16. Organize an outdoor party. Cool off with water games, such as running through the sprinkler and water balloon fights, and ask other parents to help out with cool treats and fruit snacks. TIP: For young children, schedule the time for when they are well rested, and keep it short: a half hour to an hour, max!
17. Invent a new game with your kids. Get a ball, a bat, a racquet and a piece of rope and let them make up the rules as you go.
18. Take your kids for a bike ride in a different neighbourhood, using maps to learn about navigation. Tote along a picnic lunch and stop in a park for a break partway through your ride.
19. Go on a treasure hunt. Select items together from in and around your home, such as small plastic toys, coins and decorative rocks. Hide the objects in the backyard and have your kids play pirate and hunt them all down. Better still, bury them in the soil or garden beds. Your kids will have hours of fun digging them up – and putting the yard back together again.
20. Try a scavenger hunt. It can be as simple as writing up clues and having your kids look for them one by one in the backyard, or you can go farther afield and design a trek that takes the family all about the neighbourhood.
Rainy days
21. Rent or pick up a DVD from your local library that takes place in another country. Watch it with your kids and talk about what you’ve learned.
23. Play copycat by having your young child mirror your movements. Put your hands on your head, touch the floor, shake your hands, or sweep your arms up over your head. Then let her lead you through her own series of exercises.
22. Hold a home spa day. Have fun painting each other's nails bright colours and using funky temporary hair colour to try out new shades for a day or two.
24. Play a game of match the socks with your toddler. Pull out that basket of unmatched
items and have your child pick ones that work best together.
25. Make pretty paper sunflowers and create an indoor garden. Precut yellow triangles and a brown circle. Ask each child to glue the yellow triangles around the brown circle. Then have him add a green streamer to the bottom of the flower. You can even glue birdseed to your creations.
26. Take to the puddles. Put on some old clothes and see who can make the biggest splashes. Kids of all ages will enjoy seeing you be so carefree.
Bookworms
27. Participate in your local library's summer reading program, or create one of your own. Have your kids pick a theme that interests them and sign out a book to read each week or month on the topic.
28. Learn a new word every day. Open a children's dictionary, then have your child close her eyes and point to a word. That word becomes the word of the day. Encourage her to use the word as many times as she can.
29. Read what your teen is reading. Have him pick a novel or series of comic books and read it at the same time.
30. Write a short novel with your teen, taking turns writing a chapter.
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