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SUMMER TIME: A LEARNING PARADISE
Source: www.greatschools.net,
Lisa Rosenthal
Backyard gardens, puppet theaters, scrapbooks and crafts are some of
the ways to keep your children active and their minds working all summer
long.
Summer vacation can be either a learning
wasteland or a learning paradise. The temptations are great for children
to spend hours watching television or playing video games, but with a
little ingenuity and planning, the summer can be transformed into a time
to stretch the mind, explore new hobbies, learn about responsibility and
build on skills learned during the school year.
Keep the Learning Going
Teachers spend an average of four to eight weeks every fall reviewing and
reteaching material that students have forgotten during the long summer
break. Many students lose the equivalent of one to two months of reading
and math skills during the summer and do not score as well on standardized
tests as students who continue to learn during the summer. The effect is
cumulative: Each summer a student isn't learning adds up and can have a
long-term impact on overall performance in school.
That doesn't mean that children should be doing math worksheets and
studying vocabulary lists to preserve the skills they have learned during
the school year. Summer is the perfect time for children to discover that
learning is fun and can happen anywhere. "You don't want your kids to
think that learning is only something that happens in places called
schools," says Susan K. Perry, author of Playing Smart: The Family
Guide to Enriching Offbeat Learning Activities for Ages 4-14.
"Rather, you want them to grasp that learning is fun and can go on all the
time, anytime, anywhere, with handy materials, not only based on the
instruction of an actual schoolteacher. The summer is a great unstructured
mass of time to try out new things and explore interests that don't
necessarily fit into the school curriculum."
Learning can take place whether you are taking a trip to a far-off
place or spending the summer in your own neighborhood. But be careful not
to over-plan. "To avoid boredom, a child has to learn to be motivated on
his or her own, to a certain extent, and that is an acquired skill," says
Perry. "If every time your child says, 'I'm bored,' you step in with a
quick solution, they'll never learn to develop their own resources. But do
provide some options. Just don't try to instill learning. That's not how
it works."
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10 Fun Summer Learning Activities
Here are some activities to get your child started on a summer of learning
fun:
 1.
Grow the biggest zucchini in your neighborhood.
What better way to learn the basics of science and how things grow than to
plant your own garden? You can start with seeds or small plants. Talk
about what plants need to be hardy: air, water, sunlight and nutrients.
Vegetables are especially fun and educational to plant because your child
will learn where food comes from and will also get to eat the end product.
2.Clip,
paste and write about your family adventures.
A family vacation is a perfect opportunity to create a trip scrapbook that
will be a lasting souvenir of family adventures. Collect postcards,
brochures and menus from restaurants and tourist attractions. Encourage
your child to write descriptions of the places you visited and tell
stories about your family's escapades. Or suggest a scrapbook on your
child's favorite sports team or a chronicle of his year in school. The
scrapbook might contain photos with captions, newspaper clippings or
school mementos.
Many photo-sharing Web sites, such as
Shutterfly or
KodakGallery,
will help you (for a fee) create professional quality photo books, where
you arrange the photos and write captions.
 3.
Get
theatrical.
Young children can make their own puppet theater. Begin by cutting off the
finger-ends of old gloves. Draw faces on these fingers with felt tip
markers and glue on yarn for hair. Or glue on felt strips to create cat,
dog or other animal faces. Then your child can create a story that the
finger puppets can act out. For older children, find books containing play
scripts for young people and encourage your child and friends to create
their own neighborhood theater. They can plan a performance, make a simple
stage at the park or on the steps of someone's home, create playbills and
sell tickets.
4. Make
chocolate mousse or build a bird feeder.
Toy stores and craft shops are full of kits for making things, from bird
feeders to model airplanes to mosaic tableaux. These projects teach
children to read and follow directions, and offer the added benefit of
creating a finished product. Science experiment books encourage children
to observe and ask questions while providing hours of hands-on fun using
scientific concepts.
What child wouldn't be inspired to bake cookies or make chocolate
mousse? A cookbook geared for children is a good place to start. Ethnic
cookbooks provide an excellent way to explore the food of other cultures,
and open up conversations about how people do things differently in other
parts of the world. Children are much more likely to eat something strange
if they make it themselves.
 5.
Paint
the picket fence, baby-sit or volunteer at a soup kitchen.
Even young children can learn to be responsible by helping to set the
table, take care of a pet, clean out a closet, wash the car or paint the
picket fence. Ask your child to be your energy consultant and help find
ways to conserve energy in your house. Outside summer jobs and community
service help children learn to be punctual, follow directions and serve
others.
6.
Become the family's junior travel agent.
Half the fun of a trip starts before you get there. Involve your child in
the planning by practicing how to use a map to find cities and tourist
attractions, and how to estimate distances. If you are driving, work with
your child to figure out how many gallons of gas it will take to get there
and estimate the cost. If you are flying or traveling by train, check
travel schedules and costs.
Research your destination in books and on the Internet. If you are
going to a different state, look up information about the state, such as
the state flower, state bird and interesting attractions. Have your child
write to the state tourism bureau to ask for information.
 7.
Visit a
jelly bean factory or a glassblowing studio.
Whether you are going on a trip far away or staying close to home, seek
out places where children can learn how things are made. *Roxie
Berry's Suggestion: For a list of day trips from
Northern New Jersey visit...Kid
Trips in New Jersey
8. Turn
a museum trip into a treasure hunt.
Get your children excited about visiting a museum by exploring the
museum's Web site and taking a virtual tour. When you go to a museum, take
into account short attention spans and don't try to cover a whole museum
in one day. To make them less intimidating, start in the gift shop and let
your child pick out some postcards of paintings or objects on display.
Turn your museum trip into a treasure hunt by trying to find those
paintings or objects in the museum. Look for interactive exhibits and for
periods of history that your child has studied in school.
 9.
Get
stickers, tattoos and comics for free.
Composing a letter helps build writing skills and can be especially
rewarding when your child gets a reply in the form of a cool free item.
The book, Free Things for Kids, (see "Helpful Books" sidebar)
suggests more than 300 places you can write to get such items as stickers,
temporary tattoos, comic books, magazines and sports memorabilia. Some of
the items cost a dollar or less, but the majority are free. The author has
been writing about "free stuff" for years and is considered an expert in
the field. The book, updated annually, also includes Web sites to check
out for free downloadable software, ezines or other items to send for by
mail.
You can help your older child build citizenship skills as well as
practice his writing by encouraging him to write a letter to the editor of
the local newspaper or a local government official about an issue he is
concerned about, such as building a bike path or renovating a local
playground.
10.
Become an investment guru or a math wizard.
Summer is the perfect time for older children and teens to learn about the
stock market and the value of investing. A good way to get started is to
investigate publicly held companies that teens are familiar with, such as
Apple Computer, eBay, Nike or Tootsie Roll. The
Motley Fool
"Teens and Money" Web site is devoted to helping teens learn about
saving and investing. Your older child might also want to join a
Junior Investor program to learn more about the stock market. It is
also possible to help your teen get a head start on high school math by
doing math puzzles.
Back to top
Roxie Berry has the following
websites to suggest which will support and extend the ideas provided by
www.greatschools.net...
Backyard Science
Have an A+ Summer with Scholastic.com
Outdoor
Learning Fun at About.com
Summer Home
Learning Recipes
Take Learning on the Road
Summer Crafts
Top Ten Fun Fitness Summer Activities for Kids
If you have a great suggestion for a summer learning fun web
site, email your suggestion to
Roxie Berry. She would love to hear from you!
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