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Ideas to keep your child learning over the summer

WEST COLUMBIA, SC – Looking for some ideas to keep the learning going over the summer for your child?

 

We searched the internet and asked some of our Lexington Two district office educators for some of their favorite ideas and tips to build skills over the summer months.

 

An important resource for our Lexington Two students: Many of our online programs can continue to be accessed over the summer, with students using their normal logins. These include Dreambox, Algebra Nation (Math Nation), and Freckle. MathNation is available for students in grades 6-12 through Classlink.

 

Here are some other summer learning tips and ideas.

 

READING AND WRITING

  • Set a reading goal with your child for the summer – read 15 or 20 minutes a day or finish 5 reading-level books, for example.  
  • Once your child has finished a book, have him/her do a 3-minute presentation with you, talking about favorite characters, favorite parts of the plot, and more. Or, rather than an oral presentation, have your child keep a reading journal with thoughts about each book, to include examples from the book.
  • Model for your child the importance of reading by designating  a “family reading time,” when members can either take turns reading a book aloud together, or read an item of their choice on their own:  fiction, nonfiction, poetry, magazines, or other selection. If it’s difficult to get a consensus time for everyone, at least designate a “quiet time” each day for your child to read.
  • Have your child keep a journal of the daily adventures throughout summer. It can include writings (about books read, for example), poems, photographs, sketches, and more. 
  • Start a book club or book swap in your neighborhood.
 

MATH

  • A way to build numeracy skills with young learners is by seeking opportunities to count. For example, when climbing a flight of stairs or walking in a parking lot to a store, students can count the stairs or steps it takes to reach their destination. While in the car, families can count how many seconds pass while they wait at a red light or how many train cars pass when they are stopped at a train crossing. Beyond counting, students can make predictions for how many steps or seconds it will take for the examples above and then determine the difference between their predictions and the actual values.
  • Cook or bake with your kids. Have them double recipes or reduce serving sizes, use measuring cups and spoons, measure sizes of cookie pans, and even measure widths of cookies or brownies. This is great practice with fractions and measurements. 
  • Take your kids along on trips to the grocery store. Have them weigh produce, count items on a shelf, add up the prices of grocery items as you shop, and compare prices of similar items, to see how much more/less one costs than another. 
  • Data analysis is another important topic that families can practice over the summer. Families can use white, notebook, or graph/grid paper to construct graphs and tables that display their data. Students can collect data on the foods family members eat for breakfast, the weather (sun/rain or temperatures, for example), or the minutes they read each day. Beyond constructing graphs and tables, students can make predictions and answer questions based on the data they collect.
  • Play math-centric games, like Math War.
 

WORDS AND SPELLING

  • Let everyone in the family take turns selecting a “word of the week.”  Look up the word’s definition and read it out loud for everyone. Put the word in a visible place(s) around your home – on a refrigerator, for example, or on a door leading outside – and try to have everyone use the word correctly in sentences several times throughout the week.
  • There are plenty of free grade-level spelling word lists on the internet. Now, look for opportunities for informal “spelling bees” with your kids – at the dinner table, for example, during car rides, or during time you set aside for “spelling and snacks.”
 

IN THE CAR

We love these ideas from Maegen Storm (posted with Mayo Clinic Health System’s Hometown Health), combined with some from our own educators, for learning opportunities on short or long car trips:

  • Practice math skills like counting by twos or multiplication tables.
  • Spot objects that begin with each letter of the alphabet.
  • Read road signs and billboards out loud.
  • Practice directions like turn left or turn south.
  • Turn off the verbal prompts on a map app and read directions out loud.
  • Listen to audio books during your summer road trip. Our community libraries have many free ones.
  • Listen to kid-oriented storytelling podcasts, or ones on topics like science or space.
 

ACTIVITIES

We’ve attached some activity packets here. If you have trouble accessing them, please email [email protected] for assistance.

 

 




Attached Files