"Fun Ways to Keep Your Kids Learning This Summer"

Children who keep learning and have their minds activated during the summer go back to school more motivated. Kids whose minds get to “go out to pasture” get rusty and when they return to school, they’ve forgotten much of what they learned the year before.

Though your kids are out of school, learning doesn’t need to take a vacation! You can incorporate fun learning experiences into your everyday summer routine so they can progress rather than regress during the hot, lazy days of summer.

Here’s how:

• Combine reading with outings. For example, take a trip to a local fire station. Read Firefighters A to Z by Jean Johnson to your child. Or go feed the ducks at the park and read the kids’ classic, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.
• Have books on subjects your kids are interested in available around the house. Take a trip to the library every week or two for a new supply of great books. Enroll your kids in the library’s summer reading program or contest.
• Make a travel bag or container to keep your kids entertained, happy and learning while you travel. Here are some things to include:
  • Pocket games: Scrabble, Connect Four, Yahtzee & Checkers
  • (Games build lots of skills like problem-solving, language,math and logic)
  • Books on tape like C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, E.B White’s Charlotte’s Web and other favorites, plus sing-along tapes
  • Pencil, pens and paper for drawing and doodling, playing dots, tic-tac-toe and “Mystery Pictures”: one person makes the first stroke of a picture and the others try to guess what he’s drawing. Each incorrect guess, artist adds another stroke.
  • Map of the U.S. for each child