Make The Summer Fun And Educational For Your Kids!

By Crystal Dupay

This article provides ideas for using the summer to reinforce what your children have learned during the school year and ways to prepare you child to go to school for the first time.

Summer is just about upon us and the good weather brings with it all of the fun summer activities such as swimming, biking, picnics and a whole host of other memory-makers. During the summer we want our children to enjoy themselves and have a break from the structure they deal with at school during the year. But three months is a long time in the life of a child and let’s face it, if you don’t use it, you lose it and we certainly don’t want our kids to forget a large portion of what they learned during the previous school year! With a little planning and creativity, you can enjoy some activities with your child over the summer that can reinforce what he or she has learned in school but can also be a lot of fun! And what about those of us that will be sending our kids off to school for the first time this fall? There are many fun ways to help your child prepare for what school will bring.

Preparing for school

There are many things that you can help to teach your child that will help him/her to adjust well to school and enhance their ability to learn. Below are some ideas that you can begin using over the summer to prepare for August.

Routine

If you haven’t already, be sure that you give your child a routine and a consistent bedtime as well as wake-up time. Your child can’t learn as well if he/she is tired and if you wait until school starts to enforce a bedtime, your child will not only be dealing with the adjustments of school but also a new routine that he/she may not enjoy.

Practice cooperation with your child

With school will come a myriad of opportunities to cooperate with other children and the better your child accomplishes this, the better he will get along with his/her teachers and classmates. You can start by playing games with your child and having him wait his turn. If your child has siblings or a playgroup where he can practice this with other children, all the better.

Help your child to recognize her own name

Word recognition is one of the first things that your child will learn. Everything in a preschool classroom is labeled to help your child recognize the names of objects that she will use often. In order to keep the belongings of all the children with their rightful owners, the teachers will have you label your childs coat, lunch box, and anything else she might bring with her to school. There will be an area such as a cubby, desk, or coat hook for your child to use that will be labeled with her name as well. It will help your child a great deal to be able to recognize her name, even if she can’t spell it or read it, so that she will be able to identify which space is hers. You can help her to recognize her name not only by writing it down on paper for her but you can start labeling her belongings now. You can also put her creations on the fridge with refridgerator magnets that spell out her name. I have also found some really great removable stickers that I have placed all around my daughters room to help her recognize words. Above her bookshelf we’ve spelled out books, above her toybox toys and above her cassette player we’ve spelled out music along with placing musical notes on the wall above it. She loves to point to the words and say them as if she is reading them.

Practice cleaning up after play

You child will be expected to clean up after himself in school. You can practice this at home by singing a fun song while your child picks up his toys. You can also use clean up time as a time to learn new things such as cooperation, colors, problem solving and more. When clean up time comes tell your child that you will help him clean up and the two of you can play a game at the same time. You can tell him that you will clean up all of the red blocks while he cleans up all of the blue ones. Or for an older child you can tell him to pick up all of the toys that make music, that have the color red on them anywhere, or that have a circle shape on them anywhere. For example, a toy truck has circle shaped tires and toy plates are circle shaped.

Help her learn to follow directions

This is particularly important once a child starts school and there are several fun ways to practice. The game Mother May I? is a good way to help your child learn how to listen carefully to directions and be sure she understands them before she carries them out. During this game you can give your child several directions that build upon one another such as, Pat your head, stomp your feet, turn around twice and then sit down. Your child will want to listen because she’ll want to win the game. Of course, Simon Says is another great game to help your child learn listening skills and following directions.

Reinforcing Skills Your Child Has Already Learned

If your child is older and already in school there are several things you can do to help him retain what he has learned or at least keep his mind sharp during the summer months. Here are two really fun activities that can be accomplished using math skills, writing, spelling, arts and crafts, imagination, geography, and more.

The Movie written, directed, produced, and starring your child!

This activity will take quite a bit of time so you could actually spread it out over the whole summer if you like. Have your child pick a topic for a movie and then write a screen play. You can actually even put the finished screen play in a book you have made together. Once the screen play is finished, costumes can be made and even a backdrop, depending on how elaborate you want to get. Have you child enlist the help of siblings and other friends if there are several characters that will need to be acted out and then pick a special day to do the filming. Almost everyone has a video camera these days and even if you don’t there is probably someone you know who would let you borrow one. You child can act in the movie or direct the other actors or both. After the filming is complete, hold a special premiere night and invite everyone who participated in the movie and even some special guests. This activity can be loads of fun and teach your child new skills as well as reinforcing ones that have already been learned.

Cooking Around the World

Have your child pick a country that he or she would like to know more about,the country of your families origin might be a good place to start. Make a trip to the library to find story books set in this particular country. Then, find some recipes of the foods that the people eat in this geographical area. Measuring the ingredients for cooking is a great way to practice your math skills or learn new ones. Read the story book first and then the two of you can make the food together. Have a special night when you serve this food to the family and your child can tell everyone about what he has learned about the country. It’s a good idea to teach your child how to locate this country on a map or a globe reinforce his or her geography skills. You can draw pictures of the native dress of the people or even write your own story set in that country. There are many variations on this theme, just use your imagination.

It’s always a challenge to find ways for your child to learn new things and have fun at the same time. I hope these ideas get you off to a great start! Have a fun and educational summer!

About the Author:

Crystal Dupay is a work-at-home mom living in West Virginia with her husband and two daughters. She, along with her husband, own and manage an insurance and securities education company that includes online courses at: www.insurance-schools.com.