her blog.
Want to know what’s on my Rosie Hippo wish list? We’d looove the Foozeball Table, the Marble Whacker, the wooden scale, or the kids’ monocular. LOVE this stuff!
Official Rules:
- The linky & giveaway closes at 11:59 PM EST on Thursday, July 21. and then we’ll see you back Friday morning for more fun!
- You may enter as many links as you wish and each will count as an entry.
- Comment entries are limited to one per person.
- US Shipping only for prizes, due to sponsor requests, but international friends are still encouraged to play and add their links!
- Winner will be chosen at random from valid entries.
- You retain the rights to all entries but grant us permission to share your links along with a short excerpt and thumbnail entry.
- We reserve the right to disqualify entries at our sole discretion and change the rules or prizes without notification beyond updating the page.
Spread the Word!
Sport a button: Please feel free to link back and/or grab the code for the Smart Summer Challenge button (on the right sidebar) to show every parent the impact they have on their child’s learning–and how easy it can be to make summer learning sneaky and fun!
Visit us on Facebook: Feel free to also post photos, questions, and ideas — http://www.facebook.com/smartsummerchallenge.
Tweet: I’m making it a #smartsummer thanks to the Smart Summer Challenge! http://teachmama.com/?p=3361 #weteach #ece
Know that we LOVE you!
Thank you for taking the Smart Summer Challenge!
Your hostesses,
Candace at NaturallyEducational.com, Amy at teachmama.com, MaryLea at PinkAndGreenMama
fyi: Huuuuge thanks to our friends at Rosie Hippo for providing this week’s giveaway prize and showing how much they value a parent’s role in summer learning!
I really hope I win! I just checked out the Rosie Hippo sight, I found WAY over $150 worth of stuff I’d love to get for my boys! That wooden scale is pretty cool, but I also loved the Sorting cone- simple, beautiful, but teaches multiple concepts! And the Alphabet matching game, and the Balancing Monkeys,…oh, and so much more! 🙂
We had lots of backyard fun this week! My daughter’s favorite was catching and observing rollie pollies in her bug jar and catching and observing fireflies in her bug jar. We’ve also been going on an alphabet hunt for each of the letters in her name on our walk back and forth to the pool. We’re counting how many times we can find each letter (night one we did the first letter, night two we did the second letter, etc.) to see which letter we find the most of. We’ve also finally gotten back on a regular library schedule after baby brother’s arrival 3 months ago.
We have really enjoyed some of these activities. What a great way to keep the learning going through the summer!
AGhhhh….i ALWAYS mess up the “linky” thing. I didn’t follow the instructions and now I am going to have to re-do my sad attempt at leaving an activity. I will add one this week for sure! Great site! Glad I stumbled upon it 🙂
Jessica! Don’t worry about it–just let me know the link you want to leave, and I can do it for you! Email me–teachmama@verizon.net w/ the link and your email, and I’ll give you the skinny. No sweat!
Wow! I really love Rosie Hippo! I’ve never been able to buy anything there because they are WAY over my budget, but their toys are beautiful! Unfortunately, we’ve all been feeling down this week and only have one entry to post.
One of the many things we did this week was learn about fish and especially jellyfish. We wanted to go to the beach but it was taken over by jellyfish. SO, we made the jellyfish from bowls and curly ribbon that I saw on one of the smart summer posts and we colored a really cool fish coloring page from madebyjoel.com and watched National Geographic movies about jellyfish and talked about how they don’t have brains, etc… and can still function. Though I have a brain, I sometimes feel like a jellyfish. I can’t link up since I don’t have a website but if there is a way, a have a few pics to send you.
Thanks for leaving the learning activities open. I hope to make a post with pictures of a summer learning activity my family has done this week and add a link. I’ve added the button to my blog, but I haven’t shared an activity yet.
This challenge is a great idea. I love looking through the links.
My daughters (ages 15 and 18) spent two weeks on Lake Huron. One of our favorite activities was identifying wildflowers.
I can’t believe I haven’t started my own blog yet! I’m glad this challenge allows moms like me to share what’s been going on under our roof. My 3-year old is still on an “America” kick, and I’m milking it as long as he’s into it! We made lemonade from scratch (I’m a big fan of the educational value of following a simple kitchen recipe), and made our own family flag while it chilled in the fridge. Here’s the link to my FB album! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2259312889380.2136639.1445152254&l=f7f4a74a4b&type=1