Social Studies Activities for the Summer

Do you have a copy of all the social studies activities that you wrote about one summer? My children are older now and would be able to do many of them. – For an Educational Summer.
Answer: Here are several of those activities. Each one will teach your children more about the world we live in. Most can be used with several age groups with some slight adjustments.
Summer Social Studies Activity 1: This week, tie several of your family meals to foods that are traditionally associated with countries or times that your children will be studying in social studies next year. Your children should research online or in books what different meals would be like. For countries, your family can prepare typical foods or eat in ethnic restaurants. For the past, you can try to replicate meals of different time periods, such as meals the first colonists would have eaten. To make a meal like this truly authentic, you could cook it over an open fire in iron pots.
Summer Social Studies Activity 2: The United States has people from many different countries. This week parents should acquaint their children with some of the well-known people who have immigrated or simply are working in this country. Take a trip to the library and find age-appropriate books on these people. They can choose people like basketball superstar Yao Ming from China or Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from Austria. Talk also with your children about where their relatives immigrated from. They should find these places on a map or globe.
Summer Social Studies Activity 3: If your family takes a trip, visit one or more historical sites along the way. Planning ahead will make this visit far more educational. Every major site will have considerable information online; perhaps even more enjoyable would be reading a book about it. There are many books for young children telling about places like Gettysburg, Mount Vernon and the Alamo.
If you're staying at home, visit one of the local museums, monuments, forts, pioneer settlements or homes of famous authors, politicians and other public figures. At home or away, these visits are enhanced by taking guided tours. And have your children gather informative brochures to share with their classmates when they return to school.
Summer Social-Studies Activity 4: Devote this week to helping your children become acquainted with the government of your state by visiting your state capitol. If this is not a practical suggestion, you and your children can go online and make a virtual tour. Before you visit the capitol, have your children use an almanac or go to the state's Web site to find out some basic facts about your state, such as the names of the state bird, animal, flower, motto, song, your district's representatives and the governor. Before you visit the capitol, find out if tours are given, and arrange to join one, if possible.
If you can't visit the state capitol, visit city hall or the county seat. Many are in very historical buildings. And some will offer tours and even let you visit different meetings so that you can see local government in action.