Summer Time Activities

School is out and the kids are excited to be home, but we know it won't be long before they get bored. Here are some ideas to entertain the kids:

Plan a day trip: There are so many things to do in San Jose and the surrounding communities. Check out the following websites for day trip information.

Babyzone lists activities regionally across the country. This is a great place to find local activities as well as activities while on vacation. They also have a calendar of events such as festivals, storybook times, and sporting events.
- For day trips visit: http://sanjose.babyzone.com/parentresources.asp?type=family%20fun
- For the Calendar of Events visit: http://sanjose.babyzone.com/calendar.asp?scf=11011
Bay Area Parent Magazine is available in print at libraries and other family friendly locations. It is also available online. It is a great resource for ideas for birthday parties, family vacations destinations, and school information. http://bayareaparent.parenthood.com/
City Guide has all kinds of information about local areas such as restaurant, hotel, and movie information. Day trip information for San Francisco can be found at http://cityguide.aol.com/sanfrancisco/greatdaytrips/
Parkway Lake has lakes for general fisherman as well as a lake (Huck Finn) for children only. http://www.parkwaylake.com/index.html
Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department has a great website with trail information and their calendar of park activities. They have nighttime kayaking and guided hikes. http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/parks/

Escape Reality with a Book: This free activity will not only give your family some quiet downtime, it will help your child improve their reading skills and increase their love of reading.

Book Adventure allows kids to read and track how well they are doing. They can take quizzes to test their reading comprehension. Parents can track their child's progress. There is even a book finder tool! http://www.bookadventure.org/index.asp
Education World is a great teacher resource. Twenty-five Activities to Keep Kids' Brains Active in the Hot Summer Sun is just one of their great articles http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev073.shtml
Reading Rockets provides a calendar of ideas to keep reading fun http://www.readingrockets.org/articles/391
San Jose Public Library: Check out some books and enjoy a storybook time. For a calendar of storybook times for young children visit http://www.sjlibrary.org/gateways/kids/ For activities for older children, teens, and adults, visit http://www.sjlibrary.org/about/events/

Arts, Crafts, Cooking, and Gardening: The Internet has tons of ideas for kids. Here are useful sites

Child Fun is a parenting site with activities, songs, and games. Activities are listed by theme such as animal theme or food theme. http://www.childfun.com/
DIY has a great kid gardening site with information such as planting a pizza garden and encouraging wildlife. http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/gr_kids_gardening/0,2028,DIY_13851,00.html
Enchanted Learning is great educational site. They also have crafts listed by holiday. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/holiday/
Family Fun has craft ideas and kid friendly recipes. http://familyfun.go.com/
How to Build a Butterfly Garden http://childcare.about.com/cs/enrichment/ht/butterfly.htm
Kids Domain has lots of fun crafts including those made from recycled materials. Many of the crafts can be used for games. http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/_recycle.html
Kids Gardening is a teacher site with learning activities around gardening. http://www.kidsgardening.com/
Make a bird house or tool box at Home Depot. Once a month, each Home Depot has a kids workshop. All of the supplies and tools are provided. Visit http://www.homedepot.com/ to find your nearest store. Call your nearest store for its workshop information.
Michaels Craft Stores. Each store has a calendar for kid craft days. They also have craft ideas on their website. http://www.michaels.com/art/online/static?page=kids
Surfing with Kids is a kids Internet portal. Each topic has links to fun Internet sites with information, activities, and games. You can find gardening information at http://www.surfnetkids.com/garden.htm

Summer time can be a great time for kids and parents. Hopefully, these sites can help you make the most of your summer.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for summer activities, please email me at Homes@Goodwins.org

Summer Ideas from You

Schedule weekly play dates
Set up your own "summer camp" with 3 other parents. Each parent offers a themed day for the 4 friends such as sports day with a trip to a local park for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. Other themes can be cooking, arts and crafts, drama, extreme sports (rollerblading), outdoor activities, etc. The fifth day is spent on a "field trip."
Plan your day. Example:
- 8 am breakfast
- 8:30 am reading and other school activities
- 10 am craft/game time
- 11 am Chores - clean room, help around house
- Noon lunch and park time
- 2 pm TV or video game time
- 3 pm Outdoor fun - biking, hiking, skating, etc.
- 5 pm Help with Dinner
- 6 pm Dinner and family time
Summer Camps available through the YMCA, scouts, etc.

Jill Goodwin

Contact Information

Summer Time Activities