I am a Netflix Stream Team member and have been given a Netflix membership to help facilitate my posts. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
With summer break in full swing, sometimes it is hard to get our minds into learning mode. What kids wants to sit down when their is running around and fun to be had? The great thing is there are so many learning opportunities right in our own backyards! Using nature to educate can be fun for both adults and children and is super easy to do. Take a nature hike around your property or nearby woods searching for flowers, insects and animals. You can even turn it into a scavenger hunt! Or you can try a summer long nature project like having the kids start their own veggie or flower garden.
On those summer days filled with rain and thunderstorms or when it is just too hot to be outside, take the lessons inside with the help of Netflix. For the older children, there are plenty of entertaining documentaries available. My nine year old LOVES these types of shows and was thrilled when he saw Walking with Dinosaurs on there. He even got the twin seven year olds excited for it.
Enjoy these and more documentary titles with your big kids:
1. Lewis & Clark: The Journey Out West
2. Walking with Dinosaurs
3. Secret Yellowstone
4. The Blue Planet
5. When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions
Of course my four year old isn't really all that interested in documentaries just yet. Thankfully Netflix has plenty of pre-school/kindergarten age educational shows as well. Mine is partial to PBS shows like Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Super Why! He also recently discovered Busytown Mysteries and thankfully, all the other boys love it too. I get a kick out of this because I so loved Richard Scarry books when I was a kid myself. You're little one might enjoy some of these titles while staying cool on a hot day:
1. The Great Mouse Detective
2. Busytown Mysteries
3. LeapFrog: Math Adventures to the Moon
4. Turtle: The Incredible Journey
5. The Magic School Bus
It is so easy to forget about education and learning during the hot summer break. But I think it is important that we keep our children's minds active and stimulated. While hands on activities are always awesome, especially outside in the fresh air, the TV can be a wonderful tool as well. And when it is 95 degrees outside with 85% humidity (bleh), Netflix is there to educate us all on space exploration, dinosaurs and so much more!
Snack Idea!
Stay cool with these Brain Booster Strawberry-Yogurt Swirl Popsicles.
