Show us how you’re having a Smart Summer!
The prize this week (Forest-Friendly Week) is from a great company in the education space, for which I’ve had the privilege of blogging for the last two years: LeapFrog.
I had highlighted posts from the previous week’s linky to but for clarity’s sake, I’ve moved the round-ups to their own posts:
We’d love for you to share your ideas–you can add a link to a post on your blog or even a photo set on Flickr or any types of publicly viewable “journal” entry on a social media or community site.
Not a blogger? If you do not have access to posting entries on any public site, you can also leave a comment on this post, sharing the learning opportunities you incorporated into your week with your children.
Your post (or comment) can be something from your archives that speaks to our theme for the week (Government) or it can just be a general post about how you are fitting fun learning into your summer activities. You can find our weekly themes on our calendar of ideas but ANY learning activities, big or small, are welcomed!
Just add your link(s) (as many relevant links as you would like) to a specific post or page (i.e. http://www.naturallyeducational.com/2011/06/fight-the-summer-slide-with-the-smart-summer-challenge/ NOT http://www.naturallyeducational.com) to the link widget below.
WIN PRIZES!
Every link you enter in the widget below (or your comment) during the week will also enter you to win our AWESOME prize of the week: a Prize Pack ($238 ARV) of LeapFrog Educational Games and Resources!
- 1 Leapster Explorer
- 2 Leapster Explorer games
- 1 Tag Reader
- 2 Tag Books
- Tag U.S. and World Maps
I allow very few electronic toys in my house but we have purchased several LeapFrog games and interactive books for our children, including the Tag Reader and books and the TAG US and World Maps. With LeapFrog, the technology moves beyond gimmickry to actually facilitating a child’s learning. The extremely well-designed devices encourage interactivity with text and knowledge.
Official Rules
The linky and giveaway closes at 11:59 PM EST on Thursday, July 28…and then we’ll see you back Friday morning for more fun! You may enter as many links as you wish and each will count as an entry. Comment entries are limited to one per person, per site (total of three (3) possible comment entries). US Shipping only for prizes, due to sponsor requests, but international friends are still encouraged to play and add their links! Winner will be chosen at random from valid entries.
You retain the rights to all entries but grant us permission to share your links along with a short excerpt and thumbnail image.
We reserve the right to disqualify entries at our sole discretion and change the rules or prizes without notification beyond updating the page.
Spread the Word!
We’d love you to help spread the word–please feel free to link back and/or grab the code for the button below. And don’t forget to visit us on Facebook where we are sharing some more ideas from the community! Feel free to also post photos, questions, and ideas on the Facebook page, too: http://www.facebook.com/smartsummerchallenge.
Thank you for taking the Smart Summer Challenge!
Your hostesses,
Candace at NaturallyEducational.com, Amy at teachmama.com, MaryLea at PinkAndGreenMama
<a title="smart summer button '11" href="http://www.facebook.com/smartsummerchallenge"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5194/5829107237_2558c61bf9_m.jpg" alt="smart summer button '11" width="150" height="150" /></a>
Thank you for the shout out! I’m having so much fun checking in on all of the other ideas presented. This is such a fun way to get to know other blogs and find some fun, thought provoking projects to do with my children. Thank you for hosting!
What fun ideas!! Thanks for hosting — what a great giveaway too! My girls would go NUTS for a LeapFrog prize pack!!! ((fingers crossed)) 🙂
We collected seashells at the beach and then went to the library to identify them!
Every week after our library storytime we expand our knowledge on the theme and project of the week (this past week was dogs and we read about all of the different types, what to do when we see one we don’t know and made a stuffed dog), learn a new concept in math, make a new art project (this week was colored salt in a glass and a glazing our paint project from a few weeks ago) and a new physical feat (finally a roll this week and working on hopping on one foot). All important for cognitive and physical development of a preschooler.
we went to the zoo and when we came home we learned about endangered species and animal care.
I took my daughter to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. we printed off fact sheets about the animals and took time to learn about each one.
Thanks for the chance.
mogrill12@gmail.com
we have been doing so much fun stuff. My husband is a scientist (working on his PHD), so everything is educational. Slip n slide to find out hoe fast you can actually go, whaling meuseum, harbor to syudy fish etc.
Thanks for the chance
We went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. While we there we talked about what all the different animals and how they live. We also made sure went on all the guided tour rides to see (and take pictures) animals in their natural habitat and hear information about them from an “expert” (tour guide). When we went home we followed up by talking about some of the animals we saw at the park.
We have a great park next to our house & usually take nightly walks with the kids. We’ve been finding all kinds of fun things from pine cones, to huge leaves that we talk about. My friend took 3 of my boys to Santa Cruz last week & they had a blast on the beach looking for seashells.
Thanks for the great ideas. We like to do crafts using nature and then have the child tell story about their craft, experience or nature.
I bought my year old grandson animal statues and made a farm carrying bag. He has female, male and babies of different species and he knows all the sounds they make and different facts about each animal, such as the kangaroo carries the baby in its pouch.
This week we’ve found a bird nest and watched mama and daddy bird feed the young. We also got to watch them teach the babies to fly. We caught bugs and looked them up to find out more about them as well.
You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. ~Clay P. Bedford
I agree that limited electronic toys is not a bad idea, but LeapFrog does offer a great angle by making them educational.
One thing we do with the kids is take them to the park always emphasizing types of trees, bushes, animals large and small. Also get them simple mini physics lessons on the swings and other playground activivies
brich22 at earthlink dot net
We love to bird watch at the park.
The learning opportunities we incorporated into our week with our children were math and reading before bedtime.
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