Q: I want our kids to ditch their digital devices and get connected with nature this summer. We can't afford a trip, but we have a big yard and live near rural areas. Do you have any suggestions?

A: I have plenty.

-- Plant a veggie garden. The National Gardening Association has suggestions on how you can get started. Choose crops that mature quickly, so your kids can see results right away. Lettuce, radishes, Swiss chard, sugar snap peas and beans are fast growers. Tomato plants take longer. Use well-drained containers or raised beds filled with light, fluffy soil. Plant a pot of herbs that kids can tend and then snip for a dinner salad.

For more tips on what will do well in your growing zone, go to www.kidsgardening.org.

-- Go off the grid. On June 28, more than 200,000 families will take part in the 10th annual Great American Backyard Campout, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation. You can do it as a family, or host a "public" campout for the whole neighborhood. Find camping tips as well as campfire recipes, songs, stories and games at www.nwf.org/great-american-backyard-campout.aspx.

-- Find out what goes on in your backyard, suggests science educator Nadia Harvieux, director of New York's Canandaigua Lake Watershed Association's Watershed Education Program.

"Have each family member mark off a square yard on your lawn," she says. "Study it over a week. Each person keeps a field journal with notes, photos or illustrations. Discuss what you see and record it. Kids are always amazed at how much life there is out your back door."

Field journals are places for kids to record observations, thoughts, questions, measurements, data and their interpretations of what they see. Both amateur and professional researchers keep them as permanent records of their work to share with other scientists.

-- Identify backyard birds. Take a day trip through a local ecosystem such as a marsh, lake or beach to get to know birds that live there seasonally and year-round, suggests the National Audubon Society. Bird walks are most productive in early morning or late afternoon. For tips on family birding outdoors, go to education.audubon.org/birding-tips-families.

-- Become citizen scientists. Citizen science is ongoing research in which professional scientists collaborate with interested members of the general public. Many citizen science projects involve nature and the environment, often inspiring children and teens to engage more deeply in science in high school and college.

For more information, search "citizen science" at www.sciencebuddies.org.

-- Read about scientists working in the great outdoors. One spectacular series is "Scientists in the Field" -- stories and photos of scientists working throughout the natural world, from swimming with hammerhead sharks to tracking wolves. The latest book in the series is "Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers and Grizzly Bears in America's Own Backyard" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).

In addition, David A. Adler's new biography, "Colonel Theodore Roosevelt" (Holiday House, 2014), explains why and how President Roosevelt launched the effort to preserve national parks and public lands.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: Our boys, aged 12 and 10, are going to soccer camp this summer. The younger one is a good player. The older one hates it -- and while I can't show it, I do, too. It's expensive, time-consuming and takes the leisure out of summer. My husband wants the boys to become good players, so they can get athletic scholarships. What are the odds?

A: Not great. There are 7 million high school athletes, and spots on college rosters for just 2 percent of them. Of those, only 1 percent get a "full ride" scholarship, says Tiffin, Ohio, coach Seth Almekinder, who has taught in U.S. and international schools. "Many of those are worth less than the family's investment in getting kids to that level."

Less than 9 percent of boys who take part in high school soccer play college soccer at any level, says Almekinder: "Division III doesn't offer athletic scholarships, so those students pay to play unless they get academic scholarships." (Go to www.scholarshipstats.com/varsityodds.html.)

A more pressing issue is your son who hates soccer. "Don't force a child to participate in any non-required activity in which he or she isn't a willing participant," urges Almekinder. "I'm not advocating quitting a team midseason -- kids learn from seeing a commitment through. But that doesn't seem to be the case here.

"Summer should be fun and enriching. There are so many activities your older son might enjoy -- from robotics to museum classes to hiking. Find one. Your son will be happier and so will the family."

Three of four families with school-aged kids have at least one in an organized sport. "By age 15, as many as 80 percent of these youngsters have quit," says Massachusetts coach Jay Atkinson, referencing data from the Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine.

Almekinder says it's because most parents, whether coaching or cheering, don't understand the developmental levels of youth sport.

"The first is entry-level recreational," he says. "Participants are ages 4 to 10. The purpose is fun exposure to a sport. Everyone participates, and playing time is equal. Score can be kept, but winning and losing are secondary to participation. Coaching is focused on fundamental skills, not team tactics or strategy."

The second level is developmental. "Tactics and game strategy are added to skill development," notes Almekinder. "This stage corresponds to middle school through junior varsity, when travel teams begin."

The final level is competitive. "This is where winning and losing matter as an aspect of participation," Almekinder explains. "Players are selected based on ability and skill. The best play the most. This is sport at high school varsity, college and the pros. When parents or coaches pressure young athletes, allow poor sportsmanship, and make winning the goal, they lose sight of the developmental levels of sports and turn kids off."

Unstructured pick-up games in the backyard or alleyway add fun to vacation. "They bring kids together without oversight of adults," says Almekinder. "Before the rise of organized youth sports outside of school, that was what summer was for most kids -- playing with friends in the neighborhood. There's nothing wrong with that!"

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: This summer, I want to teach my daughter, a rising high school sophomore, to be a smarter saver, because she's not learning it at school and she now has a summer job. Where can I find resources?

A: You're smart to take this on. Only 17 states require a personal-finance course to graduate.

Yet financial illiteracy is a big threat facing our country, says certified public accountant John J. Vento, author of "Financial Independence" (Wiley, 2013): It's passed "from generation to generation, because parents often lack financial literacy, too."

Some teens learn money management themselves. A seventh-grader I know walks dogs, organizes closets and cleans refrigerators to meet a big goal: earn $4,000 by the time she's 16 to buy a car so she can commute to a "real" job. Is her older brother equally motivated? Not so much, says their mom: "She's from Planet Save-It. He was born on Planet Spend-It!"

Parents of teens from both planets can find good online resources to help kids develop money sense.

-- Don't just focus on saving; teach the basics of financial literacy. At a minimum, teens should be able to budget, save and spend wisely, according to Kelli Ramey, director of H&R Block's Dollars & Sense, offering links for parents and teens at www.hrblockdollarsandsense.com.

-- Schwab MoneyWise provides games and tips for teens that cover budgeting, saving, spending, investing and giving back. Go to www.schwabmoneywise.com.

-- Junior Achievement $AVE, USA offers downloadable resources on financial planning for parents and kids at juniorachievement.org. Check the website for Junior Achievement programs in your area.

-- Find quizzes on earning, saving, borrowing, protecting and spending money at Northwestern Mutual's The Mint. The site offers a compounding calculator that demonstrates the "magic" of compounded interest in various savings and investment vehicles. Go to www.themint.org.

Gail Karlitz, co-author of "Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids" (Price Stern Sloan, 2010), defines financial literacy as "knowing how to earn money, manage it, invest it to earn more money, spend it and donate it to help others. While that may seem a tall order for the summer, it really isn't if you use your family as the example."

Karlitz encourages parents to get concrete: list the family's needs (food, clothes, housing); wants (treats, entertainment, things we love but aren't essential); goals (things we save for, such as a TV); and giving (charities, gifts, religious donations).

"Explain that, as parents, you're assuming the cost of the family's needs, such as mortgage payments, insurance, food and so on. Discuss what those expenses are," says Karlitz.

Have your daughter list her own needs, wants, saving and investing goals and ideas for giving. Discuss how she'll allocate her summer earnings into these buckets.

The financial planning website Jump$tart Coalition has a tool called "reality check" that makes this fun, says Karlitz: "Input amounts you spend into key expense categories to see the relationship between your spending and your income. This is an eye-opener!" Go to www.jumpstart.org/reality-check.

Before your daughter starts her job, have her set up a bank account so the paycheck is direct-deposited, says Karlitz: "Once it goes into her account, she's more likely to stick with her allocations."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)