Who doesn’t love summer? It’s a time of family gatherings and picnics, yearly vacations and lounging in the shade on hot afternoons. Those warm summer days are also a great time to help your kids develop an appreciation for nature and stretch their imaginations, too. Below are five easy outdoor activities the whole family can enjoy.

Many parents feel overwhelmed thinking about the summer vacation weeks when children need reading practice to stay fresh and prepared for the next school year. Tutoring is an excellent option, but there are plenty of ways to promote reading skills at home.
The most important thing you can do is consistently provide exposure to reading and language every single day. Integrating more reading into their daily lives will expand their vocabularies, help them develop a sense of sequence and patterns, and increase their attention spans. Keep these tips in mind.

May can be a very bitter sweet time of year. Schools and students begin their countdown to the final bell, signaling another successful year behind them. There are plans being made for family vacations to the Gulf, Grandma’s house, and weekends on the lake. You can almost hear the kids chanting ‘Marco? Polo!’ and feel the cannonball waves splashing the cool water over the sides of the pool. Those lazy days of summer are just around the corner! Along with the excitement of another summer and all the fun it is sure to bring, the bitter that often comes with the most sweet rewards in life can be a challenge. With the end of another school year, the anticipation of sending your high school grad off into the unknown of college, jobs, and living on her own can overshadow even graduation day. You may experience both tears and pride as your children dance in the recital, slide into home at the end of the season, and say goodbye to the best teacher ever. If you are like me, the sweetness of having all four of my children home this summer has me as giddy as the kids. However, there is a bitterness associated with thinking about full days of caring for them, having fun adventures, and encouraging continued learning throughout the summer while juggling work and other demands of the household. Coupling their need to be kids and have fun, with my hopes that they will also learn something new along the way, has me thinking about our summer together differently.

Choosing a child care provider is an incredibly important decision, but it doesn’t have to be a stressful one. Most parents want their kids to be safe and happy and be placed in an environment that encourages learning and development. But how do you actually select the facility that will be best for you and your child?

We’ve all dreamed of them. Many of us have actually seen them. But how do we actually raise them? I’m talking about siblings who get along. Those mysterious brothers and sisters who enjoy being together and have each other’s back.

I love spring….even while looking through my Benadryl-foggy eyes! The flowers (and pollen) are in full bloom, the birds are busy and my kids have caught spring fever. With the warmer weather upon us and the rebirth of another spring, it’s time to be outdoors. As with most little kids, saying goodbye to the cold winter and welcoming back the warmth begins with running and playing outside. For us, spring also brings us closer together as a family. We tend to go on more family outings such as afternoons at the park, the zoo, baseball games, and bicycle rides.

Horseback riding, canoe wars, frisbee golf, anxiety, loneliness and stomachaches – summer camp can be a bittersweet mix of fun activities and homesick moments. Separation from parents and home is an important developmental milestone for children, but homesickness can put a real damper on a kid’s experience.

Ready to help your child give up a pacifier? Here are some tips for navigating the tricky transition.

Do you ever wish you could be a kid again? When the days of carefree playing, learning and exploring were priority number one! Where meeting the neighborhood kids for an impromptu game of Red Rover, climbing to the top of the trees, and chasing fireflies until called in for dinner were the day’s ‘to-do list’. The only stresses revolved around homework and which Saturday morning cartoon to watch. Our best friends were our brothers, sisters and the next door neighbors. Parents were the super heroes and Hollywood stars who made our home feel like the greatest place on Earth. Let’s not forget what we lived for-- Summer Time! When that final school bell rang, it meant three whole months of fun, fun, fun! No homework, playing all day, vacations and summer camp! Some things never change. Our kids still countdown the school days until they can enjoy those same carefree summer days and nights. And the simple ways of the past can be loved by our children, too. Plan a summer that they will never forget. We can create a simpler time, against the backdrop of video games and laptops, by helping them see summer as we used to.

When the BP oil spill disaster happened a couple of years ago in the Gulf, no one knew the extent of the damage or when the leak would be controlled. To the chagrin of hotel and restaurant owners on the Coast, tourism waned drastically over the summer months. My own family had made reservations to stay at a condominium in Fort Morgan over the Fourth of July weekend, a trip we wished to replicate from the summer before. However, when tar balls started washing up on the shores of Dauphin Island, too close to Fort Morgan for our comfort, my husband said he no longer felt good about our plans. Paying beach prices when we’d likely not be able to use the beach, he said, just didn’t make sense, so before our opportunity to cancel the trip expired, we reluctantly pulled the plug.