Comments on: Keeping Teens and Tweens Busy This Summer

By: Alyssa

Alyssa — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:16:58 +0000

As a 14 year old girl who likes school and loves summer, I’m going to let you in on a secret. I don’t want to sound rude, but if you try to teach your kid calculus over the summer, he/she will be miserable. The last time a bunch of moms came together and decided to do this for their teens, there was fighting, crying, and running away and living in closets for a day or two. Summer break is meant for kids to have a BREAK from school, not to get extra learning time. While you may feel you’ve accomplished something from this, your kid will go back to school sad and feeling that they just wasted three moths of their lives. Please don’t do this to your kids, for it is NOT worth the pain and stress it will bring them.

By: “But I’m Boooored, Grandma!!!” at From Mom To Grandma

“But I’m Boooored, Grandma!!!” at From Mom To Grandma — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:48:56 +0000

[...] resources on the web that offer good ideas. Char over at Weary Parent offers some great ideas in Keeping Teens and Tweens Busy This Summer. And while a few of them involve you having to physically be somewhere besides home, others serve [...]

By: Shaping Youth

Shaping Youth — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:22:01 +0000

Love the horseback ideas…my tween is ‘too old’ for her favorite pony camp now, but has volunteered as a ‘barn goddess’ to help with the younger kids in exchange for some ride time…so we’ll see if the ranch ‘bites’ on her offer. Meanwhile, wanted to share this excellent tween-centric horse site/blog where girls add their stories into the mix, called Girls Horse Club (.com) it gives kids a chance to practice writing skills, submit stories and get work published while chatting w/other like-minded horse enthusiasts…

By: Southside 'burbs Mom

Southside 'burbs Mom — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:39:03 +0000

My 12 year old loved going to horseback camp last year. Most of the kids were younger girls, but he did enjoy learning about the different breeds, caring for, bathing and feeding horses, plus riding instruction. The last day of school they had a “costume” contest in which campers teamed up and made a costume for a horse! After the camp was over, we decided to share-board a horse, and it keeps him outside and away from the T.V. It’s not nearly as expensive as one might think, and it has taught him a greater respect for animals.

By: Keeping The Kids Busy This Summer

Keeping The Kids Busy This Summer — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:55:14 +0000

[...] Keeping Tweens and Teens Busy this Summer [...]

By: Raising A Healthy Family » Kicking Off A Healthy Summer

Raising A Healthy Family » Kicking Off A Healthy Summer — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:47:31 +0000

[...] Keeping Tweens and Teens Busy this Summer [...]

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:56:04 +0000

Thanks for the link. And the great list. No tweens around here yet, but Cedar likes many of the items on this list.

By: joe bruzzese

joe bruzzese — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:29:06 +0000

Hey Char, I posted a few more short quips about summer planning here for parents and kids making their way through middle school: http://thinking-forward.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/06/summer-is-here-what-are-your-kids-doing.html

Regards,

Joe Bruzzese

By: Shaping Youth

Shaping Youth — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 07:05:25 +0000

Well, I’m a big fan of ‘co-op’ thinking, drawing from other parents’ strengths, and rotating houses with skill sets to form makeshift freebie camps like a ’round-robin’ of sorts…

e.g. We’re the ‘water safety’ crew, so we share our waterskiing, wakeboarding, lifeguarding experience w/other pals, whereas our neighbors are musicians, another’s a sushi chef, etc. so we pool makeshift camp ideas together…

That way we can swap out, since we all work knowing the kids are fully engaged on any given ‘day.’

(I know one dad who’s sending his 16 yr. old to a ‘race car safety driving camp’ where they learn how to drive without skidding/black ice/limo escapes, and another who’s teaching ‘weekend woodshop’ in exchange for having his boys handled swapped for pool time 2 days, that kind of thing)

Springing off your book ideas, we’re talking about taking our Teen Book Club on a ‘beat poet walking tour in S.F.’ complete w/poetry slam in cafe/retro 60s style…

I’m also considering using my screenplays to teach ‘dialogue’ by having the kids ‘act out’ the scripts so they understand where all this media is coming from, artistically. (yeah, a tad of Shaping Youth’s media literacy filtering in there!)

My over-arching goal is to slowly instill some ‘think outside yourselves’ philanthropy tho…to get more kids to ‘think as one world.’ (e.g. to
‘Pause for a Cause’ (SPCA/paws or any venture that puts kids “In Her Shoes”)—Other ideas are listed here on marketing mindfulness to kids:
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=835

I also ‘borrow ideas from traditional camps & scale them for older ages, since middle-schoolers tend to not be as wild about ‘camps’ per se; although GirlsRock! looks pretty cool on a nat’l tween scene…

Since I serve on the advisory board for Camp Galileo (’art, science and the great outdoors’ affil. w/the Tech Museum, Arts in Action and Klutz Toys) I’d say check their listings for ideas/themes to draw from/replicate elsewhere in other regions outside of CG environs—

Most camps like these have put considerable thought and testing into age appeal/core content areas, so why reinvent the wheel? Scope and scale/customize accordingly to diff. ages…

By: Mary Emma Allen

Mary Emma Allen — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:56:11 +0000

Great list, Char. I’m going to refer our One Book Two Book readers to this post.