KE Parents’ Guide to Summer

Hiding the Learning in the Fun

Summer is finally here and the obligatory “I’m bored” is resounding through homes across America. Kids suffer through months of school only to face the lazy days of summer without a clue as to what to do. I tried suggestions like “read a book” or “go for a walk” but these were met with blank stares and yawns. Wouldn’t it be cool if I could suggest something fun to do that was also educational? I decided to go straight to the source where I get all my ideas – other parents – and then share these ideas with you. Kids Enabled presents the “KE Parents’ Guide to Summer – Hiding Learning in the Fun.”

BETH ARDELL
I can improve my children’s focus and attention, particularly divided attention (multi-tasking), without them knowing it! First, I have them play a game like Bop-It, Simon, or Perfection. These games alone work on cognitive skills like processing speed, memory, and attention. Then, to further improve their attention, as the kids are playing the game, I ask for them for information at the same time. It could be something as simple as, “When I say ‘cow,’ you say ‘Moo,’” or “When I say ‘cat,’ you say ‘Meow.’” For older children, I would say, “8 and 5. Sum,” and they would have to say, “13.” Or, I could say, “9 and 3. Difference,” and they would say, “6.” By setting small goals, like getting 2 correct answers, and then increasing the goal, like getting 5 out of 5 correct, they are gradually strengthening their ability to multi-task. Another idea to improve simultaneous processing is to ask my son and daughter to verbally describe their rooms from memory at the same time they are playing the game. The more descriptive they are, the better.

KIM VAUGHN
We created a raised-bed garden for Weston. He loves to be outside, dig in the dirt, be the boss of things, and mess with the water hoses! Weston drew a picture of what he wanted. He then had to measure, figure area, and figure cubic feet (to know how much soil he needed), so it has covered math skills. He is making a notebook to chart his plants and how much they grow every week. He made labels for the kinds of tomatoes (spelling, handwriting) and is going to draw some sketches of his plants once they start to produce fruit. The science stuff has already come into play as our neighbor gave him an impromptu lesson about certain vegetables, cross-pollination and the importance of attracting bees to help the plants produce fruit. Plus, he has the responsibility of watering everyday and then hopefully he will have some tomatoes and other veggies to share with our neighbors. After one week it has been great already!

SUSANNE THOMPSON

Charlotte Mason said,
“Be sure that your children each day have:
Something or someone to love
Something to do
Something to think about”

Young children need both time and structure…time to have to think on their own what they can do and create, and time to create it…time to imagine… They do not need every second filled with a parent-directed activity or constant companions, nor with an electronic device that may capture their mind’s temporary boredom but rob it of the opportunity to explore and create.

At the same time, elements of structure are a good thing. Summer provides opportunities for you to walk alongside your child and establish good habits that can’t always be enforced in the hectic pace of the school year. These “planned” activities can be fun for your child, and can build life-long skills or allow your child more time to learn in a particular area.

Set Goals – What one or two concepts or skills do you want your child to develop this summer? Ideas include:

Make lunch each day – Use this as an opportunity to talk about a balanced meal. Preparing lunch will be helpful for next school year so your child can take responsibility for packing his lunch each day.
Do laundry.
Clean a specific area of the house.
Learn the art of embroidery, knitting, or sewing.
Basic use of tools.

Helping others – Do you have an older neighbor that is lonely and would enjoy time with you and your child? Does someone need help getting his newspaper or mail each day?

Nature studies – Get an art journal for you and all your children, and enjoy time together doing nature studies. Together, learn the names of trees and plants so you can identify them in your journal.

Writing – Do writing that has purpose.

Each week have your child write to a different relative (and clue the relative in on it so maybe he will write back…this is much more fun).
Be a pen pal with someone in class, or a close friend, and have both children commit to keeping the writing going through the summer.
Start a journal with your child — get a notebook, and write short letters to your child and ask him questions. Place it under the pillow…and look for it to appear on your bed as well. This can be a great, “safe” way to also have your child communicate things that he is thinking about, and to learn more about his thoughts, fears, joys, etc.

Reading

Sometimes have your child read on his own, but also have plenty of time to read to your child, or take turns reading pages. This is a wonderful time together, no matter how strong a reader your child is.
Do a parent/child book club with a group of friends. This could either be a book written at your child’s level, or a novel geared to kids that you read aloud. Either way, they’re interacting with the book, with you, and with each other.
This link from the International Reading Association has great suggestions for summer reading and writing activities:
http://www.readwritethink.org/beyondtheclassroom/summer/research/index.asp
Look through Ripping Things to Do (The Best Games and Ideas from Children’s Book) by Jane Brocket. It gives many ideas for fun activities and adventures based on classic children’s books.

Math

Play games such as Monopoly Junior, Monopoly, Yahtzee, Mad Math, Countdown, DaVinci’s Challenge, Blockus.
Keep a change jar and have your child in charge of keeping a tally.
Have your child count out the money at the store.
Practice flashcards: Make it fun by keeping track of the time it takes to complete a set of a specific 20 or so and see if they can improve on a daily/weekly basis.
Cook together and help your child double or half a recipe as well as develop measuring and fraction skills.

ERIN HUNNICUTT
One thing we look forward to is for the kids to make dinner one night a week in the summer. They help with the grocery list and the shopping. They come up with the menu, gather ingredients, and prepare a meal. Sometimes it is just grilled cheese. I hope they will be more adventurous this summer—a year older! It helps encourage many skills—reading, math, measurement and life lessons in the kitchen.

BARB RIBNER
One thing that comes quickly to mind is that we always listen to audio books in the car. I get at least one more than I think we’ll need for the duration of the driving time, and then let the kids choose which one to listen to first. There are some classics on tape (To Kill a Mockingbird), as well as current kids’ literature. Since I’m in the front seat, if there’s a word that I don’t know if the kids know, I pause the recording and we talk about what that word might mean (sanguine or expostulated for examples) and then resume the recording. At the end of chapters, we pause also to talk about what has been happening, what other choices characters could have made, why we think they’ve chosen to do what they’re doing. When the kids were little, I had them tell me what they’d heard so far about the book and in what order (sequencing) which helped to keep the story connected in their minds.

When we plan vacations, we always alternate what we all agree are “fun” days with observation days. Fun days are like amusement parks or the beach (and learning can definitely take place there, too), but observation days are museums, parks or state/national monuments. Then at night, after the kids are in bed, they dictate and I write a journal. We record what we’ve seen and learned during the day. This is also a great way to quiet down and get ready for sleep. Again, this process works memory, sequencing, picking out main ideas (but important memories may be small things, too, that we can all laugh about later – like when we had to run in the airport because they were paging us and we almost missed our plane). After the trip, I type up the memories and put them with the kids’ photo albums.

The kids take turns navigating (i.e. following the map and telling me what road to look for next, etc.) during the trip. Also, they each get money to spend at the beginning of the trip that is put into a Ziploc with the child’s name on it and I carry it – but that’s all they get for souvenirs for the entire trip. They can spend it on things, but not on candy or colas – that’s my job as a mom/grandma to dole the junk food out every once in a while. Anyhow, you’d be surprised how quickly they learn to add and subtract money…

SARAH SEELKE
Whenever we go on vacation, we look at the license plates on the cars, record them and try to get all 50 states. This facilitates discussion on where the state is, what is its capital, and who has driven the farthest to get to the beach. Other activities for a long car ride include “Name that Tune” which helps with music, listening, and memorization. The other car game we play is the “Word Game” where someone picks a word (silently) and gives the first letter and last letter. Everyone else must guess the word. We give clues like part of speech, how many syllables, and if it is a compound word.

JEANIE CARR
Our family puts learning in the summer fun by cooking together (measuring, following directions) and helping to plan family meals together (choosing well balanced menu, shopping list, shopping/comparing prices). We have also gone blueberry picking and then let each of the girls pick out a different recipe to make with the blueberries (muffins, cake, pie, pancakes). We play a lot of fun games that also require hidden brain skills – jigsaw puzzles, Bananagrams, Dominos, Yahtzee. The kids also put on completely kid-produced plays or puppet shows. They write the script, plan the parts, and make costumes. Then they perform the show for friends and family.

HARRIET LITZKEY
Some good ways to hide the learning in the fun are to read the same book as your child and then discuss, listening to books on CD, encourage reading billboards and maps when on the road and let them take turns being navigator. Make a summer scrapbook with picture postcards, ticket stubs, and photos. Some good summer math sites are:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/max/
http://www.aplusmath.com
http://www.summerskills.com/mathdetail.htm

JENNIFER SANDE
I involve them in what I am doing around the house. Kids can learn colors by sorting laundry, math skills (matching and counting) in matching socks, counting in putting clean dishes away. I also have an alphabet carpet and those alphabet floor tiles that puzzle piece together. We would play a game where I would say put your nose (or another body part) on the letter X, for example.

TARA MERRITT-MERCHANT
Upon completing each book Spencer reads this summer, he is journaling his thoughts about what he reads (most are mysteries). This is a way to record his ideas, as well as learning concepts, comprehension, reading, vocabulary, and figuring out the mysteries. This will also help improve his penmanship, as well as his writing skills.

Spencer absolutely loves math, so we are always making life into math! This is his first year on the swim team and we are ‘figuring’ time, laps, types of strokes with highest number completed in one lap, and how many ‘groups’ of a particular stroke within a certain timeframe. Also I think I am giving him the responsibility of an alarm clock for getting up (6:15A) in time for dressing, breakfast, and biking while Jay & I power walk (family exercise) and then leave for an 8AM Swim Team Practice EVERY morning. We spell and play tic-tac-toe or checkers on the beach with driftwood, toes, or shells which helps with concentration and spelling).

We are working on a chore jar. He is decorating his own jar and understanding responsibilities and being proud of completing them! Not only will he learn more about money (counting it, earning it, and the responsibility that goes with it), but also he will learn to divide his earnings up properly in 3 other jars that I have always had for him (savings, church, wants).

Spencer will help us with the map and agendas for trips. He will making sure that we visit X number of lighthouses and beaches. He will record/add his mileage whether it is a car, plane, boat, or bike. I actually want him to draw his experiences each day while we are on trips along with a journal.

AMY NEWMAN
Mine are still little ones, but we always play “I spy” in the car and incorporate colors and sight words. We count signs, trucks, etc. When we go out to eat in road trips, we sort sugar packets by color, stack individual creamers into towers and try to spell words with French fries. As for the normal summer stuff, a friend of mine took her granddaughter to the zoo and took pictures of each animal. They developed the pictures and looked up info on each animal and typed it on cards. Together, they made a scrapbook and it is wonderful because it is an educational book with pictures of Ella and her grandmother in the pictures! I love that idea and it is something you could do for the Aquarium or Fernbank as well.

CAROL ANN BRANNON
At the Farmer’s Markets, allow children to have some money to budget and buy some items. They will use their math skills – if strawberries are $2 per pint and you want to buy 4 pints, how much is the total? For younger children, this is a great place to review shapes and colors. For older children, it is a great place to expand vocabulary (adjectives – succulent, juicy, luscious and talk about the texture, scent, flavor of produce). You can then prepare dishes from produce you buy. Cooking involves following directions, reading, measuring, math, organizational skills, and research skills.

MARTHA REICH
While camping and hiking, we study science. There is nothing better than finding things in a stream and learning more about them. We also bring bird, mushroom, and insect identification books along in the car and Hannah is always looking stuff up that we find or see. She has a bird identifier and it has bird calls, so we all listen and try to learn the sounds of the different birds. While camping or even just in the backyard we try to ID the birds just based on calls. We bring along The Roadside Geology of Georgia and read about the geology of where we were driving. We enjoy doing nature studies and we always bring along a drawing pad on our outdoor trips.

CATHERINE FUSS
I gave my oldest child a special writing journal for the summer. I give him different topics (1-2 per week) and ask him to write a story or play about each. Then I will write back to him in his journal with positive feedback on each one.

We also take a not-very-glamorous activity like cleaning out one’s room and turn it into a fun decorating project with lots of organization. This is especially effective for girls and involves mapping out one’s empty room, figuring out where old & new furniture needs to go by taking measurements and accounting for doors/windows. Then there is sorting through all the clutter and making way for donations (charity). They put it all back together like they want it arranged.

KAREN DURISCH
Create on summer work activity jar. Use strips of different colored construction paper to make links that can be joined together to make a chain. Put little pieces of paper in the jar with work tasks written on them. Have the kids pull one out at a specific time each day. (Make the activities mixed with various learning modalities. Example: paint 5 sentences, Count by 2′s, 5′s, 10′s while doing jumping jacks, complete one page of addition/subtraction/multiplication, go find items in the yard that match given adjectives: green, rough, small, round). Each work time task that is completed without any fuss will result in a link being added to the chain. Once an agreed upon number of links are earned, a fun field trip/prize/video game time/etc. is redeemed. Keep the link going as the summer rolls along to see how long it can get…The “prize” for each segment can be written on the strip, as well as the tasks for each strip earned.

OK, parents, enjoy your summer of hiding the learning in the fun! Join us on Facebook and let us know which ideas you tried and how much fun you had. So many good ideas, so little time…

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June 1, 2011 | In Feature Articles | 2 Comments

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Awesome assortment of ideas. I love the academic, plus game, plus sensory stimuli while thinking out of the box. Kids interacting with nature, museums and other events makes everyone learn and enjoy more.

I think the best KEY though, is the PARENT>KID CONNECTION. So often in our hurry-up world we forget to stop and listen, let alone interact. It is a time when our DO, DO, DO kids really rise to the occasion.

Comment by Joan K Teach — June 9, 2011 #
Remember, also, that bored can be a great motivator. Try responding to “I’m bored” with a comment like: “gee, I hate it when I’m bored – what are you going to do about it?” and – after a little griping, see what creative solution is devised (this presumes, of course, that screens are not an option).

Comment by Elaine Taylor-Klaus — June 9, 2011 #

KE Parents’ Guide to Summer

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