Summer School is Now in Session

Summer

School is Now in Session

by Phil Wrzesinski, HABA USA

Marky Sparky Stomp Rocket

Alost year. A step back. Falling behind. Many parents have used those words to describe the last year of school, frustrated and worried their child is falling behind. Those with the resources may resort to sending their child to summer school or finding a camp to help push academics this summer.

For everyone else, there is you.

We could pull out the tired old cliché that all play is educational.

“All of us are jamming on that theme anyway,” said Sean O’Neal from Science Safari.

But the truth is, with the right hand (yours) to guide them, parents can find all the tools in your store to run the most educational summer school ever without their children even knowing they enrolled.

The Sciency Toys

Some toys are blatantly educational. Bug viewers, field microscopes, and insect houses lead the list.

O’Neal said he has found the microscopes with around 20x magnification are best for outdoor use because you don’t have to make a slide just to see something cool. Even at a lower power, you can see structure and features on leaves, branches, nuts, and blades of grass not visible to the naked eye. Insect and bird houses also make great parent/child projects between the building and populating of the house. This time together offers plenty of opportunity for parents to ask questions that make children think or look up more info.

The Trajectory Toys

Gravity is a big part of outdoor fun. Toys like stomp rockets, frisbees, and anything that gets thrown or launched has a learning element already built in. “Newtonian Physics lends itself to outdoor play,” O’Neal said. Stomp rockets include lessons on pressure, force, and trajectory. Frisbees and other flying objects teach aerodynamics.

Thin Air Brand Brands Bug Hunter Sean O’Neal

Mindware Aquamaze

Even kites have learning elements because of windspeed, wind direction, and the shifting winds. A parent can, with a simple nudge, turn a day of launching into a day of learning.

The Big Splash Toys

O’Neal said he often encourages parents to “think outside the tub” during the summer. Bath toys quickly become beach and pool toys. Floating numbers are just as much fun to count outside as inside. And water toys like the Mindware Aquamaze teaches cause and effect wherever the water is.

The Sand and Beach

Traditional outdoor toys like sand pails and funnels have an educational element hiding within them. Children can test things like density, weight, and volume with a couple sand pails. O’Neal has been using the Spilling Funnel from HABA USA to talk about things like structural engineering. “The sand from the funnel forms like stalagmites which is something cool for kids to see,” O’Neal said. “Plus children are learning how to mix the sand and water for different effects.”

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