School is out but learning doesn’t stop

Don’t despair mom and dad, even though school is out your kids are still those little sponges who love to take in anything and everything you give them. They may moan and groan at the idea of sitting down to actually do school work, so pass on that (unless your kids love playing school) and integrate all the learning into everyday, fun summer activities. Here are some ideas to help get you started!
Literacy
Okay, so we’re big on literacy at the Parents’ Voice because it’s one of the most important skills for children to acquire. If they can communicate in some way (verbally, through writing or using a computer) they’re ahead. Literacy is everywhere. Read street signs in new towns you’re visiting, read pamphlets on places you’d like to go visit, write stories about the things you want to do in the summer, write packing lists for trips you’re going to take, play hangman in the car, tell stories by the campfire, write thank you notes for fun adventures with friends.
The list is ever growing, any kind of writing/reading/storytelling you can do over the summer is awesome.

Math
Math is everywhere. Not all kids love numbers so disguise them. Have a yard sale or lemonade stand. There’s so much to figure out when they’re in charge of adding up prices and making change for customers. You can add numbers to so many fun summer games, like water balloons (think numbers on the balloons with targets to hit), change up the numbers on hop scotch so they’re jumping by fives or tens instead of one. You can incorporate measurement in your flower or vegetable gardens. Use a ruler to measure distance between seeds, rocks and plants. Shapes are everywhere, pick out the shapes you see from shadows and draw them with paint or chalk on the sidewalk, turn it into a beautiful piece of art. A quick online search will give you more ideas also.
Science
Science is exciting. You can explore, experiment and test so many things in our world. From turning ingredients into food in the kitchen (ice cream is super fun to make in the summer), to making volcanoes, any kind of experiment you attempt at home this summer will be a hit. There are tons of ideas in a quick search online.
Head outdoors and you can find science everywhere. Look under logs or rocks to see what you can find, will what you find be different if it rained the day before or didn’t? Explore trails and locate different kinds of plants, name flowers and weeds. Compare grass from shady areas and sunny areas – why do they look different? During the summer, late nights are sometimes more common – head outside and check out the stars, search for fireflies, discuss the planets. No matter the age, growing something is super exciting to do and watch. Document what your plant is doing at different stages, is it producing leaves, vegetables? Think outside the box and have fun with it. One of the fun parts of science is the questions that arise, work together to answer some of them.
Geography
Read maps. Print out a map of where you’re headed (unless you have a real live map.) Together trace out the route you’re going to take and have them be the navigators – trust me I wish I would’ve learned this skill as a youngster as I have no sense of direction now at all. They will love guiding their parents and even better you can secretly ensure you’re headed the right way with your handy gps, just in case. It’s so interesting to see the places you pass that may otherwise go unnoticed. It certainly can start up lots of conversations on a long drive as well.
French
It’s no secret that sometimes our kids are getting French at school and not always a lot of French at home. During the summer we need to do our best at keeping up the French so that they don’t lose what they’ve gained. Some ideas of keeping the French going is to read French books (check out our local library), watch French TV shows (choose your child’s favourite movie and watch it in French), listen to French radio, read French magazines, speak French. You can play games in French, like memory, cards or any other board game. Try and make it fun, give points for how much French your child speaks in a day and tally up points for some kind of reward (staying up late, a friend over, a sleepover…). Enjoy learning new words together.
These are just some simple ways of extending the learning kids get during the school year into summer. Take advantage of the wonderful summer we have left and enjoy.