Avoiding the Summer Slump
Avoiding the Summer Slump with Learning Disguised as Fun! A Guest Post by Susie McDaniel
Even though it’s hard to fathom, the school year is almost over, and summer break is near! Summer means fun — though for some children, learning doesn’t always fit that description. But it’s important to keep your kids learning throughout the summer months so they don’t lose all their hard work and learning from the school year. Instead of practice workbooks, make learning something your kids will want to do this summer with these ideas for summer learning disguised as fun!
Encourage Reading by Choosing Books in Their Areas of Interest
Rather than following a strict summer reading program, surround your kids with age-appropriate books on topics they’re interested in. This will help them keep up their reading skills while learning about something that is exciting to them. Better yet, make weekly trips to the local library, allowing your children to pick out the books they want to read that week. Read along with audiobooks or take turns reading aloud with less confident readers!
In addition, consider incorporating reading and writing into everyday activities. For example: watching TV with the sound off and captions on or having children read the directions out loud before playing a new game.
Start a Neighborhood Kids’ Book Club
Speaking of reading, why not gather a few neighborhood families for a book club this summer? A book club encourages reading in a social environment, making for wonderful reading motivation (especially for extroverted children). Pick out a book for the group to read, then meet up at the park – or even the backyard – to discuss the book. Snacks or a picnic lunch are optional, but highly encouraged! ☺
Starting your own book club seems too adventurous? Join a summer reading club at your local library or recreational center.
Keep Up Writing Skills with Letters, Journaling, and More
Encourage regular writing in ways that your children will enjoy. Whether it’s writing about their day, keeping a nature journal of interesting things they saw while playing outside, or writing reviews of the books they’ve read, there are many enjoyable ways for children to maintain their writing skills.
Writing to a pen pal is another way to get your child writing, while also encouraging socialization and learning! Not only will this keep them writing, but it’s also always exciting to receive mail! Children can write to an out-of-town friend or relative, a resident of the local senior center, or a child from another part of the world found through a pen pal service.
Invite Kids into the Kitchen
Cooking and baking are wonderful ways to hone math and reading abilities — not to mention planning and time management skills — while making something delicious for the family to enjoy. Have your children help with planning meals, writing the shopping list, picking out ingredients at the grocery store, and preparing and serving meals. Have them read through the recipe, measure out ingredients, and work on fractions by doubling or halving a recipe.
Not only will this reinforce skills that they are learning and using in school, but the collaboration helps them build confidence in their abilities, as well as strengthens family bonds.
Incorporate Music into Everyday Life
Music is not only fun, it has a strikingly positive effect on child development and education, from developing language skills to improving test scores, IQ, and more. Add educational lyrics and you have a fun way to learn a wide variety of topics!
This summer, create a playlist or two full of educational songs that you can play in the background on car trips, during play time, or while making dinner together. Before you know it, your child will pick up both a fun melody to sing and a few new facts or skills.
Institute a Family Board Game Night
Board games are a fun way to build skills like logic, reasoning, counting, math, and cooperation. For example, Monopoly teaches math, strategy, and budgeting skills; Clue hones deductive reasoning and memory; even Chutes and Ladders can help young children practice counting and number recognition. Incorporating board games into a family fun night can help kids learn while taking part in important family bonding.
Encourage Pretend Play
Imaginative play (such as playing “house”, “superheroes”, or “store”) helps children build “soft” skills like social dynamics, creativity, and problem solving. These skills are not only essential for a child’s future life, but they also help support their other learning. Encourage imaginative playtime by providing children with costumes, toys, and even staged play areas such as a play kitchen, retail store setup, and so on.
Take a Nature Walk
Take a walk through nature, asking children to point out the things they observe. Utilize nature guidebooks, smartphone apps, or even a Google search to look up the plants, birds, animals, and insects your child notices along the path. Pair these walks with books or educational TV programming on these subjects, and encourage children to keep a nature journal, sketchbook, or scrapbook of the things they learn about.
Take Part in Community Events
Check with your local parks and recreation department for summer programming, including camps, exhibits, events, and concerts happening around town, and choose a few to add to your summer calendar.
Or consider finding a volunteer opportunity for your children to participate in. Community service like this can teach children new skills as well as boost their self-esteem and self-confidence. If you aren’t sure where your children could volunteer, Volunteer Match offers a searchable database of volunteer opportunities suitable for kids.
Hopefully these suggestions can jumpstart the incorporation of learning into your child’s summer break.The key to fighting the summer slump is to feed into your child’s interests, making them excited to learn even when they don’t realize it is happening!