Every month has themes that, while may not be nationally recognized holidays are still important celebrations that occur throughout the month. In June one of the themes is Child Vision Awareness. Child Vision Awareness is a time for all people to make sure their children’s vision is up to par and if not to consult an eye doctor to help correct it. In celebration of Child Vision Awareness month you can have your children help set off Chinese Hanging Lanterns into the sky. First you can have your children colour a picture on the sky lantern regarding their eye sight and then everyone can gather in the backyard sky lanterns. Because they are such a beautiful visual display, they fit wonderfully into the theme of the month.

Teach your children the importance of vision health

Just as it is important to get annual medical physicals and to see your dentist regularly, a part of maintaining good health is to get annual eye exams. You can even give a simple exam yourself to make sure there are no obvious vision problems by downloading an eye chart on the Internet, having your child move a few feet away and then read the smallest line they can see. If they have difficulty seeing, this is the ideal month to get them an appointment at an eye doctor to rule out any serious problems and to get corrective lenses if needed. Have age appropriate discussions with them and ask them questions so that they understand the importance of it.

Have your children recreate what they learn through pictures

After discussing the importance of vision awareness with children, have your children personalize some Chinese sky lanterns by using a sharpie marker and drawing pictures of what they learned. Have them use their imagination and either draw pictures or write about the importance of Child’s Vision Awareness Month. You can use any kind of paper lantern you want. You can use coloured sky lanterns in your children’s favourite colour such as the ones found athttp://www.nightskylanterns.co.uk/sky-lanterns/coloured-traditional-sky-lanterns/prod_9.html. Or you can use giant sky lanterns such as the ones found at http://www.nightskylanterns.co.uk/sky-lanterns/2-x-giant-lanterns/prod_29.html and have each child colour in a portion of the Chinese flying lanterns.

Use your children’s vision and enhance their reading skills

While releasing sky lanterns requires parental supervision, you can certainly have your children help with the entire process of launching the sky lanterns. Have them unwrap each of the individually wrapped sky lanterns and then have them read all the instructions. This is a great way to get them to practice their reading skills while doing something fun. You can even print out some of the safety tips so that your child understand how to safely launch the sky lanterns. Reading the instructions is a fun way to have your children use their vision and enhance their reading and comprehension.

When all of the instructions and safety precautions are read, you can then start to launch the sky lanterns. Parents should attach the fuel cell and light it while the kids stand back. The children will delight in watching the Chinese Hanging Lanterns float into the night sky where they can see it for many kilometres.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 7:01 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.