Summer According To Children - It’s a time for sleeping in (if you have teenagers), It’s a time for fun (no reading please Mom), It’s a time for anything non-related to learning (Me?  Practice some math - no way!)

Summer According To Parents - It’s a time for making memories (many of us have older teens heading towards college - this may well be the last all-family vacation opportunity), It’s a time for fending off the all-famous Summer Saying (“There’s nothing to do.”), It’s a time for relaxation and rejuvenation (Honey you CAN sleep in, just not every day until 2 pm!)

Ahhh…the charming challenge of keeping the troops happy.  Most of us know that there is a probable decline in cognitive development in our children during the summers if in traditional school settings.  In fact, the latest report from a professor of Duke University states that most children lose approximately one month’s worth of learning over the summer time - many losing math and reading skills. 

What’s a parent to do?  What’s a child to do?  What can the ‘team’ do to correct this statistic but still make Summers Sizzle?

I’m no psychology professor, I hold no Masters in early childhood development nor do I profess to know all about making children inspired to do more than just ‘veg out’ over the much heralded summer time.  I will, however, just as my mom always did (God rest her soul), give you some free advice.  FREE ADVICE was always the key my mom kept insisting made her advice so welcome!

• Read!  Read!  Read!  Oh I know!  You’re busy - you don’t even have time to read the business section each morning much less plunk down on the floor with Junior for 5 and read a cool book to him that’s been sitting in his room since the Holidays - unread!  Come on!  You are your child’s best teacher.  You are your child’s best role model (well, maybe not on girls’ night out you’re not!).  You know your child loves, loves, loves the time you spend focusing on just him!  And for the older children (elementary school age) - they are probably into chapter books, and the selections these days ROCK!  I have never been so into my child’s reading selections as I have been with this Magic Treehouse Series.  And then there are the teens - believe me, with two boys (17 and 15) I feel your pain in trying to get THEM to pick up a book.  With one of my boys I found the secret (and it even worked for a while with his older brother).  Find books about what they love right now.  (For us that is billiards, basketball and World Series of Poker.)  Our local library has provided us with the call to action for “Pick up a book and read” - I can’t get Matthew out of his room at times to eat he is so engrossed in the books we have found.  Love that problem!
• Problem Solvers of America stand up and be recognized!  Yes!  Your children need your creative genius to kick in and keep the math mind active during the Summer months.  You can do this.  At restaurants use the menu as a math mini lesson, ask them to estimate what the total bill would be, have them calculate the tip based on 15% and then 20%, check your time of placing the order and have the kids time the food preparation time….you get my drift!  Oh - and that’s only the start!  As a single mom for more than 4 years I used our travel time in the car for not just spelling words (See - my free advice is just flowing!).  I used our car time for math problems - mental math is something our generation of children is losing thanks to cell phone calculators, math/science calculators and more.  And once you are back in the house use your cooking time for fractions, measurements and time lessons (SSSSHHH!  Don’t mention the word lesson please/por favor!)  If you give out allowance get the kids involved in totaling the value of their contributions around the home and their designations for the money.
• Mindless Couch Potatoes Beware!  You are the parent - You need to limit the TV time, the computer time, the Nintendo DS, Game Cube, Game Boy, Game Player, Game Watcher, Game Gobble-Your-Child’s-Mind-Machine now, today, ahora, pronto!  It’s so hard.  Again, with my 3 children, I am no saint, no poster mom for this one, but I do know how important it is.  We all read the studies, and we hear the reports on the negative effects of multi-media entertainment on children (whether attributed to the violent nature, the amount of time involved, the over stimulation, the constant barrage of media hype) . . . . we all know it’s in the children’s best interest to monitor what’s going into their brains via these devices.  So TRY, please/por favor, TRY to get them balanced in their outdoor time, reading time, quiet/down time, family time and life in general.

So, there you have it, some sizzling summer suggestions from a mom who teaches every day of her life.  With my own three (they often times bemoan the fact that their mommy has this teacher thing in her) and with the families I reach daily with my Boca Beth Program (moms call and tell me our CDs and DVDs are their summer saving grace - especially on long car rides where another Barney song just won’t cut it!). 

Make the summers work for you and, more importantly, for your child!  Turn your vacations into a classroom without the kids knowing it by sneaking in the local museum or park or zoo for a few hours, use that portable DVD player for some edutaining DVDs (local libraries are great places for rentals in addition to NetFlix and the Big B Guys!) and travel to a spot none of you have been and so some great research together incorporating map skills, science skills for the weather/climate of the destination, language skills by learning new languages specific to that area and so on.

Next up - Road Trip Rainbow!  I will provide with a cool turn key road trip lesson next visit.  So until then……………….

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth 

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Teacher Mom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.