Summer Learning Tips

Summer Education Tips

These are my tips for continuing your child's education throughout the summer.

Play Math BINGO, I made mine from the plain (inside) cardboard on cereal boxes. I made squares and put numbers in each square. On small pieces of paper I wrote out all the multiplication facts through the 12's. The caller reads the problem, such as "6 x 6", and the kids look at their card. If they have a 36 on their card, they cover it (we use pennies as our covers). You could vary this game according to your child's math level for addition or subtraction.

Keep a critter's notebook. Each week or every few days, add a new animal or insect. You can add coloring sheets, research the animal in books or on line and write a report about it. My kids are older so their book is divided into the various animal kingdoms, and each animal is put behind the proper tab. You can take this with you when you visit the zoo and take animal pictures to add to your pages or to create new pages.

Discuss various businesses and call ahead to arrange for field trips. My kids have visited the bank, post office, grocery store, feed store, vets office, doctors office. By asking for a tour, you get to see the "back rooms", have inventory and business practices explained to the kids on their level. Many businesses, such as banks and the post office also have free literature to give to kids.

Have the kids shop. This uses home-ec, finances, math skills. Give them each a list, money and have them look for coupons and the best deals.

Discuss nutrition and have the kids each plan a menu for a day or week or month (depending on their ages). Then, they can shop and cook or help cook what they picked. Menus must meet the food recommendations.

Build medical models. We have built several skeletons and various organs. Older kids can learn the names of the bones. Get a newspaper end roll from your local paper. Lay out a long piece. Have the kids lay down and you can trace their body. Then they can color it all in. Little ones put on their face and clothes. Older kids draw in their organs and bones. Can be hung on their bedroom doors when finished.

See if your local library has a summer reading program, or a kid's book club. Read out loud together as a family. Also read a book, then see if the library has a movie of that book. You can discuss how it was the same and different. Learn the books of the Bible

Watch "Mr Smith goes to Washington" with Jimmy Stewart in it. It's an old clean movie that describes how the government works. Pick out several presidents and study them.

Find some educational place mats in the housewares area at Walmart. They have for 99 cents ones with the presidents, solar system, map of the world and more. Rotate them out every few days.

Get a free state map from your license bureau. Look up interesting areas in your state and then visit them in person or on line. Do you have a state park nearby? Visit the ranger station. It is free at most parks.

Have kids gather leaves. Take rubbings and then look up and find out what the leaves were from. Learn animal tracks, poisonous snakes and plants, then take what you learned with you and go camping.

Find the oldest cemetery around you and visit it. Read the tombstones. Who was the oldest? Who was the youngest? What is the oldest grave you can find? If you find a lot of people died the same year find out why? What illness or weather pattern killed them?

Work on family genealogy. Take the kids to visit older family members. Have them tell a story and have the kids tape record or video it to save for future generations.

Small kids can learn over the summer the months of the year, to tie their shoes.

Visit your local police and fire departments. Most will show kids the trucks, cars and give them information. Then come home and have kids create a safety drill for your home. Make maps and mark exits, smoke alarms and fire extinguishers.

Have kids learn to make butter, bake a loaf of bread or some cooking lessons.

Teach kids to sew. Start with a simple project such as a pillow.

Have kids take apart nonworking and unplugged items such as old clocks, radio, TV telephones and see what is inside.

Make a crystal radio.

Get a microscope and study bugs, pond water, hair, leaves, skin cells.

Visit your state capitol. Learn about your state and your state flag.

Contact your local conservation office and get posters of local wildlife, plants, trees, fish.

Study fish types and then go fishing.

Work puzzles. That uses the same brain cells that math problems use.

Watch such TV programs like "how is that made", and the history channel. If you watch Little House, notice and discuss how their life is different from ours today.

Source: We home school, and do many of these every day.

By mom-from-missouri from NW Missouri

Summer Camp at Home

Last year I read a tip in a blog I follow. The writer gave the idea of having your own summer camp for your children with you, the parent, as the camp director. It was just what my three daughters and I needed to add structure to our summer.

Each week, I choose a theme. Last year we studied dinosaurs, the solar system, Mexico, American pioneers, ocean animals, and dogs. This year we started with princesses, real and in fairy tales. We kick off the week with a trip to the library where my daughters participate in the summer reading program and look for books to borrow, while I use the card catalog to find books and videos related to the week's theme.

Once at home, each day goes like this: One two-sided sheet of "home school work" which means pages from the math workbooks the teachers sent home and/or pages from Summer Bridge Activities workbooks, which specialize in keeping children's skills alive over summer vacation. Then we read from the themed books I found, do a project (art, drama, field trip, video), and then while I work in the afternoon, they each read silently for an hour.

This "Camp Laffalotta" was such a hit last summer, that my daughters were asking about it weeks before school let out this year.

Source: http://lifeasmom.com

By Katie from Tucson

Free Summer Schoolwork

It's great to keep kids focused on school during the summer, but don't pay to do it when there are great free resources out there. Over the course of ten weeks of summer vacation, children can forget math facts, phonics, and writing skills. Keep them on-task in both fun and traditional methods for free. Next year's teacher will appreciate it, and so will you when September rolls around again.

Journaling

The number one tip to keep writing and communication skills sharp is to journal. Some elementary schools may offer incentives to children who keep summer journals or complete summer work packets. Find a cheap spiralbound notebook and allow your child to decorate it any way he/she wants. Then, set Monday as a journaling day. Chronicle the events of the weekend and add pictures from magazines to illustrate the events or ideas or have the child illustrate the journal. Peek over his/her shoulder to make sure the writing is up to par, but don't "grade" it. Spelling errors and other weaknesses shouldn't become the focus or the task will become a weekly battle. Instead, gently remind the child about repeated spelling errors with something like, "I always had trouble spelling tomorrow too. Let's write it at the top of next week's page so you can remember it."

Games that reinforce reading and spelling are great summer activities as well. Give your children old magazines or newspapers and a word bank of spelling words that you remember from the previous school year or Big IQ Kids (

• http://www.bigiqkids.com/SpellingVocabulary/Lessons/wordlistFinder.shtml

Then, have them do a scavenger hunt to find the words; whoever finds half the list first wins.

Visit www.puzzlemaker.com and provide your child with a list of words. Allow your child to choose and create the puzzle of his/her choice for the words.

Math Facts

Math facts such as multiplication tables and addition/subtraction facts seem to leave little brains faster than they go in. Keep them fresh on your child's mind by reviewing them throughout the summer. Flash cards are probably the least exciting way to remember the facts, so look for something flashier. Ipod/iPhone aps are free or under $1 and work wonders. Remember, you're not teaching the concepts, just reviewing them.

Printables

Office supply stores and parent/teacher stores sell grade level prep books for $10 on up. There's no need to purchase these when you can print out the same or better worksheets for free. Look at these websites for appropriate grade level practice:

Don't Overlook the Teacher

Before things get hectic at the end of the year next year, ask your child's teacher for a summer packet or online resources. If the teacher has a school web page, he/she probably already has online links for you to utilize during time off. If not, he/she certainly knows of a few. Libraries keep many posted as well. If you're looking for pen and paper work, the teacher can probably produce a packet with a little warning. Many teachers are hesitant to give out the packets to everyone, knowing that many will go into the trash. However, upon request they're more than willing to keep you child learning during the relaxing days of summer.

• http://www.coolmath4kids.com
• http://www.funbrain.com
• http://www.primarygames.com/reading.php
• http://www.kidsspell.com
• http://www.playkidsgames.com
• http://www.kidprintables.com
• http://www.tlsbooks.com

By Kelly Ann Butterbaugh

Prepaid Phone Cards as a Reward

Students need to read every day. To encourage teenagers to read, try the following: As with the prepaid phone card teenagers can earn minutes of phone time. For example: Michael reads 15 minutes he earns 15 minutes of telephone time. Works like a charm!

By Gwen

Summer Learning Fun

Here are a couple of things that you could do to keep your child's mind occupied during the summer months, as well as helping them have fun learning.

1. Have your child write a report on one certain type of wildlife. It can be squirrels, one type of bird, deer, alligators or crocodiles (depending on where you live), one type of bear, one type of wild cat, or any other wild animal, but make it one that is native to your area to make it more interesting for the child.

   Buy an inexpensive digital camera for each child. While they are writing their report, have them take pictures of the animal they are researching. If their camera has a zoom, have them take close up pictures. If it's safe, and you can find some, you could let the child take pictures of the animals in their natural habitat. If it's not safe, then you could take them to a zoo or other setting where they could take pictures. Florida has alligator farms that would be perfect.

   Or, you could have the child write a report and take pictures of one of your current pets. This could include the species of pet, breed, size, name, when you got the pet, what it likes to eat, any treats it prefers, favorite toys, favorite games, favorite things it likes (belly rubbing, ear rubbing, sleeping next to who, etc). And have the child include several pictures of the pet, both by itself, and intermingling with the family.

2. Call around and find a local farm or ranch and schedule a day that you could bring your child to visit and learn about farm/ranch living. Make it a nice outside day so that your child can go with the farmer/rancher and learn about the animals and caring for them, also about the crops grown and caring for them, what crops are grown when and where. And also let the farmer's wife teach them a little about farm cooking and eating.

3. Have the child make a report on your state. Have him include state birds, trees, flowers, and any other state things. Also, the state's crops. Animals native to your state. Have them include interesting places to see in your state; beaches, parks, mountains, zoos, theme parks, old or interesting towns/villages, anything else interesting to see. Also have them include a map of your state. The report should not include financial reports, political reports, or anything else like this. They will learn about those in school. But this report would get them interested in learning more and more about their state, thereby gettng them interested for when they do learn about it in school.

4. You could create a "subject bowl". In it you would put pieces of paper each with a state, a president, a country, an animal, an important person of the world, and any other subject you could come up with. Any subjects that your child would be interested in would be appropriate to include, but NOT subjects that your child would not be or become interested in. Remember this is supposed to be learning, but also FUN. Put all the pieces folded up in the bowl.

   Once a week have each child pull out a piece of paper and have that be his subject for the week. Remember to have the child replace the paper in the bowl to be reused.

All or each of these would keep any child occupied and keep them interested in learning. Plus most of them would be an excellent family project too!

By Cricketnc from Parkton, NC

Fun Sites for Summer Learning

Learning About Finance

I saw a public service announcement about this site. For those of you who have teenagers or college students who are interested or need to know about finances, this site has a lot of great information. You can learn a lot, too.

econ4u.org

Key Ingredients - America by Food (a Smithsonian Institution Site)

I ran across this site yesterday when searching for a recipe and thought it would be a fun summer activity for those with bored kids home for the summer.

keyingredients.org

Cooking for Engineers

This site gives great step by step instructions with photos for making dishes. This is a great site for the novice or expert cook. The following link is the list of recipes, click on one of them and enjoy.

cookingforengineers.com

What great sites have you run across in your surfing? Please post any that have good information for summer learning.

By Susan Sanders-Kinzel