Summertime Projects to Promote Family Learning and Bonding

With all of the sunshine, fresh air, and free time, summer is the best season to get outside with your family to work on creative crafts and projects.  From learning about birds to homemade ice cream that will help to cool you down on hot summer days, these crafts will help your family have an amazing and educational summer.

Project #1 - Found Arts

All of the leisurely strolls and hikes your family takes in the summer can be used for a giant art project.  First, identify something your children are passionate about.  For example, a cartoon character, superhero, or even something like the summer night’s sky would all be great choices.  Recreating these characters or scenes with found natural objects can become a summer long project for your children.  To start, they should make an outline of what they want their project to look like.  To make the project even bigger and better, they can plan on creating a giant piece in your backyard. 

To gather the materials, take your kids hiking or walking in a park for a couple of miles each day.  As they explore nature, they can pick up interesting natural objects, like colored rocks, uniquely shaped pieces of bark, shiny bits of mica, and even snake skins.  Then, when they bring their collection home after each walk, they can find ways to incorporate the items into their art project.  Soon your kids may start getting excited to go for their walk so they can find a branch that is perfect for their creation’s hand, or so they can collect dandelion fluff to use for hair.  As their projects take off, they will not only be learning about nature, they will also be getting daily exercise and thinking in a creative manner.  Because their project will be laid out in the backyard, make sure to get some pictures of it before it gets raked up in the fall.  A fun idea can be to take a photo of your kid dressed up to match their project.  For example, if they made an image of Superman, they can wear Superman pajamas and pose next to their creation in the photo.

 

----

 

This post was written by Ryan who enjoys finding new craft ideas, hiking, and teaching his nieces and nephews more about nature.