Keep Your Brain Fresh

Keeping Your Brain Fresh IN THE SUMMERTIME

Learning doesn't have to stop just because school isn’t in session.

Just like us, our kids need to learn something new everyday, whether it be through experiences or or intentional lessons. There are so many things we can do to help our young learners and prevent the inevitable summer slide.

While I am a huge advocate of having fun, taking a break and just enjoying life, there are lessons to be learned everywhere. My daughter, Harper, and I will spend a lot of time at Holiday World this summer and oftentimes I’ll have her count the number of people in a line in front of us or the number of people that can fit on a ride. Not only is this a great opportunity to get in some skip counting (if a ride holds 2 people per car we can skip count by 2’s), it also gives her something to do in a slowmoving line. You can incorporate this in almost any situation. When you’re driving down the road, pretend each car has four people in it and skip count by fours or count the number of red cars you see, etc.

Speaking of car rides, Harper loves to play I Spy in the car and it without a doubt allows for observation and creativity. As a child, I loved reading road signs, counting down exits, and calculating how much further we had to go to get somewhere. It’s amazing how much reading and math is around in our everyday lives.

I think an opportunity we as parents often miss is talking to our children about current events around town or the world. We’re scared of the questions this may bring up, but the conversations that can develop from this are amazing and can help grow their schema (background knowledge) so much. There are many kid-friendly news programs that you can find online. Watch those as a family and then discuss what you learned. The library, an incredible free resource in our community, has a ton of programs for kids over the summer or you can simply go and read a book.

I know one thing we’ll be doing in our home is trying to find a way to practice sight words through the summer so my daughter doesn’t forget them all. You can find lists anywhere online with a simple search. Having your child write and read sight words using sidewalk chalk, paint, shaving cream are all fun and easy ways to practice these skills. As far as math is concerned, math fluency is the most important thing you can do. Practice addition and subtraction facts with younger grade students and multiplication and division with upper grade students.

Any and all things you can do involving reading, math, social studies and/or science will not only encourage learning at home, but it will also help your children maintain and strengthen their skills. So enjoy your summer, have fun, play hard and throw in a little education when the opportunity arises and your child will end the summer ready for the next school year. OP

Written by Katy Tierney

KATY TIERNEY is a third grade teacher at Estes Elementary. She and her husband, Daniel, have two daughters, Harper & Tilly. Her large, extended family and career always keep her on the move. She loves reading with her daughters and spending all the time she can with her family and friends.