Summertime Fun!

Well, we’re over halfway into June and already the heat is blasting in our part of the world. Kids and grandkids have already been on picnics, gone swimming and spent the night with sleep-overs at their friend’s houses. Today, with the weather sweltering outside, I heard the famous summertime phrase for the first time this year. “I’m bored!”

Time to utilize a little creativity and find fun projects for them that they don’t suspect are learning activities. Today, we’re going to learn how to make ice cream and pizza. How can that be a learning activity you ask? Well, how about teaching priorities for a start?

Should we start making ice cream first, or pizza? Let’s see, hum. . .

Ice cream takes longer to make ’cause it has to freeze firm. We’ll make the ice cream first, then we can make the pizza while the ice cream is setting-up. See, simple day-to-day activities can be teaching time - in a fun way!

These simple little actions can teach children so many important lessons without having to stand over them with a ruler. Yes, we can learn to use critical thinking skills to prioritize what comes first. But there are other important lessons that can be learned, such as:

It can be fun to have an activity at home with the family (especially if Mom is not too rigid or critical).

Ice cream (especially really yummy ice cream) doesn’t have to be $6 a gallon.

Homemade pizza costs less (and tastes better) than store-bought pizza. And it’s EASY!

It’s easier to stay home in hot weather than get into the sweltering car to go somewhere.

There are, of course, extra lifelong lessons that children can learn from the above project, like:

1) The science of how salt helps the ice cream get colder faster.

2) Why pizza dough needs to be spread-out evenly to cook best.

3) How cleaning-up while the pizza is baking means less work when everybody’s full.

These are such simple things that we adults take for granted, yet, so many children don’t have parents who will take the time to share these important skills and explain the reasoning behind them. Someway, somehow, we are going to have to find ways to teach ALL young people as many skills as possible.

And just because I put some pretty pink images in the picture for this post, doesn’t mean that boys and young men can’t enjoy these learning activities just as much.

Before I get back up on my soapbox, let me just add one lesson we’re going to put into effect here today: playing in the hose can be almost as much fun as getting into the swimming pool.

Grammy Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

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