It’s just over a week until our schools break up for the Summer holidays and hopefully, the weather will make a turn for the better. Some families will be jetting off whilst others will be enjoying a staycation.
Schools Out for Summer
Are you a parent, like me, who worries about how much their children fall behind when they break for the Summer. After Lillie’s first year at school, I must admit I switched off from all learning over the Summer period but I what I wasn’t prepared for was how much she had dropped back when she returned to school.
Prevent the Summer slide with learning
The following year I decided to do things differently to help her stay on top and it made all the difference when school started back the following September. Here are some of the things you can do with your children to prevent the Summer slide:
Keep a Holiday Diary
I bought the children an inexpensive notebook with a pretty plain cover which would allow them to customize themselves. They could draw on them, decorate with stickers or whatever they liked to make it their own.
Each day the children write an entry about their day, they could make collages, stick in tickets from days out or photographs which we would print at home. Anything they wanted to create memories of their Summer whilst keeping on top of their writing and recall skills.
Sending Postcards to Family and Friends
This activity is their favourite, they choose postcards of places we have visited and written a little account of where we have been and the things we have done before sending them to friends and family. Even if you don’t go away, you can always buy a plain card and let them design their own postcards to send to loved ones.
Holiday Reading
At the start of the Summer, we take a trip to the local bookshop or library and each chooses a book to read. We try to aim for a minimum of 10 minutes reading each day but sometimes this leads to longer when they find a story they just can’t put down.
What time is it?
I’m delighted to say that all of the Beans can now tell the time. When we are travelling long distances or have something to look forward to I can tell the Beans what time we will arrive or when we need to be somewhere and they are able to keep a track of time themselves. It saves my ears from the constant nagging. Instead, I can ask them “how long until we need to go?” etc.
Baking
As a family, we love to bake so this is always a fun activity for the children to do. They get to use their mathematics skills in weighing out the ingredients or changing measurements if we are baking for more or fewer people. And of course, we get to eat cake!
Spending Money
A few years ago I made the decision to give the children spending money at the start of the Summer. They are each responsible for their own money and can spend it on anything they like but they aren’t allowed extra money (unless they do exemplary chores) when they spend all of theirs and they only get treats from us if we choose to, no asking! This has been revolutionary on my purse, let me tell you. Since being responsible for their own money, they spend far less because they don’t like the prospect of being without money. The result has been that at the end of the Summer they are often left with money which is more than I can say for my purse before this change of tactic.
