Amspaugh says that student became an English teacher who came back to UC to complete his master's degree. Areas of interest could include nature, dinosaurs, sports, butterflies and the seashore. Get a lot of books on the subject and talk with children about what they're reading. Families should turn off the TV and spend time together reading, either indoors or outside with the warm weather. Naylor adds writing is just as important as reading and says kids can have fun keeping a journal of their summer vacation.
Children can write about what they did each day and collect postcards of places they visited.
When they return home, they can make an album that includes the postcards and the entries in their journal. When my children were younger, we had visited Springfield, Illinois and a cat had kittens in the motel where we were staying. That question is asked over and over again during the long drive to a vacation destination, but there are ways to keep the kids occupied and even informed as families take to the highways this summer. First, parents should have each child pack his or her own travel kit. They may want to bring along some paperback books they can pack in a canvas tote bag decorated by Mom, Grandma or even themselves.