School ideas

One hit was giving him a muffin tin half filled with baking soda and half filled with colored vinegar.  He got to experiment with reactions and also color mixing!

• Play spray math: Grab a hose and put the kids in their bathing suits.  Ask math questions and give them a playful spray for wrong answers (although on really hot days they may prefer to get sprayed as a reward for right ones!).
• Read a read-aloud book on a blanket under a shady tree.
• Head to a nature center like Mankato's Elks Nature Center.
• Set up the tent in the back yard and stock it with educational card games, math manipulatives, books and other fun homeschool items.
• Start a rock collection with each child.  Egg cartons make great containers (label each type on the top).
• Make pocket-and-handle nature journals and try to use them every day.
• Use a permanent marker to write math problems on different areas of a giant ball and play toss.  Kids can read the questions facing them when they catch, call out the answers, and toss to the next person.
• Challenge the kids to jump rope while counting by twos, threes, fives, sevens, etc.
• Visit local petting zoos, sculpture walks, gardens and such.  In Mankato, Sibley Park has lots of fun animals to visit and the poetry walk downtown is a fun way to expose the kids to some poetry.
• Set up a trivia obstacle course in the back yard.  Rig up balance beams, hoops, wading pools, etc. to make the course and put buckets of index cards with questions at several stations.  Use a timer and see how fast each child can run the course.
• If you have a Brock magiscope or similarly rugged microscope, take it the lake or stream and see what sort of nifty things you can look at up close.
• Have a backyard pool?  Write numbers clearly in permanent marker on smooth rocks and put them at the bottom.  Ask the kids math problems and have them dive for the right answer.
• Attend lots of outdoor events like plays, art exhibits and cultural events.
• Use a long measuring tape and chalk to map out the length of creatures like whales on the sidewalk and have the kids lie down next to them for real-life size comparisons.
• Visit as many parks as possible for hikes and nature walks.
• Make up several recipes of something like salsa or jam from fresh, local produce and then have taste tests to find your favorites.  Kids will learn valuable home ec skills and you'll end up with tasty goodies!
• Start a butterfly list of all the varieties your family has spotted over the summer.  Make sure to buy or borrow a good ID book to help with the identification.