We all remember wonderful summer vacation memories. We could hardly wait to be off and enjoy all the great things that summer brought with it. Before you know it, the time has flown by and it is “Back to School” time.  You can help your nieces and nephews transition back to school with some fun activities that you can make an annual tradition.   This activity is perfect whether it’s their first day of school or they are heading back for another year.

My niece loves summer vacation. She would be a mermaid in a heartbeat if she could. She spent countless days swimming with us and enjoying all the wonderful things you do when it’s warm out and you don’t have to go to bed early.

There is one thing I try to do each and every year before she heads back to school. We sit down and read, share our experiences and write. It is a tradition you can start now and one  that you will love to do each and every year.

I recommend you check out this book,  How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Dragonfly Books) by Mark Teague.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

It is all about using your imagination. A wonderful way to share a story with your nieces and nephews and end the reading with a fun chat about all the great things they did this past summer. They will love to see your enthusiasm for sharing in their lives. You can also have an exercise where you talk about how they would put a twist on their summer vacation stories.

Wallace Bleff is the main character in the story who weaves the most amazing tale of what he did on his summer vacation. He talks about a fictional summer vacation but it is fun to see his imagine run wild with ideas and tales. The illustrations are very colorful and perfect for the wild and adventurous tales.

For some older children that are already writing, it would be fun to share the afternoon writing fact or fiction about what they did over summer vacation. This exercise will not only become an annual favorite with you, but so much fun when you read and re-read the story year after year. Once you have the wonderful tales all mapped out you can also have them draw a special picture of something they wrote about.

Lasting memories

Keep written copies of their work and art to review and share with them next year. I always get a kick out of reading things we wrote over a year ago. You can see how much things have changed and what they are into. This also helps in figuring out what to get them as special treats and gifts throughout the year.

It would also be fun to write a list of things they would want to do next summer. This will be interesting to read and perhaps become a weekend event over the next few months. You are teaching them that reading can be fun and that anything is possible if you can imagine it.