Kas Winters

"Mother of Family Ideas"

Father's Day

June 15th

Click for a whole page of Father's Day Ideas

June 18th

Learn to Bar-B-Q

Start early to teach children cooking skills, including outdoor cooking, and of course, teach all of the safety factors that go with the Bar-B-Q or campfire. Under your watchful eye, let them toast a marshmallow, wrap a potato or meat patty in a couple of layers of foil and cook it on the coals or help make shish-kebobs for the grill. They can also help with other items for a meal such as making a tossed salad, potato salad or simply cutting up raw vegetables. Make lemonade from real lemons. Make it a picnic adventure! Stay at home, go to a local park or outdoor picnic area or head for the woods with a tent.

Have a Picnic

Since this is near Father's Day, have a picnic to celebrate Dad and/or Grandpa. You can go "all out" with food preparations or simply take a fast food meal to the park and enjoy eating it outdoors. What counts is the time spent together conversing and delighting in one another's company. If you have watermelon, be sure to have a seed spitting contest and see whose seeds fly the farthest distance.

June 3rd

Play Space Ship "Let's Pretend"

All it takes is a box and some imagination to take your own trip into space. Use plastic lids to make pretend dials and gauges for your space ship. A piece of hose, dryer hose or even rope can be a tether for your "space walk". (Watch ropes etc. with younger children; they can be a safety hazard.) A plastic bucket can be a space helmet. Read some books with space stories. Go to the library or the Internet and get information on that first walk in space. Look at photos of the actual event.

U.F.O. Day

June 24th

Research U.F.O's

Whether you got to the library or search on-line, there is a plethora of information on this topic, and it's one that fascinates both children and adults. Look at the night sky with binoculars or a telescope. Try to find a spot for view that is far enough from the lights of a town to get a good view. (Do a little star gazing too and identify some constellations. Scorpio is easy to find in the summer.) Make a folder to collect your information, a list of websites to check and photos of possible unidentified flying objects. Have "what if?" discussions with children. What if there are aliens? What might they look like? Would they be friendly or frightening? How might they travel? Would you like to meet one? Let the questions evolve.

Ice Cream Soda Day

June 20th

Make Your Own Ice Cream and Sodas

Make your own ice cream and use if for an ice cream soda (or a cone, sundae or banana split). If you have a regular ice cream making machine, electric or hand crank, that is certainly a great way to make ice cream. For those who don't, here is a very easy way to make your own batch of that cold creamy stuff. You can do this with tin cans or plastic bags.

Mix the following ingredients in a bowl:

1 cup milk,

1 cup whipping cream

    (not whipped cream)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla.

Pour it into a clean, 1 pound coffee can OR a quart freezer bag. Seal the container well. Use duct tape on the can. A zip type seal works best on the bag. Place the small can into a 3 pound coffee can or put the small bag into a gallon plastic freezer bag. Fill the space between the small and large containers with alternating layers of crushed ice and rock salt. Seal the large containers. Roll the can or "squish" the bags (gloves are good--it will be cold) for 10 minutes. Empty out the water, repack containers with rock salt and ice. Roll or squish for 10 more minutes. Remove the smaller can or bag and rinse the outside of it to remove the salt. Open it to find ice cream! Add cut-up pieces of fruit, chocolate syrup or other flavorings and mix them in well. For an ice cream soda, mix your ice cream with soda pop and garnish it with some whipped cream and a cherry.

Learn to Take Care of the Earth

Even young children can be taught to respect and appreciate the joys of nature. Of course, begin by unplugging the fun and get outside to appreciate the glory of Mother Earth. This has so many benefits, from activities that keep children healthier to the relationships built by spending time together. Teach them to enjoy the flowers, learn about the rocks, catch and release critters after watching them for a while, walk and hike together. In the process, talk about ways they can to little things that make a big difference. Teach them not to litter, and also to pick-up and dispose of litter left by others. (Safely--use a plastic glove or plastic bag over a hand or simply don't allow a child to pick-up anything that could be a biohazard or cause injury.) Learn how turning off lights, recycling materials and other things can help to preserve nature. Take only pictures and leave only footprints.

Summer Begins

June 21st

Here are some simple ways to have some summer fun.

   ■ Tell stories around a campfire.

Meteor Day

June 30th

Visit a Meteor Crater

The photo above was taken at Barringer Meteorite Crater in Northern Arizona, also known as Meteor Crater. So, if you live in Arizona or nearby, there is a famous one you can visit to celebrate Meteor Day. However, there are 172 confirmed locations of meteor craters on earth, so there are a number of possible places where you can see them, depending on where you live. Do an on-line search for a location of a meteor crate near you, or just gather information about meteors and learn together. They really are fascinating holes in the ground.

Magic Day

June 12th

Learn Some Magic Tricks

I often speak at schools and use magic as a way to get student's attention. Because my topic is usually something related to reading , my answer to the "How did you do that?" question is always the same, "Read the book". There are ever-so-many books on how to do magic tricks and the process of reading and understanding the directions is an important one. So, as the mother of two sons who are magicians, I've had to promise not to reveal tricks, and my answer here is the same. Read the book! It's tons of fun and children feel good about themselves when they surprise their friends with magic tricks.