Keeping kids engaged over the summer.....

[clh2]

In the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade here they give the kids timed tests (1 or 5 minutes) on adding and subtraction, so it's a good idea to continue to give them these during the summer.

 

[stepmommyof1]

My stepson (hes fifteen so he is older than your child) but I made him do the summer reading club at the library because he is not a good reader...and, well this is my first summer that I have even KNOWN him, BUT I am GUESSING that every summer before I married his dad, he probably went the full 3 months without ever cracking a book open
So I signed him up and promised him a present if he finishes the book club at the end of the summer, LOL.

Also, to make him be productive over the summer, his dad and I decided that as a family we would all do volunteer work during the summer. It will be good for us all and hopefully can be a family-bonding thing too.

And I'm keeping track of stepsons hours so he can qualify for the Presidents Volunteer Award pins. I thought it would would be good because he'll be busy, helping other people, and he will be earning something that might make him look good on an application for whatever he ends up wanting to do. Or if not, at least he can feel proud of for what he did. Anyway, it sounded productive, and otherwise I knew he'd just spend all summer at the skate park!!

PS- don't think I'm over sheduling him, he has plenty of time for the skate park and whatever else he wants to do. These are just a couple things I think would be good for him, and since he won't be in school, it won't kill him to have a couple things he has to work on.

 

[golfgal]

My stepson (hes fifteen so he is older than your child) but I made him do the summer reading club at the library because he is not a good reader...and, well this is my first summer that I have even KNOWN him, BUT I am GUESSING that every summer before I married his dad, he probably went the full 3 months without ever cracking a book open
So I signed him up and promised him a present if he finishes the book club at the end of the summer, LOL.

Also, to make him be productive over the summer, his dad and I decided that as a family we would all do volunteer work during the summer. It will be good for us all and hopefully can be a family-bonding thing too.

And I'm keeping track of stepsons hours so he can qualify for the Presidents Volunteer Award pins. I thought it would would be good because he'll be busy, helping other people, and he will be earning something that might make him look good on an application for whatever he ends up wanting to do. Or if not, at least he can feel proud of for what he did. Anyway, it sounded productive, and otherwise I knew he'd just spend all summer at the skate park!!

PS- don't think I'm over sheduling him, he has plenty of time for the skate park and whatever else he wants to do. These are just a couple things I think would be good for him, and since he won't be in school, it won't kill him to have a couple things he has to work on.

Is it common for 15 year olds in your area to be a part of the summer reading program at the library? If not, that might not be the best thing to do--it could be quite embarrassing for him. If it isn't common, maybe just make up your own reading program. I know in our area they had a card taped on the wall with each child's name, age and stickers added for hours/pages read. My 15 year olds would be mortified if I signed them up and their friends saw that on the library wall.

 

[quasar4legs]

Well, those are all things they do for "fun", the workbooks are a more concentrated learning I guess.

You can do both you know.

Or maybe you could learn while having fun Radical idea!!!

I do understand that some people choose to view 'learning' as something that happens sitting at a desk and sometimes adults overlook the opportunities for learning that takes place doing everyday activities

Cooking for example involves maths, estimation, reading, weights and measures, fractions, temperature, time and so on.

A few years back my son and I attended a great public lecture at a local university on string theory. The visiting professor made the whole lecture practical and involved the uni students and balls of string. Not a worksheet or textbook in site and it was a great learning experience for all that attended.

Hope everyone has a fun summer

 

[Ceila]

Well, those are all things they do for "fun", the workbooks are a more concentrated learning I guess. You can do both you know.

Actually, most of the activities listed can be very educational. Studies have demonstrated that children retain skills best when they are used in a context. That is, when they learn and use skills for a project they are invested in, those skills take on much more meaning as opposed to learning those skills in isolation (such as worksheets).

I also second (or third?) the idea of writing letters to keep up the handwriting practice. If the child is writing to someone they care about, they will be more engaged in the activity and will care more about making their writing neat.

 

[stepmommyof1]

Golf Gal:

Thanks for your concern At our library, summer reading is for all the way up to college. There are different book lists for each grade level.
Adults can participate too if they want but theres no booklist for them, they just read whatever they want.
For kids and teens, there is a book list suggested for their grade level.
They do put their names up on the wall (but you have the option of not having your name up there if you don't want it up) but kids at school don't act like its embarrassing because it is pretty common for high schoolers to do the summer reading club.
They even have a weekly meeting for the teens to come and talk about the book and they have pizza and games and stuff, with a party at the end.
It's not embarrassing for the teens, its normal for them to do it here....my stepson just never did it because he doesn't like to read.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

I agree with the integrate it into life approach- one idea I loved was sometimes when you go places make them take pictures of what they saw/experienced then get the pictures printed and make them "scrapbook" it and write about the pictures. Its fun to see how they saw events and places and a laugh years later with a great view into them and their handwriting, spelling and other glimpses in time.

I also love the penpal idea. I'd love to be on the other side of something like that

 

[portocall]

stepmommyof1, I was in our library summer reading club in high school and I loved it. I even got to work in the library twice a week as a volunteer and I was in heaven.

I don't do workbooks with my kids over the summer. They get a summerbridge like packet that they finish the first day to knock that out of the way and I am fine with that. I am not a fan of the busywork aspect of that.

That said, we do a lot to keep up the skills and so far it has worked. They have a pen pal who lives in England. They have been pen pals since before they could write so it started with drawing pictures and progressed to long letters. They really enjoy telling him about our culture and hearing about his. They have learned a lot this way.

We also do a novel study. My boys are good readers and we look forward to our annual summer trip to the bookstore to pick out our selection. I guide them to books that are slightly over their reading level, but still age appropriate. I do a quick read ahead and come up with discussion questions and vocabulary words that need to be looked up in a dictionary prior to each chapter. We used to read aloud to each other (I buy 3 copies) but now we read independently at the pace of a chapter a day and it is our bedtime routine to discuss the story. We did Charlotte's Web, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when they were in the early grades.

For math, they get to help me shop sales and create a grocery list with specific tasks in mind. Sales are great because they have to figure out the savings of things that are percentages off. They use cash and have to figure out how much the final bill should cost and how much change they should get back. They plan and help cook a meal and recipes are great and fun. They have analog watches to tell time by. We also do oral addition, subtraction, and multiplication drills and try to see how many correct answers we can get in 5 minutes. They win a trip to the snoball stand if they can beat me (and sometimes I let them cause I really want to go myself).

I know that 15 minutes over worksheets isn't gonna kill them, but it is my summer too, and I found I ended up fighting them tooth and nail over it and it just wasn't worth it. After our first summer, I knew I had to change something and get creative and now they are learning without the battles.

 

[Katy Belle]

How about a good old-fashioned pen pal? My neice in Florida and I exchange postcards. It's been fun to seek out goofy postcards wherever I go. She got to practice her reading and has enjoyed collecting them. Does she have anyone who would do that with her?

What a fantastic idea!!!

 

[mom2d&b]

We have used the Summer Bridge books and my kids like them. I do usually buy a grade or 2 ahead as the correct grade seems to be behind where my kids are.

We spend time using real life experiences as learning opportunities. When grocery shopping I have the kids read the signs to tell me where I can find specific items. I also have them pick up specific sizes of items off the shelf. We do math at the grocery store by comparing prices of various brands and then factoring in coupons. When driving, we use the GPS to work on map skills and time and distance. We also use the mile markers on the side of the road for math ( how may more miles till we get to exit xx), and also understanding there is not an exit every mile. When eating out we use the games on the kids menus for reading skills. Another game my kids like when in the car is the alphabet game. They try to find the letters in the alphabet (in order) on sings as we drive.
My kids are 7 and 10 but you can adapt real life lessons to any age.

One last thing we do is work on social skills. DS7 calls his great grandma once a week to talk. She enjoys this and he enjoys the conversations. I think for the summer we may change to writing a letter to her ( he needs to work on penmanship). DD10 emails her grandmother each week. This is helping with spelling and sentance structure as well as mastering email and the options ( fonts, bolding, attaching, replying, forwarding, etc)

The cool thing is they don't usually realize they are learning but it ties in how school can help in the real world.

 

[golfgal]

Actually, most of the activities listed can be very educational. Studies have demonstrated that children retain skills best when they are used in a context. That is, when they learn and use skills for a project they are invested in, those skills take on much more meaning as opposed to learning those skills in isolation (such as worksheets).

I also second (or third?) the idea of writing letters to keep up the handwriting practice. If the child is writing to someone they care about, they will be more engaged in the activity and will care more about making their writing neat.

Um, I realize all those activities involve learning, which is why "fun" is in quotations

Golf Gal:

Thanks for your concern At our library, summer reading is for all the way up to college. There are different book lists for each grade level.
Adults can participate too if they want but theres no booklist for them, they just read whatever they want.
For kids and teens, there is a book list suggested for their grade level.
They do put their names up on the wall (but you have the option of not having your name up there if you don't want it up) but kids at school don't act like its embarrassing because it is pretty common for high schoolers to do the summer reading club.
They even have a weekly meeting for the teens to come and talk about the book and they have pizza and games and stuff, with a party at the end.
It's not embarrassing for the teens, its normal for them to do it here....my stepson just never did it because he doesn't like to read.

Ok, just checking. It is nice they have this option for teens too.

 

[Ceila]

Um, I realize all those activities involve learning, which is why "fun" is in quotations

Why the snark? You could have left out the "Um" and the rolling-my-eyes image and still managed to get your point across.

I realized in my first post that you see some value in the "other" activities, but that you still advocate worksheets. My point was that, if activities are selected carefully to pinpoint certain skills, those "other" activities can be even more educational - and the skills retained longer - than having kids do worksheets.

 

[golfgal]

Why the snark? You could have left out the "Um" and the rolling-my-eyes image and still managed to get your point across.

I realized in my first post that you see some value in the "other" activities, but that you still advocate worksheets. My point was that, if activities are selected carefully to pinpoint certain skills, those "other" activities can be even more educational - and the skills retained longer - than having kids do worksheets.

Worksheets serve a purpose as well.

 

[Magic Mom]

Why the snark? You could have left out the "Um" and the rolling-my-eyes image and still managed to get your point across.

I realized in my first post that you see some value in the "other" activities, but that you still advocate worksheets. My point was that, if activities are selected carefully to pinpoint certain skills, those "other" activities can be even more educational - and the skills retained longer - than having kids do worksheets.

Not for all kids. Some really do need the clear cut review of skills that worksheets provide. But it's true that there are lots of ways to make summer learning fun and effective.

 

[Ceila]

Not for all kids. Some really do need the clear cut review of skills that worksheets provide. But it's true that there are lots of ways to make summer learning fun and effective.

I'm sorry - I really didn't mean to imply that worksheets should never be used, although I can understand why my posts came across like that. Kids usually retain learning better when it's in context, but sometimes working through problems on a worksheet can be beneficial. I even (gasp! ) believe in good old fashioned memorization for math facts.

 

[golfgal]

I'm sorry - I really didn't mean to imply that worksheets should never be used, although I can understand why my posts came across like that. Kids usually retain learning better when it's in context, but sometimes working through problems on a worksheet can be beneficial. I even (gasp! ) believe in good old fashioned memorization for math facts.

Even this isn't always true. Yes, most kids learn like this, but not all. Our youngest only has to read something or write something down once to understand it, drives his twin sister NUTS when she has to study for tests to do well in them and he never studies and aces everything. He would prefer just to read about something while our oldest is just the opposite-if he can get his hands on something or be doing something, he learns much better.

 

[luvsJack]

OP, I would use as few workbooks and worksheets as possible--which for me would be NONE. You want your child to enjoy what she is doing not feel like she is being punished or is still in school.

Many of the suggestions here are great. My kids always enjoyed writing letters to family members around and about or even to their favorite movie star or singer. Writing stories was always another one they liked doing at your child's age, actually dd still will write several stories during the summer.

Many of the activities they are doing in day camp may help her stay up with her handwriting too. Remember handwriting is a eye-hand coordination thing so there are many activities that help with it but are not actually sitting and writing something.

Also, many kids are helped in reading by writing their own stories as well as actually reading something already written. The most important thing with reading is instilling a love for books in them (which is why I HATE workbooks and worksheets for this). The library and having ots of books that are about things she likes are the top ideas. There are probably many, many websites with games for kids that will keep her working on reading skills too.

We are fortuante here to have a multitude of day camps that are educational as well a fun. My kids have attended invention camps (took a simulated trip to Mars--it was great!), science camps, drama camps and others that have kept them learning during the summer and kept things very fun for them. Check with a local college and see what kinds of camps they offer, around here they start them at very young ages.

 

[Magic Mom]

I'm sorry - I really didn't mean to imply that worksheets should never be used, although I can understand why my posts came across like that. Kids usually retain learning better when it's in context, but sometimes working through problems on a worksheet can be beneficial. I even (gasp! ) believe in good old fashioned memorization for math facts.

That is the only way DD could learn her math facts.

 

[marcyinPA]

We always pushed reading and math facts over the summer. Otherwise, we just incorporated what they learned into our fun summer activities. No workbooks or worksheets.