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Summer — Fun And Educational For Your Kids!

Summer is just about upon us and the good weather brings with it all of the fun outdoor activities such as swimming, biking, picnics and a whole host of other memory-makers.

During the summer we want our children to enjoy themselves and have a break from the structure they deal with at school during the year. But three months is a long time in the life of a child and let's face it, if you don't use it, you will lose it... and we certainly don't want our kids to forget a large portion of what they learned during the previous school year! Just think of all those hours of homework wasted!

With a little planning and creativity, you can enjoy some activities with your child over the summer that can reinforce what was learned in school but can also be a lot of fun!

And what about those of us that will be sending our kids off to school for the first time this fall? There are many fun ways to help your child prepare for what school will bring.

Preparing for school

There are many things that you can help to teach your child that will help with adjusting well to school and enhance the ability to learn. Below are some ideas that you can begin using over the summer to prepare for the start of school in the Fall.

Routine - If you haven't already, be sure that you give your child a routine and a consistent bedtime as well as wake-up time. Your child can't learn as well when tired. If you wait until school starts to enforce a bedtime, your child will not only be dealing with all the adjustments of a new school but also a new routine. It's best to keep the changes to a minimum for a successful introduction to big kids school!

Practice cooperation with your child - With school will come a myriad of opportunities to cooperate with other children and the better your children accomplish this, the better they will get along with their teachers and classmates. You can start by playing games with your child and practice taking turns. If your child has siblings or a playgroup — practice this with the help of the other children.

Help your child to recognize her own name - Word recognition is one of the first things that your child will learn. Everything in a preschool classroom is labeled to help your child recognize the names of comon objects that are used often. In order to keep the belongings of all the children with their rightful owners, the teachers will have you label your child's coat, lunch box, and anything else that gets brought to school. There will be an area such as a cubby, desk, or coat hook for the children to use that will be labeled with their names as well.

It will help your child a great deal to be able to recognize his or her own name. Even if children can't spell or read they will be still be able to identify which space is theirs. You can help your son or daughter with this not only by writing the name down on paper, but you can start labeling belongings. You can also put your young artist's creations on the fridge with refridgerator magnets that spell out the name.

I have also found some really great removable stickers that I have placed all around my daughter's room to help her recognize words. Above her bookshelf we've spelled out 'b-o-o-k-s', above her toybox 't-o-y-s' and above her cassette player we've spelled out 'm-u-s-i-c' along with placing musical notes on the wall. She loves to point to the words and say them as if she is reading them.

Practice cleaning up after play - Your child will be expected to clean up after play in school. You can practice this at home by singing a fun song while your child picks up the toys. You can also use clean up time as a time to learn new things such as cooperation, colors, problem solving and more.

When clean up time comes tell your child that you will help clean up and the two of you can play a game at the same time. You can share the work. Just suggest that you will clean up all of the red blocks while your little playmate cleans up all of the blue ones. For older children you can make the task more fun. Let the child pick up all of the toys that make music, that have the color red on them anywhere, or that have a circle shape on them anywhere. For example, a toy truck has circle shaped tires and toy plates are circle shaped. Making clean up part of the fun of playing is a good way to actually get it done!

Help your kids learn to follow directions: This is particularly important once a child starts school. There are several fun ways to practice.

The game "Mother May I?" is a good way to help your child learn how to listen carefully to directions. During this game you can give your child several directions that build upon one another such as, "Pat your head, stomp your feet, turn around twice and then sit down." Your child will want to listen in order to win the game. Of course, Simon Says is another great game to help your child learn listening skills and following directions.

Reinforcing Skills Your Child Has Already Learned

If your children are older and already in school there are several things you can do to help retain what has been learned or at least keep their minds sharp during the summer months. Here are two really fun activities that can be accomplished using math skills, writing, spelling, arts and crafts, imagination, geography, and more.

The Movie - Written, directed, produced, and starring... your child! This activity will take quite a bit of time so you could actually spread it out over the whole summer if you like. Have your child pick a topic for a movie and then write a screen play. You can actually even put the finished screen play in a book you have made together.

Once the screen play is finished, costumes can be made and even a backdrop, depending on how elaborate you want to get. Have you child enlist the help of siblings and other friends if there are several characters that will need to be acted out and then pick a special day to do the filming. Almost everyone has a video camera these days and even if you don't there is probably someone you know who would let you borrow one. You child can act in the movie or direct the other actors or both. After the filming is complete, hold a special premiere night and invite everyone who participated in the movie and even some special guests. This activity can be loads of fun and teach your child new skills as well as reinforcing ones that have already been learned.

Cooking Around the World - Have your child pick a country to learn more about. The country of your families origin might be a good place to start. Make a trip to the library to find story books set in this particular country. Then, find some recipes of the foods that the people eat in this geographical area. Measuring the ingredients for cooking is a great way to practice your math skills or learn new ones. Read the story book first and then the two of you can make the food together. Have a special night when you serve this food to the family and your child can tell everyone about what he has learned about the country. It's a good idea to teach your child how to locate this country on a map or a globe reinforce geography skills. You can draw pictures of the native dress of the people or even write your own story set in that country. There are many variations on this theme, just use your imagination.

It’s always a challenge to find ways for your child to learn new things and have fun at the same time. I hope these ideas get you off to a great start! Have a fun and educational summer!