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How to Use Summer Break to Its Full Potential

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The year is well underway now and if you’re good at forward planning, no doubt your thoughts are turning to the summer and how you can best keep the kids entertained. Summer break is a long time for kids, and can be a challenge for parents, especially if you work and have the whole period off isn’t an option. Such a large chunk of time is a valuable asset if used wisely, but what are the best ways to use the summer break to its full potential?

Vacations

The obvious way to spend a week or two of summer break is going on vacation. If you start planning now, you’ll be able to research possible destinations and find the places that most appeal to everyone in the family, and you could get some decent rates on packages, flights, accommodation, and tickets. Get the whole family involved in making the decision, so everyone feels invested in having a great time and make sure you arrange your visit so each family member can have at least one day where they choose what to do.

Summer camp

It’s a tradition among many families for kids to go to summer camp, and if you choose the right camp, it can be a fantastic experience for your kids. You’ll find a wide variety of alternative types of camp, from the traditional outdoors camping in nature to themed camps for horseback riding, sports, cookery, crafts, space camp, and many more. There are also military-style camps that some parents swear by, and if your child is interested in a career in the armed forces, they could be a good option. Your kids get to take part in plenty of activities, make friends, and learn many valuable skills, and a good summer camp can make a lasting impression on children.

Summer school

Summer school is a more academic option, but if your child is finding their lessons a challenge, they can be a highly effective way of learning and getting caught up. You can choose from general summer schools that cover a range of subjects or go for a specialist summer school that focuses on a specific topic like math or science. For kids who aren’t native English speakers, going to an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) summer school, such as those run by ECS, gives them a definite boost because the schools approach the teaching by using real-life experiences to help children feel at home speaking English in all sorts of different situations. It’s not all work, either! Summer schools often combine the academic element with sports or other activities; for example, your child could do an EFL with golf or tennis summer school.

While kids should be given a chance to relax and recharge their batteries over the summer break, that doesn’t mean a whole summer of playing computer games or sleeping in! Summer is a great time to branch out into new areas and practice skills in others, and your kids will benefit enormously from an active, rewarding summer break.

Cooling off Without a Huge Bill: 5 Ways to Beat the Heat on the Cheap

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The hot days of summer mean refreshing trips to your favorite beach or local pool. Unfortunately, our busy lifestyles don’t always afford the luxury of these special trips. Sometimes, after a busy day of yard work or running around with the kids, a retreat to a cool house can provide a relaxing respite from the heat. Enjoying a cool house can be great until the energy bill arrives. Luckily, there are ways to keep cool while saving money. Here are five ways to beat the heat without breaking the bank:

Plan Your Meals for the Season

Using the stove and oven adds additional heat to your home causing your air conditioner to work harder. During hot days, make cold meals like sandwiches or salads to avoid using the oven. Even better, cook your favorite dishes outside on a grill. Pour your favorite cold drink and keep the cooking heat outside. When the food is finished, enjoy the food in your comfortable kitchen or dining room.

Embrace the Cold Shower

Cold water doesn’t cost much. If you find yourself drenched in sweat after cutting the lawn, a quick cold shower can be an invigorating way to clean up and cool off. Since you will probably feel cold after stepping out of the shower, you won’t feel the need to blast the air conditioning. Plus, you save a little extra money not using your water heater as much. On particularly hot days, take a few quick, cold showers to stay cool without overusing your air conditioner.

Use the Ceiling Fans Correctly

Ceiling fans don’t use as much energy as air conditioners. When used properly, ceiling fans cause a downdraft moving cool air to the middle of the room. In the summer, make sure your fans are running counterclockwise to maximize the comfort and energy savings of your home. Arrange your furniture so those downdrafts are cooling you and not the coffee table.

Give Your Air Conditioner a Tune-Up

Running an inefficient air conditioner will drive up energy costs. The cost of having a technician inspect and maintain your air conditioner can easily be recovered by energy savings. Regular maintenance also prevents the air conditioner from breaking down when you need it most. Air conditioner repair in Oshawa can optimize your air conditioner for Canada’s hot summer months.

Keep Out the Light

The summer sun may be great for tanning, but it won’t help your energy bills. Depending on your windows, room temperatures can increase by 10 to 20 degrees when direct sunlight fills your room. Close your curtains during the hottest times of day–especially if you plan to be outdoors. Then you could return to a nice, cool home.

Summer is a great time for being outdoors. After enjoying your favorite activities, however, you probably want to relax in a cool, comfortable home. Instead of making the air conditioner work overtime and drive up your energy bills, using these five strategies can keep you comfortable and save money.

5 Reasons Summer Camp is Great for Children

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If you’ve been wondering whether to sign your child up for summer camp, there has never been a better reason to do so. If you’ve been a summer camp attender yourself when you were younger, you will have fond memories of the summers you spent there and the friends you made. Summer camp has many great benefits for your children. Here are just five reasons why should book them on a summer camp this summer.

Physical Activity

This is a great way to promote plenty of physical activity, as there is usually sports or events taking place every day. Physical activity is very important for children to get rid of all their energy and not get bored over summer, especially if your area doesn’t have a lot going on. Summer camps mean action, whether this is running, swimming, or climbing, so your child will be getting plenty of exercise each day. This is also great to instill in them from an early age to reduce the risk of obesity later in life. With childhood obesity becoming a problem in many countries, we need to promote physical activity in our children to stop this from being a problem for them. If you work a lot or do not have a lot of outdoor activities for children near you, it can be hard to promote physical activity. Camp means kids can do this in a fun environment with their peers. It pushes them to go outside and get fresh air and enjoy nature, not what is on the TV.

Getting Away from Technology

Technology is taking over all our lives and no more so than our children’s. If you are worried your child is going to spend a lot of the summer indoors on their tablet or games console, summer camp ensures this does not happen and gives them that well-needed break from technology. Children should be outdoors enjoying themselves, not cooped up behind a computer screen, and reducing this activity is important to promote good social skills in your children and to tackle obesity. Summer camp will have plenty for the children to do in real life, including engaging with real people, and it is a way for them to disconnect from a virtual world. Technology can be a problem with young children as it surrounds them and is what they have been brought up around. Try to reduce your technology habits and only use your phone for important calls and texts or photos, as the more they see you using technology, the more they will believe this is the norm. This can be a good time for you to reduce your time spent online too.

Independence

This can be a great one, not only for the children but for parents too. Your child may have never have gone away overnight before without you, and this can be a hard transition for both parents and children. Ensuring that they can do this will promote independence in the safe and fun environment of a summer camp. This encourages children to make their own decisions without a parent or teacher guiding them and can stop them from being so clingy if you are having issues with this. If you work over summer and you are going to be out of the house a lot, this can ensure that your child is somewhere having fun each day and learning new skills with new friends. They can come back and tell you what fun they had and they will thank you for giving them the opportunity to do something for themselves. Promoting independence to play by themselves or with friends in a safe environment from a young age ensures that they can be independent of you and can reduce the risk of attachment issues and separation anxiety for both you and your child. It can be hard being away from your child, especially for the first time, but know they are having the time of their life and you can go to work and earn for your family, without having to worry about them being stuck at home with a babysitter.

Making New Friends

This is one of the biggest parts of summer camp and it promotes children to be more social with those they may not have thought to talk to before. Country Montessori School offers a great summer camp where children may make friends out of their group or make friends that they will be studying with next year. Either way, promoting children to make new friends increases their social skills and helps them in later life. It also promotes confidence and they may make a friend for life. Spending time with new people every day is sure fire way to make a best friend they can count on.

Experience New Things

Camp can help children experience a great variety of new things they may have never done before. Summer camps do a lot of outdoor activities and take away the competitive barrier that is often found in schools. They encourage children to have fun and try something different, meaning your child may find a new hobby or sport they enjoy doing whilst at summer camp. It is also a great time to face any fears as there are plenty of opportunities for more adventurous sports such as kayaking or climbing. Having the encouragement of other children around them and seeing all the other kids have fun can help them overcome their fears of water or heights.

Experiencing new things helps shape us and helps us to have a better understanding of ourselves and our likes and dislikes. They may even experience new foods, as camp can have a great variety of foods to offer your children. Camps usually offer a range of activities that you can take part in, therefore, your child can choose what best suits them rather than being pushed into an activity they do not enjoy or do not have an interest in.

Summer camp is a great opportunity for your children, so get them involved in new activities in the great outdoors this summer.

How to Cope with the Worst Parts of Summer

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Everyone talks about the summer in hushed, reverent tones, as if the season can do no wrong. As if the season only has good points, and no negatives. If you dare to mention parts that you don’t like, you’re told to be quiet and that you’ll regret it in the depths of winter. Well, you’re not alone. From the growing boredom in the long holidays, to the skin ravaged by insect bites, there’s plenty of reasons to dislike the summer. For your children, it can be hard to stay cool, eat well, keep entertained, and enjoy themselves. Meanwhile your pets suffer from dehydration, heat exhaustion and sore paws. So, here’s your guide to keeping your family together through the worst, hottest parts of the summer – so you’re all in one piece by the time the fall brings its cooler climate.

Staying cool at night

One of the hardest things to cope with as a parent is a tired child, and no child is more tired than ones who wants to sleep but can’t because of the heat. You need to do all you can to keep your little ones cool and calm before bedtime, as well as ensuring that their room and your home is doing the best it can for them.

Address your child’s room first. If you’re lucky enough to get cool breezes, put up fly nets so you can have the windows open. If that’s not a possibility, look at getting a fan or two. You can get quiet but powerful ones, so you don’t need to worry about the noise. Putting a bottle of ice water in front of a fan will blow cold air around the room, so that’s worth doing. Keep on doing things like keeping the curtains closed all day to keep the sun out.

Next, look at bedding. To give them the comfiest night’s sleep, only buy sheets made from 100 percent cotton. It’ll keep them cool and wick away any moisture caused by sweating overnight. You might want to get a light sheet to replace any quilts or duvets, if your child won’t sleep without anything covering them. Likewise, make sure their pajamas are made from cotton too.

Finally, before bed, make sure your children are nice and cool. A cold shower or bath will lower their body temperature, as will running cold water over their wrists and feet. You can try laying cold flannels over their heads too as they lie in bed, or freezing a hot water bottle, and tucking it in with them. Whenever you use ice, just be careful that it doesn’t ever touch skin directly. Always wrap it in a piece of fabric.

Entertaining them through the holidays

The summer vacation is always pined for throughout the school year, but after the initial two weeks of euphoria, the novelty quickly wears off. You need to keep your children occupied and entertained, else you risk having a house full of cranky kids with too much energy. As it’s likely to be too hot to do much during the day, make the most of early mornings and get out for a cycle or walk first thing in the morning when it’s much cooler.

During the day, pick activities that won’t make your children get hot. Swimming and water sports are the perfect summertime activities, as they’ll stay cool while being outside and active. See if you can find any local facilities that will let your children either get started, or develop existing skills.

Making the house a safe, cool refuge

Now, time to look at your pets, as it’s not just us humans who suffer in the heat. Your pet should be allowed to roam around outside or cool off indoors. So, make sure they can get in and out as often as they need. If you can set up some shade or shelter in the back yard, they might be more comfortable out there.

For both your children and your pets, you need to keep a close eye on any insect activity. Summer is a key time for swarms and infestations settling in, and you don’t want any pests getting too comfy. If you spot anything that you’re worried about, get in touch with local professionals, like Go-Forth Pest Control in Wake Forest NC. The closer they are to you, the better, as you’ll be able to get them out and on the job much more quickly.

Keeping them healthy and hydrated

Your children will struggle in the heat if they aren’t drinking enough or eating well. Even though appetites tend to decrease in hot weather, you need to try to make sure your children are still eating a well-rounded diet.

For pets, it can be much harder to make them drink. You could try putting treats in their water bowl, or putting ice cubes in their food. Once the ice cubes melt, they’ll create a tasty soup that your animals will love lapping up. If you’ve got a dog, think carefully about exercising. Hot sidewalks can burn the skin off their paws, so you should only walk them on grass, or when it’s cool. You can test this by pressing the inside of your wrist to the floor. If you can’t hold it there for a minute, it’s too hot for your dog’s feet. When it’s like this, you could look at taking them swimming: they won’t burn, they’ll stay cool, and they’ll still get lots of exercise.

Ensuring no one gets sunburn

Sunburn is one of the most dangerous parts of summer. Not only is it incredibly painful, but it can cause sunstroke and cancer. Prevent your little ones from getting burnt by keeping them indoors during the hottest part of the day, and under shelter or shade for as much time as possible. Buy UV blocking clothes and sunglasses too, to protect any skin under fabric.

Most importantly, slather on as much sunblock as possible. Get the highest factor you can, and reapply it every 30 to 60 minutes.

6 Ideas for Fun Family Days Out This Summer Break

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Summer is fast approaching, and with it comes having your little ones at home for weeks at a time. During the summer break, it’s not uncommon for kids to start feeling bored when they’re away from their school friends and unable to participate in their regular term-time activities. So, it’s no surprise that many moms and dads start planning various activities, day trips and more to keep their little ones occupied throughout the summer months when school’s out.

With the weather warming up and plenty of things to get involved in, it shouldn’t be a struggle to find something to do, even if you’re working on a tight family budget. We’ve listed some great day out ideas for your family this summer.

Day Out #1: A Trip to the Beach

No summer would be complete without a trip to the beach, whether you’re lucky enough to live close to the sea or are planning to take a short summer break away to another state or even abroad. One of the best things about visiting the beach is that once you get there, most things are free – unless you want to take part in various activities available at beaches throughout the country, it won’t cost you a penny to paddle or swim in the sea when safe, play ball games on the beach, or have a picnic on the sands. So, what are you waiting for! Check out this great juniors tankini range for the perfect addition to your child’s summer wardrobe.

Day Out #2: Hiking and Walking Trails

If your children are a little bit older, then you might want to consider taking them on a hiking expedition. For example, you can visit one of the many National Parks around the U.S, which are usually free or very inexpensive to enter and are home to some of the most stunning views, landscapes and natural wonders in the country. In addition to being a great experience with views that the whole family will never forget, hiking some of the most stunning trails in the U.S. is also great exercise!

Day Out #3: Museums

If you’re looking to get out of the sun this summer and fancy doing something as a family in a cooler and shadier environment, then why not consider visiting a local museum? Whether you and your family are interested in ancient history, the evolution of modern technology or various industries, there will surely be a museum that suits you. If you are exploring with smaller children or toddlers, many museums include a children’s play area where moms and dads can sit down and relax.

Day Out #4: Theme Parks

Your little ones will probably jump at the idea of going to a theme park this summer, however, for many parents, the entrance fees are almost as scary as the roller coasters themselves. But, with some savvy tricks, you can drive down the cost of family entry to your favorite theme park for an adrenaline-filled day of rides and fun. For example, purchasing family tickets in advance can often save you money. Where possible, buy online – purchasing tickets on the door generally comes at a higher cost.

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Day Out #5: A Day at the Park

Visiting the local park is probably something that you’ve been doing with your children since they were old enough to enjoy it, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t take part in this age-old pastime as a family this summer. During the summer break, local parks are often filled with plenty of awesome things for little ones to take part in, from fun fairs and rides to bouncy castles and ice cream sellers. Make a day of it by taking a picnic to enjoy and plenty of fun games to play together.

Day Out #6: Creative Workshops

Are your little ones missing out on getting creative and crafty in school? If so, creative workshops and activity groups over the summer break are a great idea. If there are currently none of these groups in your area, then why not start your own? Many children love crafting activities such as painting and drawing, making collages, gardening, or even working with textiles. This will give them the chance to learn something new over the summer break that they can proudly show off to their friends when they return to school.

What kind of activities and day trips are you planning to do together as a family this summer? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

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