This post was sponsored by the Boys & Girls Club of America as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

How’s summer going so far, mamas? I know there are some folks who have only been out of school for a week or two, but my family is rounding the corner to being 6 weeks into the summer season, so I thought it was time for a little check-in. Anyone else starting to struggle a little bit?

I’ve got a daily schedule of educational activities that we are sticking to (just worksheets, nothing spectacular) but that only takes up about 20 minutes of the day, and I am struggling to also offer enough hands-on fun stuff every day. I hop on Pinterest and just get overwhelmed by all of the options.

And this is why I am really liking the Boys & Girls Club of America My.Future Website. This is a really simple (and free!) one stop shop for me to select a fun activity that my girls will enjoy and that encourages them to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) topics. Boys & Girls Clubs have been leaders in out-of-school time programming for more than 150 years (!) and the My.Future activity selection is a great example of that expertise.

So why give kids STEM activities over the summer? Well, it’s been show that STEM jobs in the U.S. will be growing nearly twice as fast as any other field by 2018. Simply put, these are going to be necessary skills for our kids to have. I recently read that approximately 65% of the jobs our children will have as adults don’t even exist right now, but it’s a safe bet that STEM skills will be very important for those jobs.

Summer is a time for having lots of fun, and for exploring ideas that pique kids’ interest. You can encourage them to discover and develop a passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math this summer (and hold on to a bit of your sanity) by spending some time at the My.Future website and completing the activities. You can also learn more about the entire My.Future program here.