|
SIX SUMMER SUGGESTIONS TO PROMOTE CHILDREN'S SCHOOL SUCCESS
By Jim Baetz, LMSW
Counseling Associates
Summer is a time for children to have fun and form memories they can cherish and build upon while maintaining learning experiences.
Children like projects! Here are a few ideas for keeping their minds fresh while outside of the traditional school year.
1. Summer Events Journal: Capturing summer events is a great creative project. Children can use their imaginations and artistic talents, while also honing their organization and writing skills. (I want to give credit to a Learning Center teacher for this suggestion.)
2. Board Games: Children learn socialization skills and gain self-confidence through playing board games. Taking turns, thinking through their actions and being patient are all traits kids can pick up on during such play. Other games teach kids important life lessons, such as interacting appropriately with others, winning and losing and planning ahead.
3. Summer Learning: Plan for continued educational experiences by discussing and agreeing upon a summer school class and/or tutoring. Research indicates continued learning in the summer helps memory retention of material learned during the regular school year. It may be challenging to go against the tradition of taking the summer off, but parental creative thinking and appropriate persuasiveness can nudge children toward having an advantage when school starts in the fall.
4. Summer Reading: Summer is a good time for browsing the library, looking for books and magazines to read. Taking turns reading to each other is an excellent way of enriching a child's language skills, which can lead to positive associations with reading.
5. Special Interests: Children's play is a window into their interests and personality. Letting kids play how they want respects and encourages their individuality. Children's interests unfolding according to their inner direction is a wonderful sight to behold. The more children find, enjoy and recognize their special interests and abilities, the more they master new skills-and increase their self-esteem.
6. Social Skill Development: Summer provides an ideal opportunity to arrange get-togethers with friends, such as sleepovers, picnics and trips to the beach. They also allow parents to watch how their children function in social settings.
|
