Technology activities for summer vacation

On the weekends during the school, my kids have rules for using technology. However, if these rules applied for every day in the summer, my children would spend way too much time playing computer games. Even though summer vacation feels like a perpetual weekend, the rules for technology need to change.

Recently on Mom Central Tech, we talked about managing the use of technology when kids are on vacation. Sure, my kids want to play their favorite computer games, but we all know that’s not the best thing for them. Instead of letting the games occupy all of kids’ computer time during the summer, I try to manage the technology use as well as make the time educational and fun.

Summertime technology ideas

• How many times have your kids asked a question about how something works and you haven’t found the time to research it during the school year because other requirements occupy your time? Now you have the time. Listen to the questions, or create the questions yourself, and find the answers together.
• Take your phone or camera on a hike with you and take photos of wildflowers. Come home and research the flower name and other information about the plant on the internet.
• Select a topic for the week and use technology to research the topic. You can learn about insects, our solar system, the seasons, how airplanes can fly, all by using search engines. Instead of writing a formal report, simply talk about what your kids learn. Have your children teach you as the experts they have become.
• Do your kids like to cook? Summer provides a wide array of fruits that can’t be found fresh any other time of the year. Choose a fruit and find recipes online for your kids to create. Learn about where that fruit grows and why it needs certain climates. Research if you can pick this fruit yourself with your family at a local farm. Gather the fruit and create the recipes together.
• Help your child correspond with family members who live far away by using email. This improves typing skills, builds communication skills, and if your child writes regularly, it can create a reference to what happened during the summer break.
• Geocaching, using technology to find hidden objects like a treasure hunt, can be a lot of fun for your whole family. If you search “geocaching for kids” you can find numerous sites explaining how it works and how to find sources in your own community. Invite other families to join you and search for a geocache together.

I plan to use some of these ideas this summer to give my boys’ computer time a bit of a purpose. Hopefully, by the end of the break, we all will have more to show for our use of technology than an all-time high score of every computer game in our collection. Enjoy the summer technology time with your families!

When Eileen Calandro isn’t trying to better her time on Mario Cart, she is the Chief Mom Connector of Mom Central. You can read about the adventures she has with her family on her personal blog at calandroclan.com and connect with her on twitter at @MomCentralChat and @calandro5.

Eileen Calandro