It’s summer time and we are having fun! Caleb learned how to ride his bike (finally!) last week and it has been non-stop ever since! It’s been neat to see him waking up every morning and the first thing he asks if he can go outside and play (instead of asking if he can turn the tv on!).
But along with the physical activity, I also want him working on his mental muscles too, which is why I’m asking him to do a little work each day in reading, writing and math. Third grade starts next year and I know it’s going to be a lot tougher so I want to make sure he’s ready. Also, studies have shown that students often lose a lot of the knowledge they gained the year before over the summer, known as summer learning loss.
I’ve found a lot of helpful resources on the web and thought I’d share a few of those in case you’d like to help your student stay fresh this summer before heading back to school.
Reading Log
At the end of his first grade year, his teacher gave Caleb a reading log with a suggested reading list for the summer. She told him if he read books all summer and filled it out (there were 25 lines), he could bring his log back at the beginning of second grade and get a treat. This was great incentive for Caleb and he loved being able to take his log back to Mrs. Hoy for a reading certificate and a sucker at the beginning of second grade. His second grade teacher could tell it paid off too – where most of her students had dropped in their reading scores from the end of first to the beginning of second, Caleb had actually raised his!
His second grade teacher didn’t send home a reading log this summer, so we have created our own and are using a monetary system this time. If he reads 25 books by the end of summer, he gets $10. 50 books will get him $25 and if he reads a whopping 100 books, he will get $50 (just enough for a new Wii game!). So far, he’s read 9.
Computer Fun
A few weeks before school actually got out, I started looking around online for some good sites Caleb could play on but still be able to learn. FunBrain.com and LearningGamesForKids.com are both good sites that he’s enjoyed so far.
Hands On Learning
Just google your child’s grade and you will find a ton of resources right at your fingertips for helping him or her stay somewhat studious this summer.
Aplusmath.com is a great site for mathematics and has a neat feature where you can mark what type of math you want (addition, subtraction, multiplication or division), how many problems you want and in what format, and a worksheet will be generated that you can print out!
There are also flashcards you can print out (we’re working on multiplication tables) and online worksheets that can be done on the computer if you’d like to save paper.
Another site I just found this morning that you may want to check out is education.com which offers activity ideas, worksheets you can print out in just about every subject, for every grade.
Letter Writing
One more thing I’m trying to do with Caleb this summer is get him to write a little more (he is not a fan and his handwriting grades from second grade definitely back him up!). So after a fun weekend of doing things like our Family Friday Fun day and swimming at the pool or playing with friends, I have him sit down and write a letter to our extended family. He has to write one page (four or five small paragraphs) which I then make copies of and we mail them to the grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins.
I’m hoping that a few of our family members will write back which will excite Caleb and maybe get him to write them back as well. Letter writing may be a dying art, but I really hope writing by hand doesn’t become so!
P.S. Just in case you were worried, Caleb is having a lot of fun this summer. We only do the reading/math/writing thing a couple of hours in the morning, and the rest of the day is his to enjoy, whether it’s playing with his friends outside, or going for a walk with us, or guessing what the next adventure will be! Hope some of these ideas have gotten you thinking about what you can do with your own kids this summer!
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sara,
I see that you mention funbrain.com and learninggamesforkids.com, which are great math resources. I work with a company called DreamBox Learning, where we focus on engaging math games and resources for kids kindergarten – 2nd grade. We recently launched our math development growth chart, which can be a great tool for educators and parents. You mentioned that Caleb is entering 3rd grade next year, and it might be helpful to review the resources and games on our site to gauge his progress. We’d love for you to try our product, and we’re willing to post a blog on our site about your experience. If you'd like to hear more feel free to contact me at tracy@dreambox.com.
Glad to see I'm not the only mom working to keep my kids mentally as well as physically active this summer. Both my girls are entering upper grades and will need to keep up on their math and writing skills. I've been looking on the web for some free math worksheets and blog sites to keep my kids active. I put them in an online binder so they wouldn't wander off to another game site. They just click on the tabs I've selected and either print the worksheet or work online. Here is the link.
http://livebinders.com/play/play?id=1778
I'm still trying to come up with good and fun printables… here is my attempt at developing times tables games.