Summertime is a great time for families because it usually means getting out and about and getting together with friends and families.
For students who may have been spending so much of their days in classrooms, it’s time for discovering and creating new things and exploring – either through travel or closer to home.
It is also a time to find some clever way to keep up with the gains in reading, writing, math, or some other tough subjects over the past school year.
Sometimes we’re asked about summer programs specifically designed for dyslexic students – and sometimes a program like this might be a good thing depending on the student. Some families can’t afford a private dyslexia school full-time in the school year – so a summer program may help them learn strategies that they can apply later to everything. A lot of these programs also incorporate fun things to do – and a much less stressful environment than the school year. For students who are at-risk of being held back, they can help maintain skills and even put them ahead for the upcoming school year.
What about a fairly unscheduled summer?
Sometimes this is a wonderful thing.
If you decide to do this for a few weeks or even the whole summer, good things happen when they start to look bored.
Suggest rather than assign. Executive function happens when students make plans and try to execute them.
If your student hits a roadblock, then use some of your superhero parent or teacher abilities to help them to overcome what’s current in their way.
For instance, some students who have stories floating around in their heads, may be able to make a film with their phone, or figure out how to use speech-to-text or a writing software to get their ideas out into print on a page.
Is there a film camp or creative camp that they can go to, or even a summer film festival or writers event where they can find inspiration? Many museums and universities have summer programs for kids.
Even students who look like they could be at risk for spending the entire summer on the couch playing video games, could be nudged into designing games and learning a new computer language to do it – over the summer.
If kids are happy finding things to do based on their interests and strengths, it may be possible to slip in some reading goals over the summer – especially if the material is based on what they want to learn more about.
Math may be tricky, you might think – to preserve over the summer, but having them earn a little money, develop a budget, can preserve some math skills – as can baking, measuring and designing changes in a room, card games, and statistics in sports are other ways to slip in some math in engaging ways.
Some resources for ideas:
Math on Summer Vacation – Mathnasium
Summer Math from Madison Schools (see board games)
