Parents and students have been adapting to these new at-home learning circumstances over the past couple of months. In the blink of an eye, summer is now right around the corner. Learning doesn’t have to stop at the end of the school year. Here are some helpful tips and resources that can help family members and parents extend learning for their students beyond the school year and well into the summertime!
Bake or cook together. Baking and cooking together can be a great way to reinforce skills such as following directions and mathematical skills, and it can be a great way for a child to be proud of something they have created with their own hands (plus it’s yummy!).
Create a summertime reading spot. Take advantage of the warm weather, and help your student find a relaxing spot to read–maybe outside or even right by a window full of warm sunshine!
Mix-up the type of books children read! Summer is a great time for students to read the types of books that they are most interested in. Don’t be afraid to mix-up a variety of topics of books! Whether it’s a magazine series, a fiction book series, or a cartoon or comic book set, let your student use more of their free time to read books that they are truly interested in!
Try summer experiments. While keeping safe social distances outdoors, students can use this summertime to investigate and develop their own experiments! Some ways could include researching specific topics that a student is interested in, observing things in nature such as plants or insects, doing home experiments with basic kitchen materials, and more!
Play board games, or create your own! Use the free time in the summer to play board games with your students. Or if your student is really up for the challenge, encourage them to create and build out her own board game for the whole family to enjoy. Playing board games reinforces many skills that can keep your student’s brain turning!
Create a summer journal or scrapbook. Have magazines or newspapers lying around? Allow your students to cut and paste their own summer scrapbooks–they can write stories, about their own emotions, or create collages and pictures!
Even though the school year is coming to a close, learning definitely does not have to wrap up! There can be many creative ways to learn throughout the summer. Ask your students what they want to learn more about, and use the summertime, weather, and freedom to allow your students to be curious, engage, read, and learn!
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