One summer my, then, 5-year-old son and I made a book out of construction paper and yarn. It was our version of The Great Big Book of Everything, an idea we got from the TV show Stanley on the Disney Channel. Each afternoon while my younger child was napping, my son and I researched an animal of his choosing on the Internet and made a page in our book.
That's the kind of thing we can do in the summer, when kids don't have to rush off to school or soccer practice or music lessons. Even if you have to go to work, the kids have more free time in the summer to try some fun projects and enjoy a more relaxed routine.
It's a great time for families to promote learning and help kids maintain their school skills – even without them knowing it. Parents can also use the summer weeks to build confidence in a child who may have struggled during the school year.
Here are some ideas for activities parents can do with their school-aged children to encourage thinking and learning this summer.
Summer Journals
"All you need is a spiral notebook and 15-to-20 minutes a day," says Cindy Barry, kindergarten teacher. Encourage "free journaling," she says. If your child is too young to write, or has any issues with writing, have him or her draw a picture and then tell you about it. When the child finishes drawing, "then it's your turn to write in their journals," Barry says. Write words to label the objects in each picture, then write a sentence about what your child tells you about the picture.
"Each day go back and read with your child the previous pages," Barry says. Point to the words as you read them aloud. After doing this journaling for a couple of weeks, try inviting your child to write his or her own words to label the pictures. Spelling doesn't matter. Keep it lighthearted and fun.
This activity encourages creative thinking while building language and reading readiness skills. It can build confidence in a child who is about to enter kindergarten or first grade.
Journals also can be used with children in the primary grades to practice writing skills. Have your child write three or four sentences a day. Sit together and discuss various topics such as an activity, outing, vacation or a wish. Go on a nature walk or a bike ride as a way to get ideas going. Kids can use their imagination to write about anything they choose without the restrictions and pressures of a school assignment. If they have trouble getting started, teachers suggest having them draw a picture first, then write sentences to describe their pictures.
Journaling should be relaxing and should take less than a half-hour a day for children entering the second or third grades. It should be fun and stress-free and can done daily or as little as once a week. Parents can help with spelling, sentence structure and idea generation. And of course, provide lots of encouragement and praise for what's written. "It's fun to save the journals and reread them with your child to see how much he or she has grown," Barry says.
Make Learning Fun
Simple activities such as going to the grocery store can be a learning experience, especially for new readers. Encourage beginning readers to learn "sight" words such as the word "stop" from a stop sign and words on signs at stores and along the road. Environmental reading will increase the desire to learn how to read in young children by connecting meaning to words.
"Promote the love of learning," says Sandra Garcia, director of a Kumon Math and Reading Center. She encourages parents to read daily with children. Reading "exposes children to a variety of vocabulary as a context learning," Garcia says.
Reading experts and librarians encourage parents to let children choose the books that look most interesting, and then parents should pick a few themselves for variety. It's fun to choose books you remember from your own childhood or books about things that interest you, so that you can share your enthusiasm with your child. It's important to read a variety of books, including classic children's literature and non-fiction books to see what sparks your child's interest most. Some children do better with books that feature photographs rather than illustrations. The variety also shows children how different books can be from each other. All reading helps to promote comprehension skills.
Barbara Cooper, a center director for Sylvan Learning Centers, encourages parents to play board games with their children to enhance math and vocabulary skills. She suggests Scrabble for building vocabulary and spelling and Yahtzee and Dominos for math. Monopoly teaches about money and other life skills. These are fun and educational and can be modified for various ages and abilities of school-aged children.
To encourage math skills, you don't have to spend all summer drilling with flash cards, although many third- and fourth-grade teachers are anxious to have children memorize the multiplication tables over the summer. To make math fun, show your children the connections that math has to real life. Teach them about fractions, decimals and counting using coins and paper money. Show them how to measure ingredients in cooking and then let them pick a cookie recipe. Ask them to look at prices to help you figure your change while shopping.
"Play mental tic-tac-toe on a long road trip," says Terry Kaufman, President of Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (IMACS). At IMACS students listen to "logic puzzles" where they follow a story that encourages logical reasoning (see and example in the box). "Parents can ask young kids questions that required application and higher level thinking," says Kaufman. He suggests parents can ask younger children to come up with various combinations of coins that add up to 17 cents.
Any time that you spend with your child can be an opportunity for teaching and learning. "Children are motivated to learn when we create positive opportunities for them to read and practice learning strategies," says Marilyn Toscano, regional director of Huntington Learning Center. "As parents we are our children's first teachers," she says.
Projects and Outings
Libraries offer various educational programs and events in the summer months. Even young children can have a library card and check out books of their choice. Setting a positive example about checking out and returning books also builds study skills and responsibility.
Visits to local museums, nature centers and live theater performances also enhance learning. Summer's slower pace allows leisurely visits with plenty of time for exploration.
Teachers also suggest using the summer for doing hands-on projects with your kids that you might not tackle during the school year. Build a bird house or bird feeder to use various math skills and encourage an awareness of nature. Older children can put together models of dinosaurs, the human body, a race car or sailboat. Or they might like to try building a model rocket. Kids as young as 6 or 7 can write stories and illustrate them.
The whole family can enjoy working a jigsaw puzzle over several days or weeks. Put up a folding table in the family room and let everyone add pieces to the puzzle at their own pace. Cut back on the television watching, video-game playing and computer time and create time for hands-on and imaginative play and projects.
Summertime gives us a chance for us to spend time, relax and reconnect with our children. Cherish these short weeks by promoting learning and communication. In doing so, you will be increasing the confidence your child needs for school and in life. You will also be creating life-long memories. Have a great summer!
Louise Hajjar Diamond is a guidance counselor, writer, and mother of two. For school resources, please visit www.counselorsclips.com.
