Learning Doesn’t Have To Pause During Summer

School is out for the summer!  It’s 8 weeks of glorious time to rest, relax and enjoy all the wonderful activities of summer we miss during the school year.  Summer is the perfect time for playing outside, running in the sprinklers, and enjoying time friends and family and having cookouts and barbeques.

Summer is a valuable time to continue activities that enhance your child’s learning and knowledge, review subjects that were not covered in school or provide extra instruction in a subject that your child needs extra help. All children will benefit from a summer of learning.

Remember, the brain is like a muscle.  Our ability to learn and remember will be better if we strengthen the muscle every day.  School will be more beneficial in the fall if we help our children continue actively learning all summer.  Sure, it’s okay to relax during the summer and play more (even enjoy a video games if that’s fun), but also important to balance the non-learning activities by mixing in a few active learning times each week too.

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5 Activities for Active Summer of Learning

Plan Theme Days

I am borrowing this idea from summer camp.  Every day at camp they have a “theme day”.  One day is craft day, one day is cooking day, one day is field trips, one day is water day and so on.  You can use the same idea to keep your children actively learning all summer.

Plan your weekdays based on themes.  Monday could be science day, Tuesday could be math day, Wednesday could be bookworm Wednesday.  Choose 4 or 5 themes you can follow each week.  Plan an activity based on the daily theme that also includes a learning objective.

Study Subjects Where Your Child Needs Extra Help

Since most schools no longer teach math facts and math facts are a strong foundation to any math knowledge, memorizing math facts are a must.  You can simply review several math fact charts every day (but this is boring), and not always effective.

You can use flash cards, like this set from Spectrum, this set includes all math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), telling time, and factions.

If your child likes to write their math facts, try a website like www.math-drills.com.  They offer a variety of worksheets and drill charts to help your child learn their math facts.

Spelling is another subject that leaves many children challenged all through their school years.  Summer is a great time to review phonics or complete a spelling program.

If your child struggles with spelling, I recommend Spelling Power.  This spelling program will help your child improve their spelling starting from about 3rd grade through 12th grade all in one book.  My son struggles with spelling, I have used this book to supplement his learning during the school year and summer break.

If your child likes to practice spelling on the computer, Spelling City offers some great spelling games to practice spelling words.  You can use lists already created by Spelling City or create your own list.

Do a Reading Challenge

Give your child a reading challenge this summer.  Encourage them to find fiction or non-fiction books on a topic they enjoy and read just for fun.  Yes, I said read just for fun.

Barnes and Noble offers a reading challenge that when completed your child earns a free book (details here).

Scholastic is challenging children to read as many minutes as possible.  Sign-up here.

Your could also design your own summer reading challenge specific for your child and offer a special reward or incentive for completing the challenge by the end of summer.

Learn and Study New Material

Summer is a great time to study and learn new material.  For example, you could study the writing  of the United States Constitution and how the Founders debated the many forms of government.

If your child enjoys science, why not do one or two big science projects over the summer. Try to think of projects that could incorporate materials learned during the last school year or that will build new knowledge.

This summer, I am planning to review the Core Knowledge Series for Kindergarten through 6th grade with my children.  These books give a solid foundation of knowledge all children should learn at each grade level and provide enough information for a good summer review (they provide highlights and key concepts, they are not a full curriculum).  These books are an overview you could use for basic study or guideline for more in-depth studies.

• What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know (Revised and updated): Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning (Core Knowledge Series)
• What Your First Grader Needs to Know (Revised and Updated): Fundamentals of a Good First-Grade Education (Core Knowledge Series)
• What Your Second Grader Needs to Know (Revised and Updated): Fundamentals of a Good Second-Grade Education (Core Knowledge Series)
• What Your Third Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Third-Grade Education (Core Knowledge Series)
• What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of A Good Fourth-Grade Education (Core Knowledge Series)
• What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Fifth-Grade Education
• What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Sixth-Grade Education (Core Knowledge Series)

Visit Local Museums, Zoos, and Parks

Museums, zoos and parks all provide active learning experiences.  Children’s museums offer many hands-on activities and science and industry museums are focused toward the child who loves science and math, but benefit all children.

Summer break will be over quickly.  Children should have fun but also learn new ideas and subjects during summer. With a little planning, you can make summer an active learning time for your children.  If you need a few ideas to get started, plan your activities based on theme days, focus on subjects where your children need extra help, visit local zoos and parks, create your own reading challenge, and review the topics in the Core Knowledge learning series.

Let’s make it a active and fun summer of learning.

Your Turn…

How do you keep your children learning actively all summer?  What is your favorite summer learning activity?