Baby girl completed Kindergarten last week. Her first year of school is done and over with and I now officially have a first-grader. Wow.

She was pretty sad about finishing up the school year, mostly because she was feeling like she’d miss her teacher and friends. She came home on her last day of school saying, “I want to stay in Kindergarten another year. I don’t want to move to first grade.” I told her that it would all be okay and that we definitely want to move forward in life, not backward. “Progress is good,” I told her. “Why?” she asked.

Her question stumped me for a second. How was I to explain such an abstract concept of progression to a six-year-old?

I decided to compare it to physical growth – hers and that of plants. She had recently learned of a plant’s life cycle, so I knew it would be an easy connection for her. “If a seed doesn’t progress, then it gets stuck as a seed and doesn’t grow into a plant, right? The same goes for you. You want to get bigger, don’t you?” She nodded and I continued to explain that our minds need to grow too. “If not, we’ll get stuck and we’ll never know anything new!”

She seemed to understand this, but still wished she could stay in Kindergarten and learn new things there. I realized no amount of words were going to help my baby girl in that moment, so I gave her what I knew she needed, a hug.

As a woman, I know that sometimes us girls just need a big hug, without words, to help us feel better. It makes little sense to many, except maybe other women. Sometimes we don’t want to make sense of things, or fix the situation. I know exactly what that feels like and yet there I was trying to “fix” my baby girl’s feelings on finishing Kindergarten. The hug I gave her did so much more to help her than any of my words.

With that hug, I immediately felt a release of the worry in her little body. Since that day, she still sometimes mentions she’s going to miss her teacher, but she hasn’t said anything about wanting to stay in Kindergarten. In fact, she’s made statements starting with, “When I’m in first grade…” I guess she’s showing progress after all.

Were your children sad when they finished their first year of school?

Photo: Dmitry Kichenko

My five year old will be starting Kindergarten this fall. She just completed pre-Kindergarten and since her preschool follows the same school calendar as the public schools, that means she has an actual summer off, just like all school-aged kids. This also means that she’ll be spending a lot of time at home and we need to figure out ways to keep her busy. She’s not the type of kid to sit still for too long, plus we don’t want her to waste away the summer and forget everything they did in pre-K this past year.

We’ve lined up a few activities for the summer that will help her keep busy, entertained, and should be fun. Here’s our plan.

5 Ways to Keep Kids Busy this Summer

1. Summer Reading Program

Our local library has a summer reading program for kids to keep up with their reading while out of school. They provide a reading list, a calendar for kids to mark off days they read, and a goody bag at the end of the program in exchange for a full calendar. Our library’s program is for ages 6-12, but I figure that since baby girl is reading well for her age, we can work on the books appropriate for 6 and 7 year olds. She loves to read, so this is perfect for her and will get her extra excited about the books.

Photo: elvissa

2. Museums

At least one of our local museums is offering free admission on Mondays throughout the summer. I need to check with some of the other museums in the area to see if they have a similar offer, but have heard this is not uncommon. A visit to a museum is great for a) getting the kids out of the house, b) expanding their minds, and c) providing conversational topics.

Photo: aarongilson

3. Summer Day Camps

Luckily, baby girl’s preschool is hosting a summer day camp full of activities, weekly field trips, and a review of the pre-K curriculum they just completed. We’ve enrolled her for 5 weeks of camp this summer, though the weeks are spread out. Our local YMCA is also hosting a summer day camp with field trips, as well, so that may be something you can look into.

Photo: Richard Styles

4. Free Bowling or Other Recreational Activities

You may have already heard that AMF is offering two free games of bowling per day for kids 16 and under at over 200 locations in the US. I plan to take advantage of this offer a few times throughout the summer, though baby girl hasn’t quite mastered the art of bowling. She’ll still have fun, regardless, plus it’s an indoor activity – something that’s super important here in Orlando.

Last year, I also heard that some of the movie theaters had certain days of the week where they had free movies for the kids. That’s something else that would be fun and is also indoors.

Photo: Paul Sapiano

5. Swim Lessons

Believe it or not, our girl doesn’t yet know how to swim. This summer, we plan to fix that and have enrolled her in swimming lessons at our YMCA. Depending on how she does her first two weeks, we’ll see if we enroll her in further lessons.

The weeks that we have none of the above activities planned, such as this first week off from school, we are keeping her busy with continuing to write in her pre-K journal, reading, visits to abuela’s house, workbooks, and of course, playing with the various toys she owns. It’s sure to be a fast summer and before we know it, we’ll be preparing for the first day of Kindergarten.

How do you plan to keep your kids busy this summer?

This post is part of a paid campaign.

My baby girl started Prekindergarten this past Monday. Here in Florida they actually call it Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK), and the state funds the program. So, if you properly enroll your child with the state, various local child care centers will provide VPK free of charge 3 hours a day, five days a week. But, even though the state funds the program, I found myself receiving a school supply list from her preschool and having to purchase school supplies. We didn’t mind at all, and of course, it was very exciting for her to get her school supplies and take them to school. After all, starting next year when she starts Kindergarten, I’ll be buying school supplies every year thereafter – so this was good training.

Still, it reminded me of how underfunded the general school system is. Here in Florida, there have been many budget cuts for the Education industry, some that even recently affected the program where just eight months ago I was working full-time. The program no longer exists. I also know that most teachers purchase school supplies for their classrooms and students out of their own pocket. I know this because my mother-in-law is an elementary school teacher in South Florida and she is constantly looking for items at stores for “her kids” and her classroom. And, I think that’s how most teachers feel too – their students are “their kids” and they wholeheartedly embrace their role of educating those kids.

A major way that schools are affected by budget cuts are through critical enrichment programs such as music, arts, and sports. Sadly, many schools have had to cut back on or eliminate such programs. This year, Clorox wishes to help schools by awarding four grants, totaling $110,000, to help fund school programs that will brighten and enrich the lives of kids. Through the Power A Bright Future grant program, Clorox is seeking nominations for schools to win a $50,000 grand-prize grant or one of three $20,000 grants. All you have to do, is visit the Clorox site from August 12 to September 27, 2010 and submit a photo and information about the program in the appropriate category for your idea: Learn, Play or Create. For more information, official rules and to nominate a school program, visit Clorox.

Additional Ways To Help Your School and Children

• I’m sure this is stuff we all already know, but as a reminder, taking several easy steps can help prevent the spread of germs:
  • Sing and Scrub: Wash hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds (the time it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice).
  • Do the Elbow Cough: Cough and sneeze into your elbow instead of your hands to help prevent the spread of germs by touch.
  • Disinfect Hot Spots: School staff and adults should routinely clean areas that people touch often, like desktops, remote controls and light switches.
• In addition to nominating a school, there’s also plenty that can be done to support teachers in keeping his or her classroom clean and ready to inspire students. Consider bringing teachers hand sanitizer or canisters of Clorox Disinfecting Wipes to help make clean-up easier. Similar to school supplies, many teachers also provide cleaning supplies at their own expense.

Power A Bright Future and Have Fun Too!

Through this campaign, Clorox is offering us a few ways to have fun while learning more about the Power A Bright Future program and helping schools. First up, there is a contest at the bottom of this post for you to win a prize, and next week, I’ll be co-hosting a Twitter party to discuss the program and learn tips from each other – with more prizes!

Bilingual Power a Bright Future Twitter Party

Come ready to share and receive advice from fellow moms on how you can help in keeping a healthier and happier school. The party will be in both English and Spanish, so feel free to tweet in either language! Be sure to follow the party hosts and organizers:

• Migdalia Rivera – @MsLatina
• Silvia Martinez – @mamalatina
• Melanie Edwards – @modernmami
• Ana Flores – @laflowers
• Clorox – @clorox

Party Details:

Date: Thursday, August 26
Time: 9-10 pm EST
Hashtag: #CloroxBrightFuture
Prizes: Three (3) $25 AMEX gift cards will be given out during the twitter party.
RSVP: It’s not mandatory to RSVP in order to join us, but if you want to connect with fellow party attendees ahead of time, RSVP on the Facebook Event page.

Twitter Party Giveaway Rules: Three winners will be chosen at random from all #CloroxBrightFuture tagged tweets between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m EST 8/26/10. Winner must be present and using the tag between these times to win. Winner must be 18 years of age or older and have a valid U.S. address.

ModernMami.com Reader Giveaway

One of you could win a $50 AMEX gift card.

How to Enter

Required entry: If you’d like to enter this contest, simply leave a comment below answering one of the following questions:

1. Now that you’re preparing for back-to-school, how can you help in keeping a healthier and happier school for your children?
2. If you had $50,000 to fund one program in your child’s school, what would it be?
3. How have state budget cuts affected your child’s school?

Extra entries (optional):

Each of the following will count as 1 extra entry. You’ll need to leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Follow @modernmami on twitter.
2. Tweet the following: Enter to win a $50 AMEX gift card from @modernmami. Ends 9/3. http://bit.ly/cloroxmodernmami #giveaway #contest #CloroxBrightFuture
3. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
4. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
5. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing the Power A Bright Future program with your readers; make sure to link back to this contest page in your post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Friday, September 3 at 11:59 pm EST. Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Be sure to also check out my co-hosts’ blogs for additional giveaway opportunities. They are each hosting the same giveaway.

• Migdalia Rivera – Latina on a Mission
• Silvia Martinez – Mamá Latina Tips

Official Rules: Entrants can only win a $50 American Express gift card on one (1) Bilingual Power a Bright Future Twitter party host’s blog. If an entrant chooses to comment on more than one host’s blog post, he/she is only eligible to win one (1) prize, even if randomly selected as the winner more than once. Entrants for the Giveaways may not participate with multiple e-mail addresses. Any entrant who attempts to enter with multiple e-mail addresses, under multiple identities, or uses any other device will be disqualified from participation in the promotion, and all entries submitted by that entrant will be void.

Disclosure: I am being compensated for co-hosting the Bilingual Power a Bright Future Twitter party. This post was written in conjunction with the campaign, but all opinions and thoughts are original.