We wanted to take this opportunity to remind all the parents out there that after this weekend, most of the UK will have only one more weekend before the school year starts and all the children have to go back to school. This means that there is one more weekend to get the children out to the country or the beach for a weekend holiday. One more weekend to celebrate summer before the rigor and structure of the school year begins and weekends become not a time for fun but a time for homework once again.

Sky Lanterns and Summer Activities

That trip to the beach or to a remote camping site for a weekend can easily be enhanced with sky lanterns. When the sun goes down, there is often little to do and children can stay up and listen to adults talk or go to bed early. Launching floating lanterns into the sky is a great family activity that allows the children to extend the fun of a camping trip past the daylight hours. As a reward or simply as part of the day’s planned activities, children can decorate the Chinese Hanging Lanterns during the daylight hours and launch them under adult supervision into the night sky, watching them as they float away. On a clear night, this could mean twenty to thirty minutes of viewing time before the lanterns float out of view or extinguish themselves and float back down to the ground.

Adding to fun, the parents can make the launching of sky lanterns a science lesson as well, helping get their children refocused on the school activities they are going to have to resume participating in and thinking about in only a short time from now. Discussing the principals of how sky lanterns work can be done with children as young as five and up, it is only a matter of the level of detail to make the lesson age appropriate. Regardless of the age, sky lanterns make a great summer activity for both fun and for working on critical thinking skills as well.

Sky Lanterns as Closure for Summer

On top of fun and educational reasons to launch sky lanterns for these last few weeks of summer break, the launching of sky lanterns can be used as a symbol of the end of summer. Launching them and watching them float off into the distance is like the summer break waning to its conclusion. In this use, adding messages for good fortune for the school year to come such as good teachers and good grades for the year, tie the modern use of sky lanterns back to the roots of their usage in ancient China.

Whatever way sky lanterns are used for these next couple weeks before the summer holiday ends for children around the UK, know that NightSkyLanterns.co.uk has floating lanterns for any occasion. All of our lanterns are made to be environmentally responsible and are all biodegradable. We have different types of lanterns and plenty of colours to choose from as well to make these final weeks of summer as perfect as can be.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 7:42 AM and is filed under General News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.