Preparing for summer takes on a whole new meaning when your child has been learning at home for months already. You and your family might already be exhausted from remote learning, so how can you come up with new and exciting summer enrichment opportunities for your family without the structure from schools?
It’s time to think outside the box! While school has lent a much-needed academic structure to your child’s online learning experiences, summer learning might be a time to step away from the screen and enjoy some (socially distant) new experiences.
Get outside and explore
Even if you can’t travel to a park or the beach, your child can still benefit from outdoor summer learning experiences, even if you can only get to your own backyard. If you haven’t planted a garden yet, summer is a great time to do that! You can order seeds online for contactless delivery, and you and your children can plant the seeds and watch them grow. This is a great opportunity to learn about plant growth, and you can incorporate lots of math into this by measuring the plant each day and tracking its growth on a graph.
Sidewalk chalk is also your friend! Have your child write their sight words in the driveway, or come up with their own math problems and answer them. The sky’s the limit!
Go on (virtual) vacations
While your summer travel plans might have been thwarted, there are still lots of opportunities to see new things and learn! Many local zoos and aquariums have daily live streams in which they introduce animals and answer questions about them. Try following your local places on Facebook and Instagram to see what they offer.
In addition, many national and international museums and landmarks have virtual field trip opportunities. Take a look at these with your child and find one or two fun ones to visit each week. You can even add structure to your week by making Fridays “field trip days” to get your child excited about them!
Get creative in the kitchen
Summer learning doesn’t have to be a huge ordeal. You can turn ordinary activities into learning activities by involving your child in all steps of the process. For example, try baking something fun while dividing the recipe in half. This will challenge your child to work with fractions and ratios to correctly half the recipe.
You can also have a creative cook-off, where your child plans a meal and writes a menu with descriptions of the dishes and prices. You can even work together to film a commercial for your family “restaurant”!
Read, read, read!
You don’t need endless assignments from school to keep your child’s literacy skills fresh. The best way to do this is to read! You can read to your child, or they can read to you.
The important takeaway here is to make reading fun. Don’t force your child to read books you think they should read; instead, let them pick the books and the reading skills will follow. Even if your local library is still closed, you can access e-books and audio books online.
If your child isn’t into reading independently, you can also practice comprehension skills with a favorite show or movie as well. Ask your child to explain the characters, setting, problem, and solution of a show, or have them write their own sequel or different ending.
Summer learning doesn’t have to be dry or super structured
Focus on your child’s interests, strike a balance between indoor and outdoor time, and have fun with it! And if you’re juggling your own work-from-home schedule and truly need the structure, or you want enrichment activities from trained educators, consider our virtual summer camp experiences.
