Finish Your Fun List     Hang a “Happy School Year!” banner that has a pocket for each of the letters in the word school.     Inside each pocket put a slip of paper with an end-of-summer activity—something you meant to do over the summer break but never got around to. Just before school begins, draw one slip a day and have some fun before it is time to get in the routine of school.  Make homemade ice  cream; visit an old fashioned soda shop, or have a craft day. Finish the summer with fun!

Get Decked Out     Pick out a new outfit to wear on the first day of school. On the first day of school each year, measure your child’s height on one of the doors of your home. Always take your child’s picture, preferably with a poster with their handwritten name and grade. Collect the pictures each year to compare the differences. Celebrate!

The night before school starts, put streamers and a poster on your child’s bedroom door. Make a special breakfast and a send a treat bag for the teachers.

School Supplies  Give new rulers to your kids and write “The Golden Rule” in a sharpie marker to help them remember how to treat others.

New Friends  Encourage new friendships and have a get-to-know-you sleepover soon after school starts.

Back to school can be a fun time of learning and new friendships.

A Lesson in Physics: The Magic of Marbles

Do you remember the fun you could have with a handful of marbles? Children are so creative in making up games to play with the small round balls. The following game is one they will be able to show others. It must have been a hungry physicist who first noticed the Brazil Nut Effect. When you shake a jar of mixed nuts, the big, dense Brazil nut, always moves to the top. You would think it would fall to the bottom, but see the effect for yourself using a favorite marble.

1. Put the marble in a clean plastic jar. Fill it halfway with cornmeal, salt, or sand.
2. Seal the jar, and then shake it up and down. It may take a little time, but eventually the marble will rise to the top. You might even hear it pop against the lid before you spot it.

How does this happen? When you shake the jar, both the cornmeal and the marble move up and down, and a bit of the cornmeal fills the space below the marble before it can fall back to its original position. It may seem like magic, but it’s actually physics in action! Our God created the heavens and the earth and He still cares about every detail of your life. Thank you Creator God!

Thumbkin To Do

Humans have thumbthing special that distinguishes us from most other species; our opposable thumb, so called because it can touch each other fingertip to tip. The other mammals with opposable thumbs include apes, monkeys, koalas, and opossums. The thumbs flexibility and strength (nine muscles control it) give us exceptional grasping and fine motor abilities and allow us to excel at things like writing and tool-making. Still not convinced how awethumb it is? Try NOT using your thumbs (tape them to your palms if you have to) to accomplish these activities:

• Tie your shoelaces
• Pick up a coin from a flat surface
• Seal a plastic bag
• Shake hands with someone

What an awesome God we have. He created our bodies—even thought about giving us thumbs!

Adapted from Family Fun Magazine

When the hot temperatures leave your kids hot and moody, make them smile with these “cool down” water games from Family Fun magazine.

Ready Steady Jump Rope

This simple spin on jumping rope turns in to a get-wet game. Provide each player with a full     plastic cup of ice water. One at a time, each player must jump rope for ten turns while holding his or her cup. The player with the most water left wins.

Freezy Tees Contest    

The chill factor in this fast-paced race makes it much cooler than your average dress-up game.  Before the contest, prepare a T-Shirt for each participant by soaking it with water, wringing it out, and folding it. Placing waxed paper between each one, stack the folded shirts on a baking     sheet and freeze them. When they are stiff, hand them out to the players. The first to get into his frozen tee wins.

The Cups Runneth Over!   

Players are sure to get soaked with this spray bottle challenge that is brimming with fun. Divide the group into teams of two. Give one player on each team a water squirter filled water and the other player a plastic cup and Ping Pong ball, then have them stand six feet apart. At, “Go,” the     player with the bottle tries to squirt enough water into her teammate’s cup to float out the ball.  Set up a water bucket nearby for refills during play.

Enjoy, summer is almost over and you will be missing the heat—seriously!

The Wall Street Journal says about one-third of kids ages 6 months to 23 months have a TV in their bedroom, despite the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines recommending that kids under age 2 avoid screen time altogether. Be a wise parent and keep the media to a minimum in your nursery.

As your child begins watching cartoons, do not assume just because they are animated that they are appropriate for young children. Be very careful about what your child views on TV at home and other places. Talk about the rules for your family and discuss the reason certain movies and television shows are not to be watched.

For every hour of adult-targeted television or movies children ages 6 to 8 watched during a two-day sample period, researchers found a 33% increased risk of becoming sexually active in early adolescence, according to a recent Children’s Hospital Boston study. Our children’s minds are being attacked, and we must protect them!

Freedom. People have worked for it, fought for it, and died for it. In order to have freedom it takes tremendous courage. Courage is something we must teach our children.

Establish a new tradition this year as you prepare to celebrate our country’s freedom. Share examples of people you view as being courageous. Have each family member name one person who is still living who they feel symbolizes real life courage and then share one person that exemplifies this from history.

Another idea is chronicle the answers from your kids. Cut out paper stars and have your older kids write on their own stars. The younger ones can dictate their answers. On the top of each star write, “I love my country because…” of “Courage means to me…” and then leave space for the answers you will collect over the years. As the children change and mature, you will see how their answers change as they experience the circumstances of life. Use your stars to decorate for your Fourth of July party or design a backdrop for an annual Fourth of July family photo.

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Winston Churchill

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point.” C.S. Lewis