Summer Education: Keeping It Fun!

June 28, 2024
A group of children are sitting at a table with their teacher.

Summer is here and most students are out of school for at least 2 months or maybe a little more. Do you remember how much you looked forward to Summer Vacation as a child? The last day of school for the year would be so much fun. Our family rarely got to go on a vacation trip; however, we were so excited for the freedom and non-structure of every day. It was our time to sleep a little later (maybe 15 minutes), not have to pack a lunch, dress in our play clothes, and roam the hills with our German Shepherd-Wolf dog. No one was messing with us. After a couple of weeks, we were bored. It seems the daily structure was helpful. We had the feeling of accomplishment each day, and to be honest, I still like that feeling. I want to know that my day counted for something.

 

Most children like some structure in their lives, and summer is the perfect time to dictate what that might look like for your own children. Getting up and playing video games until lunch, or watching television all morning and maybe the afternoon, is simply put, NOT healthy for anyone. 

 

More than ever, as parents, we need to make sure that learning loss does not occur during the summer months. School lock-downs during COVID had a significant impact on learning for those children who were forced to stay home and do their lessons on the computer. Having substituted as a teacher for the last few years of my education career, this became extremely obvious. I taught in several different school districts in the surrounding communities of where I lived. I had 4th graders who cried when I handed out the math fact subtraction worksheet. This should have been mastered in 2nd grade. Writing a complete sentence took on a new meaning, and reading skills were woefully behind where they should have been. It seems that it is very easy to get behind, but catching up is just not that easy to do.

 

If you are a home-school parent or the parent of a student of a child who is behind grade level, this is your chance to make a difference in your child’s life. The rest of this Blog will be dedicated to some activities for the summer to help your child succeed. I will arrange them by subject. Remember your child’s age when picking activities to do with them. I am also posting some free materials: Beginning Sight Words, and What Your Child Should Know by the End of Kindergarten. Just a Note: Kindergarten is not the same as when I was growing up, which consisted of social interaction, stories, and art. Now kindergarten students are expected to learn beginning reading and math besides developing large and small motor skills as well as their ability to acquire some social skills,


Ideas for Summer Learning

 

Thinking and Logic:

 

1.      Age-appropriate puzzles

2.     Board Game Clue for Deduction and Reasoning

3.     Other board games like Chess, Checkers, and Chinese Checkers. These games all require thinking more than one step ahead.

 

Math:

 

1.     Math Facts for Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. Buy them on pre-printed flashcards or make your own. These should be memorized for easy computation of math problems down the road. I realize some math programs like to show students how to complete their math using several different methods. I’m not a proponent of this. It only confuses them. I’ve seen the tears, especially on state testing.

2.     Measurements. Work on these by cooking with your student. Let them do the measuring.

3.      For Older students, make a Scaled Drawing of their bedroom along with the pieces of furniture. This makes it easy to change the look of the bedroom by moving furniture around only after trying it out on paper to make sure it will fit.

 

Reading:

 

1.     Practice reading and spelling basic sight words.

2.     Read books where most words can be sounded out.

3.     Find books that have a free audio version of the book online. This gives your student the opportunity to follow along while someone else is reading a book that is too difficult for them to read on their own. This is especially helpful if your student is dyslexic. Remember, dyslexic students can understand material way above the level they can read. Because they process language differently, it may take them a while to bring their reading skills up to their understanding level.

Ten Things to Help Your Child Be Prepared to Learn

August 6, 2025
Do you remember the beginning of each school year when you were young? I do! I loved school, or at least elementary and junior high. High school was not as much fun because of all of the drama probably due to raging hormones. During the summers, as kids, we would play school. Actually, it was a good thing. It helped us remember our math skills, and kept us reading throughout the summer. I’m of the age that home computers did not exist yet, and you were lucky if you had a wall phone without a party-line (when you share your phone line with someone else because there weren’t enough lines to go around). Obviously, we didn’t have cell phones to distract us. We played some of the standard games of that time period like Monopoly and Scrabble, but mostly we made up our own games to play outside. But today is much different. Hopefully our children are still excited about a new school year, but our children today face challenges that did not exist when I was in school. We have technology in most classrooms that can either be a huge blessing or for some a curse. But regardless of how our classrooms are structured, either at school or at home (for homeschool families), one thing remains the same, our children are there to learn. We, as the adults in the room, need to bring structure and the cohesiveness needed for the best learning outcomes. So, here are 10 things that parents can do to help their children be prepared to learn? Make sure they have enough school clothes that fit so that they are not self-conscious about how they look. If you can only afford one week’s worth of clothes that’s okay. Laundry can be done on the weekend, and the order in which they wear their clothes or the way they pair shirts and pants can change for new combinations. Get the most important school supplies ahead of time and have them in their backpack. Other supplies can be purchased as needed. (In many places the two or three weeks before school starts, all school supplies are really cheap comparatively, so if you can afford it, it’s nice to stock up on what you know will be needed.) Have a plan for an easy, healthy, high-protein, low-sugar breakfast they can eat each morning. If they take lunch, it’s helpful to fix it the night before and put it in the refrigerator to eliminate a lot of morning stress. Make sure homework or anything else that needs to go to school the next day is in the backpack the night before. Arrive at school a little early, so they won’t feel embarrassed by walking in late. You want them to get off to a good calm start every day. In the evenings, talk about what your child learned that day. Ask appropriate questions about each subject. If they need help, it’s okay to help them. Children learn in all different ways. Sometimes they may need some input from you to be able to do the assignment. If you feel they are struggling in school in general, schedule an appointment to meet with the teacher right away. If it’s just one subject that’s hard for them, I would personally schedule an appointment to meet with the teacher. Most teachers want to know if there is a struggle, so they can meet that individual need. Be aware of what your child is learning in school. If you have questions, ask the teacher, but don’t be a “helicopter” parent. The best place to do homework for a younger child is the dining room table. It helps them stay on track, and it lets you know what they should be learning. Actually, in my home we all did homework at the dining room table all the way through high school. It eliminates isolation and provides immediate help when needed. Happy New School Year!
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