50 ways to prevent summer brain drainREADING AND WRITING
Keeping up with reading and writing skills over the summer is key to maintaining learning throughout the year — so pay special attention to these creative learning activities.
1-Create a book club: Make reading social with a summer book club for kids
2-Keep a journal: Encourage kids to stay sharp in their writing by keeping a journal, discussing summer activities and more.
3-Find summer writing camps: Older kids can check out summer writing camps, often available through local newspapers.
4-Read throughout the day: Offer reading opportunities morning, noon, and night, with the newspaper, websites, books, magazines, and more.
5-Write a comic strip: Develop creativity, writing, and humor with a fun comic strip.
6-Read books about summer activities: Before heading to the beach or a baseball game, pick out a book that discusses the activity.
7-Email friends and family: Have kids write to friends and family over email to keep in touch while also keeping up with their writing practice.
8-Encourage reading in bed, even if it pushes bedtimes: Allow your children to read in bed, even allowing them to stay up later as long as they are reading.
9-Start a blog: Create a blog for your child to update over the summer, and share it with family and friends.
10-Read everywhere: Read street signs, billboards, and anything else you can find while you’re on the go this summer.
11-Designate a family reading time: Create a time when your whole family reads, individually or as a group.
12-Buddy up: Pick out books for your kids to read together with their friends for fun and a shared experience.
13-Pick up comic books: Build a renewed interest in reading with comic books this summer.
14-Read aloud each day: Even if it’s poolside, listen to your child read aloud every day.
15-Summer reading camp: Scholastic offers a Summer Challenge, a virtual reading camp that engages kids in competitive reading over the summer.
PLACES TO GO
Going out and getting active is a great way to have fun and learn this summer.
16-Go to a baseball game: Discuss strategy and scores while taking in a baseball game.
17-Visit museums: Museums often have summer programs for kids, so stop by and check out what they have to offer.
18-Go out to eat: Do menu math at a restaurant, asking kids how much food they can afford with a certain amount of money.
19-Go on tours: Whether it’s a chocolate factory or a glassblowing studio, take advantage of tours so kids can learn how everyday items are made.
20-Camping: Camping offers an excellent opportunity for discussing nature and the world around you.
21-State and national parks: Parks offer a multitude of learning opportunities, and fun family experiences as well.
22-Visit the zoo: Take a family field trip to the zoo to see the animals and learn about animal life.
Try these ideas on summer days when you’re sticking around the house.
23-Get crafty: Adopt a daily craft activity to do as a family every day.
24-Build a treehouse: Combine outside fun with construction by building a backyard treehouse, remembering to discuss measurement (and safety) as you go.
25-Create a lemonade stand: The classic lemonade stand offers many lessons in math and business.
26-Play board games: Board games build thinking skills and are a fun way for kids to play and learn over the summer.
27-Track daily temperatures: Fight the summer slide while tracking the summer heat wave by tracking the temperature each day with your kids.
28-Calculate your family’s emissions: Use the EPA personal emissions calculator to discover your emissions as a family, and discuss how you can improve.
29-Plant a garden: Teach kids about nutrition and growth with a summer garden.
30-Count money when playing Monopoly: A family game time with Monopoly can turn into a math lesson when kids act as the banker.
Use these websites to have fun learning this summer.
31-Kids Off the Couch: Get a weekly newsletter with great ideas for getting kids out and learning for the summer and throughout the year.
32-Storyline Online: Visit Storyline Online to watch videos of actors reading children’s books out loud.
33-Smithsonian Kids Collecting: Kids can start a collection over the summer with the Smithsonian’s program.
34-Thinkfinity: Thinkfinity has fun games and learning activities for year round learning.
These are just a handful of the fun learning activities you can try this summer.
35-Make grocery store visits educational: Think about the grocery store as a great place to practice math skills, and bring that same idea home to the kitchen, too.
36-Build a robot: Find cool and kid-friendly robot projects to take on over the summer.
37-Create a picture journal: Keep your child engaged and thinking about the activities you’re doing this summer by using a camera and notebook to create a picture journal.
38-Create a puppet theater: Make puppets with outgrown gloves from the winter, and create a story for kids to act out.
39-Citizen scientist: Turn kids into citizen scientists this summer, putting them to work as scientific researchers in projects over the summer.
40-Build your own game: Check out projects that allow you to build a game over the summer.
41-Play car games: Play ABC games during long car trips.
42-Map out your trip: Involve your children in vacation planning by helping them create a map for your trip.
43-Programming: Using programs like Scratch and Kodu, even young children can get started on programming over the summer.
44-Finish schoolbooks: Often, school books like math journals aren’t completed by the end of the year-put them to good use and finish them over the summer.
45-Do art projects: Practice drawing, take pictures, or sculpt together, and discuss the meaning of art while you’re doing it.
46-Visit the YMCA: Find a great YMCA summer program for your kids to enjoy.
47-Public library incentive programs: Public libraries often have interactive programs for students over the summer, typically with incentives like pizza or tickets to sporting events.
48-Summer camp: From web design summer camps to ones that promote healthy eating and exercise, summer camps can keep kids active mentally and physically.
49-Summer school: Many school districts have programs targeted to students who need to learn over the summer, so find out if there’s one in your area.
50-Day camp: Camp doesn’t have to be a 6-week sleepover affair to be effective-check out day camps for summer learning activities, too.
Info from http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2011/50-creative-ways-to-fight-the-summer-slide/