5 More Ways to Keep The Learning Going During the Last Month of the Summer
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Brenda Martin, National PTA Social Media Ambassador offers five more ways to keep children engaged over the last month of summer:
(1) Visit a new museum along your travels. Ask questions about what they think and like about interesting exhibits. Take turns reading some of the information cards. Provide writing pads and pencils and encourage them to take a few notes while you do likewise. Let them see you try to recall a good piece of information that you use your notes to better explain. This helps to illustrate how valuable taking notes can be. While driving from our family reunion, we stopped to visit my niece in Jackson, Mississippi and she was able to meet us at the National Museum of Science there! What a nice time we had! I had my membership card from our local museum which is part of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) and was even able to enter free! We took fun pictures!
(2) Let your child write a story and/or draw a picture about their favorite part of their museum visit or outing. Have a nice treat to share afterwards. Put their story, along with their hand drawn and camera pictures, all in a frame. This is nice for any age and guess who is ready for "Show and Tell" if a teacher allows it. You can even participate and write a story or blog also! Let your child critique your story and incorporate their comments into making it better. This is important"modeling" that can help students not to lose esteem when they receive criticism or corrections!
(3) Summer camps of course are fun ways to keep students involved and learn new activities as well! Some camps open registration in the winter and some registrations are already closed in February! But if you didn't get to start early, don't give up. Some camps might still have openings, but early planning is best.
(4) Many people already make use of summer vacations to visit their family which is wonderful! Our family lives further away and it is harder to visit during the school year. We also try to attend family reunions. But don't forget, this is also a good time to work in educational activities with your child and loved ones. Going to the zoo, space museum or sharing in small group projects can be fun ways to connect with new cousins. Encourage your child to create something of her/his choice that can be sent to a host, sick aunt or someone just to say, "It was nice meeting my cousin this summer."
(5) Let them lead a project they would like to do! They can even repeat a project that they did at school that they enjoyed with some new twists. Perhaps if they didn't do as well on a project as they would have liked, they can redo it differently. Let them add some new creativity that makes it more fun for them. Let them see what they could have done and what they can do even better next school year. This could relieve some anxiety when school starts and restore confidence that could have slipped!
(1) Visit a new museum along your travels. Ask questions about what they think and like about interesting exhibits. Take turns reading some of the information cards. Provide writing pads and pencils and encourage them to take a few notes while you do likewise. Let them see you try to recall a good piece of information that you use your notes to better explain. This helps to illustrate how valuable taking notes can be. While driving from our family reunion, we stopped to visit my niece in Jackson, Mississippi and she was able to meet us at the National Museum of Science there! What a nice time we had! I had my membership card from our local museum which is part of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) and was even able to enter free! We took fun pictures!
(2) Let your child write a story and/or draw a picture about their favorite part of their museum visit or outing. Have a nice treat to share afterwards. Put their story, along with their hand drawn and camera pictures, all in a frame. This is nice for any age and guess who is ready for "Show and Tell" if a teacher allows it. You can even participate and write a story or blog also! Let your child critique your story and incorporate their comments into making it better. This is important"modeling" that can help students not to lose esteem when they receive criticism or corrections!
(3) Summer camps of course are fun ways to keep students involved and learn new activities as well! Some camps open registration in the winter and some registrations are already closed in February! But if you didn't get to start early, don't give up. Some camps might still have openings, but early planning is best.
(4) Many people already make use of summer vacations to visit their family which is wonderful! Our family lives further away and it is harder to visit during the school year. We also try to attend family reunions. But don't forget, this is also a good time to work in educational activities with your child and loved ones. Going to the zoo, space museum or sharing in small group projects can be fun ways to connect with new cousins. Encourage your child to create something of her/his choice that can be sent to a host, sick aunt or someone just to say, "It was nice meeting my cousin this summer."
(5) Let them lead a project they would like to do! They can even repeat a project that they did at school that they enjoyed with some new twists. Perhaps if they didn't do as well on a project as they would have liked, they can redo it differently. Let them add some new creativity that makes it more fun for them. Let them see what they could have done and what they can do even better next school year. This could relieve some anxiety when school starts and restore confidence that could have slipped!
Now, get out there and enjoy your summer! Massage talents and create memories that nurture confidence, joy, growth and relationships!