Tip Sheet for Parents

Keep Your Child Learning All Summer Long

As summer vacation approaches, families often make plans to put away the deadlines that come with schoolwork, and look forward to a less-pressured schedule of learning activities.

While this is a perfectly appropriate expectation, parents should remember that summer vacation isn’t an excuse for children to take a “vacation” from learning. Here are some tips to stimulate your child’s interests and curb the summer learning gap:


Math Activities

• To keep up math skills, buy books of number puzzles at any bookstore. Or consider investing in math-related computer games.
• Teach children who have allowance or regular spending money how to budget. Ask them to make a two-column list of expenses and income. Under expenses, they list what they expect to spend for movies, bus tokens, lunches, etc. Then, have your youngsters add all the expenses and subtract the total from the income. Ask them to think of ways to reduce their spending. If their income is more than their expenses, talk about a savings plan.

Writing Activities

• To keep writing skills current, buy children a notebook and let them decorate the cover. Then tell them it’s their vacation journal, and have them write down three things that happen each day.
• Have your child write to distant grandparents, family members or pen pals. This activity will tell you a lot about achievement in language, spelling and reading.
• Help your children improve their thinking and writing skills by looking carefully at newspaper, magazine and TV advertisements. What is the main point of the ad? What details does it use to communicate its message?

Social Studies Activities

· If you’re taking a family vacation, bring home brochures that describe the history and culture of the places you’ll be visiting. And help the children plot the trip on a map.

· Help your child learn about people from different countries. Suggest talking to neighbors from foreign countries, reading library books about other cultures, reading newspapers and watching TV specials.

Reading Activities

· Take your children to the library regularly. Most libraries sponsor summer reading clubs with easy-to-reach goals for preschool and school-age children. Check the library calendar for special summer reading activities and events. Libraries also provide age-appropriate lists for summer reading.

· As a family, choose an important news event to follow for a day or two. Ask each person to find as much information on the topic as possible — read newspapers, listen to the radio, watch TV news. Then talk about what everyone has learned.

Special Activities

· Figure out ways to make hobbies educational. A child who loves to collect baseball cards, for instance, could practice penmanship by writing fan letters to players, math by keeping track of their statistics and reading by taking out books on baseball from the library.

· Stimulate curiosity and love of learning by planning family trips to the zoo, museums, a local newspaper office, the beach and other places packed with learning opportunities.

Source – www.family.com; Sylvan Learning Centers; and U.S. Department of Education.

Excerpt: PRincipal Communicator, May, 2004, published by the National School Public Relations Association