Today is the last day of school for my kiddos. They have each been promoted to their next grades. Yeah! I will have them all to myself for 68 glorious days. (Wait, I need to pop my Prozac. Glug, glug. Ok, I’m back.) I am super, super excited about this quality time we will be sharing. Because I have a little Tiger Mom in me, I have some grand plans to keep their brains stimulated. Yet, because I am a hip mom, I want to make these activities, well, super fun! So, here are some of my favorite ideas:

1. Grammar Camp: “Conjunction junction, what’s your function?!” This is three hours of sheer grammatical exhilaration every day from 9 until noon. We will parse sentences, identify pronouns, analyze irregular verbs, and play Mad Libs til their fingers hurt. Then, as a reward, students will get to DIAGRAM SENTENCES! Be still my heart. Students will start with simple sentences and work their way up to diagramming compound-complex sentences with a variety of conjunctions. Kids from the whole neighborhood will be knocking on our door.  
   2. Geography 101: I realize that my children are young, but when I asked them where Myanmar was, they were at a total loss until I told them it was Burma. So, we are going to have some fun with Geography. That’s right, we will study maps, learn about the nuances of various cultures, and take virtual trips to places like Columbia, the Suez Canal, and Bora Bora. How many kids are lucky enough to learn the national anthem of Laos? The highlight of this special week will be when we make a replica of the Amazon forest (humidity, giant fauna, poisonous snakes and spiders, swarms of army ants and mosquitos). Boy, oh, boy! Won’t kids love this hands-on experience?

3. Fun with Numbers: Anyone who knows me can testify that I am a mathematics fanatic! For this camp my kids are going to review their math skills by building a genuine tree fort in our back yard. They will take measurements and apply their geometric knowledge before they fire up the ole’ table saw. Once that is complete, they will calculate the evaporation rate of the pool water on days with varying temperatures and humidity. As a bonus, I will have an engineer come and lecture the kids on the importance of mathematics in their every day lives. Could this be more fun?

Of course, I have lots of other fantastic educational ideas. I’m currently working on a human physiology lesson on the dangers of dehydration and how to heal from poison ivy. Sounds fun? Then, stay tuned for more Tiger Mom ideas for beating boredom in the summer.
Cara Turner