Planning for the Weather

When summer rolls around, most of our plans revolve around things we can do outside while it is warm and sunny. If your kids find themselves getting bored at any point over the next few months, print out some of the lessons from Nature/Outdoors. This wonderful course, taught by Erin Dean, is geared toward elementary and middle school students. Fourteen units include science experiments, art, crafts, journaling, photography, and more to encourage learning and a love of nature. Most units have four weekly lessons on a topic; many have multiple tracks that can be followed. Topics are evergreens and sand, birds and wildflowers, animal tracks and traveling seeds, night sky and rainbows, ponds, owls, mosquitoes, acorns, migration and fungi, winter, creeks, wild birds, wolves, and coyotes, squirrels and snakes, bears and ants. If your plans need to be altered because of a rainy day, spend some time working through Michelle Miller’s Monthly Reading List. This month’s topic is Africa and book suggestions are given for age-appropriate categories, true stories, fiction, and picture books. The list is broken down by genre. Two dozen self-contained monthly reading lists are available. Consider using some of these lists for summer reading.

Tammie Bairen
Editorial Assistant
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