The summer is coming, and with it months of freedom for kids who may quickly become bored without the structure of school to keep them busy.  Instead of letting your children lounge around the house all day, watching TV, texting, and Tweeting about their utter boredom, find some fun and educational activities to keep them occupied.  Whether they’re engaged in summer reading, a recycling program, or field trips to museums, you can trick them into keeping their brains functioning at full capacity so that they can ease back into school come fall.

1. Nature hikes.  This is good for younger and older kids alike.  It will not only get them outdoors, exercising and breathing fresh air, but if you bring along guidebooks for native plants and animals, everyone can learn a little something along the way.  Check in with your local community center to see if guided hikes on local trails are offered throughout the summer (you might even find night hikes that show an entirely different natural world than the one we see in daylight).
   
2. Natural history museum.  Museums of fine art may be a little too highbrow for most school-age children.  Instead, take them to the natural history museum in your area to discover the origins of man, see dinosaur bones on display, and explore ancient cultures.  Many museums have informational tours as well as classes for kids, interactive media, and special exhibits on rotation (meaning you can go more than once during the summer).
   
3.  Zoo or aquarium.  If you have either (or both) of these attractions nearby, you should definitely plan for a visit.  Not only will your children get to see animals from across the globe (although sadly, not in their natural environment) but they can learn all kinds of fun facts from tour guides, videos, and even the plaques posted by the cages.
   
4. Bookmobile.  You can easily find out if your local library has a bookmobile program in your area so that your children can check out books on their own, without having to schlep all the way down to the library.  If not, arrange to take them once a week for new books to keep their imaginations alive (and their vocabularies growing) throughout the summer.  You might even look online for a summer reading challenge they can participate in.
   
5. Recycling blog.  Start an at-home recycling program and take your kids to the center to see how doing a good deed for the environment can show a monetary return (to boost their allowance).  Then have them start a blog to chronicle their adventures in adopting an eco-friendly attitude, and challenge them to try to live every day a little greener.
   
6. Volunteer work.  Some people may not view this as an educational activity, but every child should learn to have compassion, tolerance, and charity for those who are less fortunate due to economic, social, mental, or physical limitations. Teens can look into mentoring or becoming a home tutor.  Young children may not benefit as much from an introduction to volunteer work, but it’s really never too soon to instill a sense of social responsibility in your children.

Hey Mommas!  Remember I told you guys if I ever came across anything I think  may wanna know about or NEED to know about I would make sure I let you know?  Well, I found this very neat program I wanted to share with you.   It’s called GetNoodles!   GetNoodles is basically a web-based software that helps to make your childs time on-line more productive.  I’ll tell you more about it in a minute.

Let’s face it, Kids love the internet.  It’s Fun. They get to play games, look things up, chat with friends and create pages.  Problem is… some may argue that kids spend entirely too much time online and that can become a problem when it starts to interfere with school work.  Are your kids spending too much time online?  That may be a question you wanna ask yourself.   My kids are young and granted don’t spend a lot of time surfing the net.  But as they get older, I’m sure all of that will change.   This is why I like the concept of GetNoodles.

GetNoodles is a new FREE web-based educational software program that can be quickly installed.   It  will interrupt your child’s playtime on the Internet with pop-up multiple choice questions and quizzes from a wide variety of subjects. To continue, kids must correctly answer the educational question in order to resume their online activities.  I love it and everyone is happy.  Kids get to do what they enjoy while also getting an educational lesson in the process and parents get to set guidelines yet still allowing kids the freedom to enjoy what they love to do.

 GetNoodles is designed for use by kids in preschool through 12th grade and compatible on both Windows and MAC computers.

 Additional features of GetNoodles™ include:

• One parental account can have up to six children using the software.
• Parents receive a weekly email newsletter to show the child’s statistics and overall progress.
• GetNoodles tracks each child’s total time online.
• Parents can change the child’s settings from any computer 
• Can be customized for each child by changing  the educational subjects, timing and frequency as often as desired.
• Parents can easily and quickly turn off pop-up questions when adults are using the computer.
• Software will work on any computer running Windows98, XP or Vista .
• Subjects are categorized by School Subjects, College Preps, or Life Lessons
• Premium subjects include voice prompts and multiple choice questions.
• Available in many different languages.

 As an added incentive to learn, correctly answered questions allow kids to earn points qualifying them for raffle ticket prizes that include gift certificates from major retailers. Every point a child earns with a correct answer is also awarded to the parent, who then qualifies for their own raffle tickets.

 To find out more about GetNoodles and install their free software just go to http://www.getnoodles.com/