FOR TEENAGERS: FAMILY DINNER PARTY Cooking teaches so many important skills: math, science, nutrition, concentration, cultural understanding, following directions, creativity, time management, and more. Even better, it doesn’t feel like learning; it feels like fun. Encourage your older children to take the reins for preparing regular meals throughout the summer. You can pick guiding themes, like “a trip to Mexico” or “pasta party,” but let them choose the recipes and prep the meals on their own. FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY: AN EDUCATIONAL FIELD TRIP Field trips always inspire excitement in students, and you’ll find the same goes for your family members. You can tailor your destination to the interests of your kids for maximum engagement. If you have a family of art lovers, head to a museum for some inspiration and discussion. Kids who prefer the outdoors will enjoy a nature walk or hike. You can bring along a field guide to identify flora and fauna. These trips may not pack the thrill of a water park, but they’re fun in an entirely different way. LEARNING THAT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE SCHOOL Mentally Stimulating Activities for Summer
Every summer, parents across the country have to deal with the same delicate problem. They want to make sure their kids continue to learn without feeling like they’re being assigned tasks. After all, summer homework is every child’s worst nightmare. Luckily, you don’t have to rely on math problems and book reports to keep your child’s development from taking a two-month vacation. Here are a few mentally stimulating activities that are as educational as they are fun. FOR LITTLE ONES: HOMEMADE BUBBLES Bubbles fascinate young children, so why not spend a day making your own solution and experimenting by blowing different types of bubbles? The formula is simple: 1 part dish soap (Dawn or Joy work best) to 10 parts water. Optionally, you can also include 1/4 part glycerin. The process of making the solution will teach ratios, and finding creative ways to blow bubbles fosters problem-solving skills and creative thinking.
3 STORIES OF HOPE How They Rose Above Their Circumstances
These three stories demonstrate that even in the darkest circumstances, there is hope.
A BROKEN BODY ISN’T THE END. As a world-class cross-country skier, Janine Shepherd was a contender for a medal in the 1986 Olympic winter games when an accident halted her dreams. After she was hit by a truck during a training ride, she was left a paraplegic. Doctors told her she would have no feeling from the waist down. Today, Shepherd has risen above the confines of her diagnosis. She has learned to walk again, and she earned her commercial pilot license, becoming the youngest and only female director of Australia’s Civil Aviation Society. LOVE ALWAYS WINS. After being hit by a drunk driver, Anna Claire and her fiance’s lives were changed forever. Anna Claire became a quadriplegic as a result of the collision, with months of recovery ahead of her. Rather than moving their wedding, the childhood sweethearts drew on each other’s strength and married on the originally planned date. Anna Claire’s husband says that going through that life-altering experience made their relationship “a thousand times stronger.”
ADVERSITY IS NOT A BRICK WALL. When Aimee Mullins looked up synonyms for the word “disabled” in a thesaurus, she was appalled by the negative attributes given to this commonly used label. “I was born into a world that perceived that I had nothing positive going for me,” she realized. Today, Mullins is celebrated for the opportunities and adventures she’s taken advantage of, but it hasn’t always been an easy path — the record-breaking runner was born without shin bones. Thanks to her intrepid spirit, great doctors, and overcoming what people perceived to be her “disability,” Mullins has achieved success. She attributes her attitude to being the key in overcoming what others saw as limitations. “The only real and consistent disability I’ve had to confront is the world thinking I could be described by that definition,” Mullins says. These stories remind us of another message Mullins shared — that it’s not about whether you will meet adversity, but how you will face it when you do. Adversity is just change we haven’t adapted to yet.
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