School is Almost here....Are You Ready? Your Child?

Time magazine recently talked about the downside of summer vacation from school as their cover story. See the story here: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2005654,00.html

In their cover story, they talk about the "brain drain" that happens to even the best of students over the summer as it is a long time to be away from daily education and brain work. Year-round school, which is really not any more days or hours than regular school seems to be one method of fighting the evils of this brain drain. Other schools are offering summer programs, camps, and schools to help keep students learning over the summer and staying sharp. But with budgets drying up, even this is getting to be a tough option to offer. So....what do we do while we wait for the system to change or the budget to build back up? We need to get our kids ready for school as parents and now that I am a parent of a school-aged child, I see the need for this firsthand. Here are some suggestions I have seen online and/or have used myself:

1. Simply do something educational everyday. Go to the science center, play a memory or matching game, play a thinking game, talk about school and what your child will study, or go for nature walks and have your child ask you any question he/she can think of.

2. Go online and play educational games. In the age of the Internet, these games are all over and students actually kind of like them. Either google "math games for kids" or "science games for kids" or go to my other blog and search through for any entry I have made about educational games teachers can use: http://www.wildcatwebsites.blogspot.com

3. If you have a Smart phone, Ipod Touch, IPad, or something that supports "apps", download some educational apps. To be honest, this is what my kids use the most and they are only 3 and 5 years old. They love them and learn so much. Our 3-year old was really struggling with her alphabet and speaking and then we downloaded "Word World" games and now she knows all of her letters. Sadly, the technology taught her better than we could I guess!!

4. Spend the week before school getting school supplies, but also brushing up on writing, reading, and math skills...the basics. Then, as school starts, really work hard on the homework and classwork. Even though it is likely review, this is where the base gets built and this is the area that gets lost over summer. The quicker a student gets their base rebuilt, the quicker they will catch on to the new stuff and can do so much more than they thought they ever could. Have nightly conversations about all of this work and keep pushing to go and think even further.

I hope this helps. I look forward to the school year. I love my summer vacation and would miss it if we went to year-round school, but I also love the idea that students do not lose so much knowledge over summer and have to review so much at the start of the year. But, it is the system we have, so we need to spend some of our summer staying up to speed on our skills....even me!