Many parents, who equate workbook activity with learning, buy workbooks for their children to complete during the summer months. In this way, the parents reason, their children will not only keep up with their peers but may even be ahead of them the next school year. This usually makes for a miserable summer for the children and may result in their being turned off to all true learning in the future. Parents can be much more creative than that.
Schools are not the only place where children learn and teachers are not the only ones responsible for or capable of providing activities which help develop young minds. Summer vacation is a wonderful time for parents to expand on the school's curriculum and in many cases, supplement the curriculum where it is deficient. Science along with its tool subject, math, would be a good place to start for summer learning.
Summer vacation is a wonderful time for parents to expand on the school's curriculum and in many cases, supplement the curriculum where it is deficient.
Mainly, because science learning is best when it can be "hands on" and teachers sometimes find this difficult to do with a large class. Also many schools do not teach the science curriculum along with the math. This is a mistake because math is a tool of science and children,being concrete thinkers, understand math better when it is incorporated with science. One way to begin, is to help children to become accurate observers of the world around them and to keep records of what they observe. You could begin in the backyard by having children see the different leaves on the trees or plants on the ground. You might buy a magnifying glass so that they can observe more closely.
They could draw pictures of what they observe.
They could then feel the different textures of things in the yard and describe how they feel to the touch. You could help them with more accurate words to describe what they are feeling. Another activity is to put a bird feeder in the yard and have the child keep a record of the various birds that come to the feeder. He could then make a bar graph to record the birds' activity.
You could expand on this by taking a trip to the zoo or natural history museum to learn more about the birds in his neighborhood. Have the child draw a map of the backyard, or a room in the house, or the neighborhood. He could pace the space off and draw what he sees to scale. He could label locations of various trees, bushes, fences, houses, fire hydrants, and everything and anything that he observes. You could buy some graph paper to make the drawing to scale easier--one pace equaling one square on the paper. Your child will learn about measurement and graphs. Planting a garden either flower or vegetable is also a great activity. The child could find out which plants or flowers would grow best in the soil available. He might keep a record of the rainfall and sunshine needed to make his garden grow. This could also be graphed on a chart. He might attempt to grow something which is difficult or not recommended and see why or why not he is successful. Keeping track of the weather and temperature is another activity that helps children become accurate observes.
Put a thermometer outside the window and have the child record the temperature day by day. He could keep a chart and perhaps make predictions on what is going to happen next and why. Starting a collection is also a possibility. What about a rock collection or stamps? Magnets are also great fun. Do experiments and keep records on what magnets can and cannot do. The number and kinds of experiments children can do at home are endless.
There are many books in the library that can give you ideas.
A new program called TIMS (Teaching Integrated Mathematics and Science) developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago is another resource. The idea is to use the time in the summer for fun and learning in a way that gets away from pre-programmed workbook types of activity. I encourage you to enjoy this time with your children and engage them in activities that will make them better and more excited learners when they return to school in the fall.
First published in 2001
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