Seeking Ideas for My 8Yr Old Daughter

L.! hi, i'm H.,,,, and OH MY GOODNESS!!!~~ your daughter reminds me of my neice, erin, also 8. infact i almost thought you were my sister writing until i read the name!! i had to read twice!!
anyway, would you maybe be interested in getting together for a playdate... maybe go to the science museum together or something, with my sister and erin? it is hard for erin to find other GIRLS interested in what she likes!

i also run a women's group, and schedule playdates and activities from time to time with moms and kids (trying to make friends for my 3 little neices!) would you like to join? it would really be nice to have another girl for erin to relate to!

please write back and let me know!

The Elgin Park district often has some things revolving around the nature center at Hawthorne Hill (I believe that is what it's called.) I don't know specifics, but I'm sure you could call The Centre in Elgin for more info.

Also, Da Vinci Academy has weekend "camps" for science, but I believe they are more experiment related and not so earthy.

Maybe call the Field Museum in Chicago? Maybe they could give you a good list of resources for the area you are in.

Another recommendation is getting her some good books and a microscope. A microscope that can see pond life is only about $20. Books can be found in thrift stores, eBay, and Amazon for just pennies sometimes.

My daughter is also interested in these things. She's 6 and a half and LOVES science. You can tell your daughter that when my little girl took her "nature collection" to school, the kids thought it was awesome that she was so "smart" and had collected such cool things and knew interesting facts about them! Maybe if you are close by (I'm near Larkin High) we could get them together to play and explore?? We have a small lake in our backyard and it's lots of fun to go turtle watching or "catch" fish with breadcrumbs in a bucket of water in the summer.

Hope this helps!
(feel free to email me if you'd like)
____@____.com
-Amanda

L.,

If you go to madscience.com they have a list of schools and places that are offering different summer camps in different fields of science from chemistry to NASA, before we signed Caitlyn up for this UIC math course for the summer she was going to do one of these camps. They look like a ton of fun. Go to the educational tab, then search for camps. They're based out of Warrenville so very close to us, but they offer them at various places. I didn't look too far into it as the UIC math course presented itself rather quickly.

Hope that helps!! (By the way, sorry we couldn't hook up on Sunday....Hannah is cutting her molars and is a CRABBY baby now...)

J.

MY GOODNESS! Take her to the Field Museum! They have a wonderful exhibit on geology and you can get some great ideas from them for places to go in the area. This may help...http://www.fieldmuseum.org/education/default.htm
Go to Half Priced Books and find field guides on rocks, birds and animals. Maybe get two and keep a set in your car so when you see or find something interesting she can look it up. Be excited and have fun. =)

Hi L.!

This program at the Illinois Math & Science Academy sounds PERFECT for your daughter: http://www2.imsa.edu/programs/kidsinstitute/about_ki/abou...

She sounds like a great kid and it's awesome that you are trying to help her find ways to nurture her interests.

L.