Jun. 17, 2008 - How to avoid Summer 'Brain Drain'
With the school year coming to an end, what are your summer plans? Are you finished and looking forward to shelving all the books or does your family school year round incorporating a more relaxed school routine into your summer days? We fall into the latter category, keeping up our school studies throughout the summer to minimize loss of information over the summer holiday :)
Did you know that your child can lose as much as 2.5 months of what they've learned in Math and English during the summer? Not all that hard to believe actually. I've found that sometimes our math studies go in waves where we will work really hard on one subject like multiplication and then as we move onto another math topic we leave behind all of the multiplication drills and they start to dwindle away finding that we need to hit them hard again to get them back up to snuff so you can just imagine then what happens to my son after 2 months of fun in the sun *grin* Well I've found a great workbook series to combat the 'brain drain' that happens during the summer months, called the Summer Smart Series and it covers Kindergarten on up in a fun, full colored workbook. It's broken down into 8 weeks of lessons (about 2 pages a day) with each module covering math, language arts, science, social studies, and arts & crafts and what's really great is it's Canadian!! Plus the price is right, between $10 - 14.
Another great way to keep your children interested in learning is to join one of the Summer Reading Programs offered by your local libraries. We participated in ours last year and the kids really got into it, reading over a dozen books each week to earn tickets for the weekly draws and even won a couple of books!
The Vancouver Island Regional Library is holding their summer reading program again this year and it kicks off this Saturday. It's open to all children ages 12 and under and make sure you check with your library for the special dates throughout the summer that they will be holding events for the children.
The British Columbia Library association is holding their summer reading program this year with a 'Read All Over the Map' theme and weekly book lists, activities, quizzes and more! There's even PDF's for parents with activity ideas etc. for all age levels.
The Fort Nelson Public Library also has a summer reading program for ages 5 - 16. They also have a link to the provincial website for discussion groups, book reviews, contests etc. for the teenaged children.
The Greater Victoria Public Library has a whole host of activities going on this summer. They've got a summer reading program, storytimes, programs for school aged children on up and craft activities.
Want to know what's happening at libraries across British Columbia & Canada that will interest your older children? Then check out this neat forum where librarians can post upcoming events!
Well that's a start on how to keep the synapses growing this summer *grin*
Do you have another summer activity in BC that you want to share with all of us? Let us know!
