Children often have a hard time retaining skills during the summer break. Many parents enroll children in summer school or extended school year, but this often is an abbreviated and less structured version of the school day. Even when children are educated at home, summer often involves routine changes. Since many children rely on consistent instruction, these changes can result in regression. This article includes strategies for preventing regression and teaching new skills.
1. Know What Skills to Work On - To prevent regression know what skills your child is working on and their current functioning level. Be sure to review their school progress reports, IEP (if applicable), and information from their teacher on summer reading and work. For children working on self-care, independence, or behavior skills, take data on their current progress. Be sure to ask their teachers and
therapists what skills they are working on and exactly where they stand.
2. Find Opportunities to Practice Skills - Many skills can be integrated into a daily routine. Dressing, self-care, and behavior naturally occur during the day. Take time to use these natural occurrences as learning opportunities. For example, help your child as needed to put on their shoes rather than doing it for them. It may take longer for them to do the skill on their own, but it teaches them the steps they need to be more independent. Academic skills also can be integrated into a daily routine. Have children help with any math related problems and involve them in reading. For
example, if you have a family picnic and 4 cousins, 3 aunts, 3 uncles, and 2 grandparents will be there, have your child help you count the number of cupcakes you need to bring. If you are baking the cupcakes, work on literacy skills by having your child read the recipe to you. Counting and fractions can be developed by gathering and measuring the ingredients. Children can work on motor skills by cutting butter, stirring ingredients, and pouring the batter into the tin. For children who need direct instruction, schedule a time during the day specifically to work on skills.
3. Build on Existing Skills - When children master a skill continue to review it, but also expand on skills. For example, if your child is mastering their current list of sight words, be sure to add additional words and phrases to their skill set. If they are able to count all the spoons the family has when helping to empty the dishwasher, add a serving spoon or two and teach them to count a little higher. Build on skills one step at a time so they are successful, enjoy learning, and do not become frustrated.
4. Appreciate Small Steps – It can be very frustrating for parents and professionals when children learn slowly or take a step backwards. Try to remember some skills take awhile for children to acquire. Sometimes children need additional examples of the skill or a new approach for instruction. Recognize that children become frustrated as well and teach them to be persistent and patient.
5. Realise It Is Summer – When children have different educational programs,
therapies, and activities, it can be easy to forget summer break is also for elaxing. Although working on skills is important, be sure to enjoy the fun things summer has to offer. Enroll kids in swimming lessons, summer camp, tennis class, or just let them play outside. These kinds of activities are a way to stay healthy, learn new skills, and make new friends.
Friday, 16 July 2010
Strategies for Teaching Children to Make Good Choices
Choice is a big part of people’s lives. We decide daily what to wear, what to do, and how to treat people. Teaching children how to make good choices is critical for independence and self-control. This article focuses on a variety of strategies for teaching choice making.
1. Allow Children to Make Choices - Often it is easier to choose for children than allow them to decide for themselves. Unfortunately, lessons learned by making good and bad choices help children become responsible, independent adults. Choice also gives children a sense of ownership in activities. Take time to offer choices, create situations for choice, and reinforce the importance of good choices in your day.
2. Limit Choices - Keep the number and types of choices within reasonable limits. For example, if you let a child pick a snack, give them two or three healthy choices. By providing only allowable choices you reduce opportunities for conflict and create a situation where they succeed at making a good choice.
3. Discuss Options – When faced with decisions, think through and discuss the options to help children understand why one choice is better than another. Discuss possible choices, consequences, and why one option is better. For example, when leaving the house look outside and discuss the weather. Is it cold? Is
it raining? Which coat is the better choice? What happens if you pick the light cotton coat and it rains? By guiding children through choices you teach them how to make decisions for themselves.
4. Consider Other People – When decisions involve other people, discuss the implications of the choice for the other people. For example, if a child wants to use the swing for the duration of recess discuss:
Have other people asked to use the swing? Are other children waiting for the swing? How would you feel if you didn’t have a chance to use the swing? Are there other places you can play for part of recess? This helps children realize their choices affect people other than themselves.
6. Use Past Choices as Opportunities – When a child makes a bad choice such as cutting in line, saying something hurtful, or playing rather than finishing homework, use the opportunity to discuss why the choice was bad, consequences, and better choices for the future. Ask the child what other choices they could have made and what may have happened. Additionally, use past decisions and consequences as
reminders. For example, “Noah, remember how you played video games rather than clean your room yesterday and had to miss your favorite show and clean up? What do you think you should do today?”
7. Praise Good Choices – When children make good decisions let them know what they did and why it was a good choice. For example, “Jason, I like the way you moved over to make room for Ella on the bus. It was nice of you to share your seat. That was a very good choice.”
8. State When There Is No Choice – Some situations such as safety and schedules have no choices. Holding hands crossing the street, participating in fire drills, and leaving on time for school are examples of times when there is no choice. Explain why these situations do not have choices and why all people must follow certain rules and schedules. Let children know if there is an aspect of the event that is their choice. For example, “We have to leave now for the bus, but you can carry your blue or red book bag.”
1. Allow Children to Make Choices - Often it is easier to choose for children than allow them to decide for themselves. Unfortunately, lessons learned by making good and bad choices help children become responsible, independent adults. Choice also gives children a sense of ownership in activities. Take time to offer choices, create situations for choice, and reinforce the importance of good choices in your day.
2. Limit Choices - Keep the number and types of choices within reasonable limits. For example, if you let a child pick a snack, give them two or three healthy choices. By providing only allowable choices you reduce opportunities for conflict and create a situation where they succeed at making a good choice.
3. Discuss Options – When faced with decisions, think through and discuss the options to help children understand why one choice is better than another. Discuss possible choices, consequences, and why one option is better. For example, when leaving the house look outside and discuss the weather. Is it cold? Is
it raining? Which coat is the better choice? What happens if you pick the light cotton coat and it rains? By guiding children through choices you teach them how to make decisions for themselves.
4. Consider Other People – When decisions involve other people, discuss the implications of the choice for the other people. For example, if a child wants to use the swing for the duration of recess discuss:
Have other people asked to use the swing? Are other children waiting for the swing? How would you feel if you didn’t have a chance to use the swing? Are there other places you can play for part of recess? This helps children realize their choices affect people other than themselves.
6. Use Past Choices as Opportunities – When a child makes a bad choice such as cutting in line, saying something hurtful, or playing rather than finishing homework, use the opportunity to discuss why the choice was bad, consequences, and better choices for the future. Ask the child what other choices they could have made and what may have happened. Additionally, use past decisions and consequences as
reminders. For example, “Noah, remember how you played video games rather than clean your room yesterday and had to miss your favorite show and clean up? What do you think you should do today?”
7. Praise Good Choices – When children make good decisions let them know what they did and why it was a good choice. For example, “Jason, I like the way you moved over to make room for Ella on the bus. It was nice of you to share your seat. That was a very good choice.”
8. State When There Is No Choice – Some situations such as safety and schedules have no choices. Holding hands crossing the street, participating in fire drills, and leaving on time for school are examples of times when there is no choice. Explain why these situations do not have choices and why all people must follow certain rules and schedules. Let children know if there is an aspect of the event that is their choice. For example, “We have to leave now for the bus, but you can carry your blue or red book bag.”
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Students for Madeleine
Dear Colleagues
As you know, People First Education Ltd continue to support the campaign to find Madeleine McCann. The team at findmadeleine have recently launched a student initiative.
Please would you be kind enough to take a moment to check out the link by clicking the Students for Madeleine logo to your right, and forward it to anybody you may think is interested.
With very best wishes
The People First Education Team
As you know, People First Education Ltd continue to support the campaign to find Madeleine McCann. The team at findmadeleine have recently launched a student initiative.
Please would you be kind enough to take a moment to check out the link by clicking the Students for Madeleine logo to your right, and forward it to anybody you may think is interested.
With very best wishes
The People First Education Team
Friday, 11 June 2010
Doncaster School for the Deaf
I would just like to say a very BIG thank you to all staff at Doncaster School for the Deaf for inviting me in to talk about Autism and ADHD for the day on Monday. Not only was everybody welcoming and friendly, but the experience of working with signers was very new to me, and could easily have been a nerve wracking one if it had not been for the support of everybody!
What a great day, thanks again everybody!
Andrew
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
ICT - 140 and counting Features | Published in TES Magazine on 4 June, 2010
Twitter's not just for Stephen Fry. Mike Kielty reports on how teachers are harnessing this free technology to create a 'community of learning' beyond the school gates
By any standards, Thomas Tallis School in London is unusually tech-savvy. This specialist arts college has its own online forum ("Tallis Talk"), its own iPhone application and many blogs showing pupils' work. But it is the school's Twitter feed (@creativetallis) that has been its most effective tool in reaching out to a wider audience. The school has more than 1,000 Twitter followers and regularly updates its feed with links to its pupils' work and to different artists around the world.
For Jon Nicholls, the school's art college manager and main tweeter, the micro-blogging site could lead to a fundamental change in the way pupils study. "It's a great model of learning because the more you learn, the more you invest in it, the more you offer other people, the more you get back," he says. This style of teaching is less top-down and more collaborative, he adds, a way to communicate in new ways, both with pupils and with the world outside the school gates.
Twitter - based on text-based posts of up to 140 characters - has become enormously popular since its creation in 2006, but the benefits for schools have not been clear until now. While many teachers have individual accounts on the site, and some schools have created their own Twitter feeds, there are few examples of how it can be used constructively in the classroom.
All of which makes @creativetallis all the more remarkable. Mr Nicholls believes the main reason for the school's success on Twitter is that it has created a "community of learning".
He interacts with other tweeters interested in creative ways to learn: asking and answering questions about teaching; posting links to other artistic sites; displaying the work of Thomas Tallis pupils. "It's about being part of a conversation on the web, and connecting with people who have mutual interests," he says, making @creativetallis much more than a dry school newsletter.
As well as its official feed, the school is experimenting with Twitter in lessons. One idea was to divide children into groups to market Fair Trade products from different countries. The children practised advertising the products on Twitter, just as many real companies would. "It encourages brevity, accuracy, precision. All the things that we want children to develop as communication skills," Mr Nicholls adds.
Teachers elsewhere are also seeking out new methods to harness this technology. At the end of his lesson, Andrew Luxton, a history teacher at Priory Community School in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, asks selected pupils to send a tweet to one of his Twitter addresses (@PCSLuxton and @PrioryGCSEHums), describing what they think is the main point they have taken from the lesson.
Other pupils provide feedback and improve the message until both they and Mr Luxton are satisfied. Then he sends it to the whole class, in what he has dubbed a "tweenary", to help the children to focus on and remember the key message of the lesson.
While Mr Luxton is keen to point out that he does not use technology just for the sake of it, he believes that Twitter can be a useful classroom tool. "If Twitter helps some pupils boost their grades or understand something more, then it is worth it," he says. "It is very easy to use, does not consume time or other resources, and is free."
At St Ninian's High School (@stninianshigh) in East Renfrewshire, Kenny O'Donnell, a geography teacher, organised a live tweeting conversation for his class of 13 and 14-year-olds with Alastair Humphreys of the Catlin Arctic Survey (@ArcticSurvey), who was at his camp in the Arctic Circle at the time.
"Twitter is a quick and easy way to get a real person in your classroom," says Mr O'Donnell. He also points out that it is free, a "Godsend" to teachers and schools in the present economic climate.
But not everyone has climbed on board the Twitter bandwagon. Anastasia de Waal, deputy director of the think-tank Civitas, argues that it could distract teachers and schools from more effective, if less fashionable, teaching methods. Twitter might be useful for teachers to exchange ideas with one another, but does not necessarily have a place in the classroom, she says.
"My worry is that there is a feeling schools must be up to date and take on all of the latest technology, and it isn't going to work for everybody. It may be just a distraction."
The use of Twitter in classrooms is still at an experimental stage. It is far more common for teachers to set up personal profiles on Twitter and use them to share ideas with others in the profession.
Laura Doggett (@lauradoggett), a French teacher at Westfield Community Technology College in Hertfordshire, is an e-learning expert who has blogged about how Twitter can be useful for teachers. She has more than 1,600 followers on Twitter, which she uses as a place to talk with other teachers and as a "sounding board" for new ideas.
"It's really great to be able, in one scroll of a page, to move from a fantastic recipe to a great English teaching resource to a brilliant new strategy on using virtual learning environments, to somebody needing some help and being able to contribute," she says.
David Miller (@DavidMiller_UK), an award-winning English teacher at another St Ninian's High, in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, has more than 750 Twitter followers. He tweets to other teachers, discussing ideas, but does not allow his pupils to follow him. He says: "I find it an incredibly powerful tool for personal and professional development."
There are risks for teachers using Twitter. Any inappropriate messages could lead to problems at work. Argyll and Bute Council in western Scotland banned its teachers from using Twitter last year, after one was found to have posted around 20 messages a day. Her posts included criticisms of the headteacher and one that read: "Had S3 period 6 for last two years...don't know who least wants to do anything, them or me."
It is difficult to imagine Twitter conversations between teachers and pupils ever becoming a normal part of school lessons. Why tweet a message to someone less than 5m away from you? But the signs are that tweeting will become a more common learning tool, with teachers using it to communicate with their pupils outside the classroom. It is at the forefront of the wave of Web 2.0 technologies that are transforming the way teaching and learning takes place by making it more conversational.
As Jon Nicholls says: "Twitter is the most efficient, fastest, most focused version of that conversation you can have online."
How can schools use Twitter?
- Producing daily tweets about what is going on in the school.
- Sending out administrative messages to parents, pupils and staff.
- Introducing children to the Twitter streams of notable figures outside the classroom.
- Creating "communities of learning": groups of tweeters interested in a specialised area.
- Starting "tweenaries", in which children condense the key message(s) of a class into the length of a tweet.
Top tweeting schools
- @creativetallis - 1,065 followers - Thomas Tallis School, London
- @OrwellHigh - 479 followers - Orwell High School, Felixstowe
- @ClassroomTweets - 475 followers - Year 2 class at Holy Trinity Rosehill CofE Primary School, Stockton
- See also @schoolduggery - 4,037 followers - An independent perspective on education in the UK. Contains numerous lists where you can link to schools and teachers in particular subject areas.
Log on for learning
- Futurelab - a not-for-profit group that researches and helps schools to implement new technology. www.futurelab.org.uk 0117 915 8200
- Green Schools Online - sets up websites for schools, including Twitter feeds. www.greenschoolsonline.co.uk 0844 668 6844
- Edmodo and Learning Landscape for Schools are social networking sites where schools can create private communities so teachers and pupils can exchange messages and ideas without them being made public. www.edmodo.com info@edmodo.com www.ll4schools.co.uk 020 8764 2663.
By any standards, Thomas Tallis School in London is unusually tech-savvy. This specialist arts college has its own online forum ("Tallis Talk"), its own iPhone application and many blogs showing pupils' work. But it is the school's Twitter feed (@creativetallis) that has been its most effective tool in reaching out to a wider audience. The school has more than 1,000 Twitter followers and regularly updates its feed with links to its pupils' work and to different artists around the world.
For Jon Nicholls, the school's art college manager and main tweeter, the micro-blogging site could lead to a fundamental change in the way pupils study. "It's a great model of learning because the more you learn, the more you invest in it, the more you offer other people, the more you get back," he says. This style of teaching is less top-down and more collaborative, he adds, a way to communicate in new ways, both with pupils and with the world outside the school gates.
Twitter - based on text-based posts of up to 140 characters - has become enormously popular since its creation in 2006, but the benefits for schools have not been clear until now. While many teachers have individual accounts on the site, and some schools have created their own Twitter feeds, there are few examples of how it can be used constructively in the classroom.
All of which makes @creativetallis all the more remarkable. Mr Nicholls believes the main reason for the school's success on Twitter is that it has created a "community of learning".
He interacts with other tweeters interested in creative ways to learn: asking and answering questions about teaching; posting links to other artistic sites; displaying the work of Thomas Tallis pupils. "It's about being part of a conversation on the web, and connecting with people who have mutual interests," he says, making @creativetallis much more than a dry school newsletter.
As well as its official feed, the school is experimenting with Twitter in lessons. One idea was to divide children into groups to market Fair Trade products from different countries. The children practised advertising the products on Twitter, just as many real companies would. "It encourages brevity, accuracy, precision. All the things that we want children to develop as communication skills," Mr Nicholls adds.
Teachers elsewhere are also seeking out new methods to harness this technology. At the end of his lesson, Andrew Luxton, a history teacher at Priory Community School in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, asks selected pupils to send a tweet to one of his Twitter addresses (@PCSLuxton and @PrioryGCSEHums), describing what they think is the main point they have taken from the lesson.
Other pupils provide feedback and improve the message until both they and Mr Luxton are satisfied. Then he sends it to the whole class, in what he has dubbed a "tweenary", to help the children to focus on and remember the key message of the lesson.
While Mr Luxton is keen to point out that he does not use technology just for the sake of it, he believes that Twitter can be a useful classroom tool. "If Twitter helps some pupils boost their grades or understand something more, then it is worth it," he says. "It is very easy to use, does not consume time or other resources, and is free."
At St Ninian's High School (@stninianshigh) in East Renfrewshire, Kenny O'Donnell, a geography teacher, organised a live tweeting conversation for his class of 13 and 14-year-olds with Alastair Humphreys of the Catlin Arctic Survey (@ArcticSurvey), who was at his camp in the Arctic Circle at the time.
"Twitter is a quick and easy way to get a real person in your classroom," says Mr O'Donnell. He also points out that it is free, a "Godsend" to teachers and schools in the present economic climate.
But not everyone has climbed on board the Twitter bandwagon. Anastasia de Waal, deputy director of the think-tank Civitas, argues that it could distract teachers and schools from more effective, if less fashionable, teaching methods. Twitter might be useful for teachers to exchange ideas with one another, but does not necessarily have a place in the classroom, she says.
"My worry is that there is a feeling schools must be up to date and take on all of the latest technology, and it isn't going to work for everybody. It may be just a distraction."
The use of Twitter in classrooms is still at an experimental stage. It is far more common for teachers to set up personal profiles on Twitter and use them to share ideas with others in the profession.
Laura Doggett (@lauradoggett), a French teacher at Westfield Community Technology College in Hertfordshire, is an e-learning expert who has blogged about how Twitter can be useful for teachers. She has more than 1,600 followers on Twitter, which she uses as a place to talk with other teachers and as a "sounding board" for new ideas.
"It's really great to be able, in one scroll of a page, to move from a fantastic recipe to a great English teaching resource to a brilliant new strategy on using virtual learning environments, to somebody needing some help and being able to contribute," she says.
David Miller (@DavidMiller_UK), an award-winning English teacher at another St Ninian's High, in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, has more than 750 Twitter followers. He tweets to other teachers, discussing ideas, but does not allow his pupils to follow him. He says: "I find it an incredibly powerful tool for personal and professional development."
There are risks for teachers using Twitter. Any inappropriate messages could lead to problems at work. Argyll and Bute Council in western Scotland banned its teachers from using Twitter last year, after one was found to have posted around 20 messages a day. Her posts included criticisms of the headteacher and one that read: "Had S3 period 6 for last two years...don't know who least wants to do anything, them or me."
It is difficult to imagine Twitter conversations between teachers and pupils ever becoming a normal part of school lessons. Why tweet a message to someone less than 5m away from you? But the signs are that tweeting will become a more common learning tool, with teachers using it to communicate with their pupils outside the classroom. It is at the forefront of the wave of Web 2.0 technologies that are transforming the way teaching and learning takes place by making it more conversational.
As Jon Nicholls says: "Twitter is the most efficient, fastest, most focused version of that conversation you can have online."
How can schools use Twitter?
- Producing daily tweets about what is going on in the school.
- Sending out administrative messages to parents, pupils and staff.
- Introducing children to the Twitter streams of notable figures outside the classroom.
- Creating "communities of learning": groups of tweeters interested in a specialised area.
- Starting "tweenaries", in which children condense the key message(s) of a class into the length of a tweet.
Top tweeting schools
- @creativetallis - 1,065 followers - Thomas Tallis School, London
- @OrwellHigh - 479 followers - Orwell High School, Felixstowe
- @ClassroomTweets - 475 followers - Year 2 class at Holy Trinity Rosehill CofE Primary School, Stockton
- See also @schoolduggery - 4,037 followers - An independent perspective on education in the UK. Contains numerous lists where you can link to schools and teachers in particular subject areas.
Log on for learning
- Futurelab - a not-for-profit group that researches and helps schools to implement new technology. www.futurelab.org.uk 0117 915 8200
- Green Schools Online - sets up websites for schools, including Twitter feeds. www.greenschoolsonline.co.uk 0844 668 6844
- Edmodo and Learning Landscape for Schools are social networking sites where schools can create private communities so teachers and pupils can exchange messages and ideas without them being made public. www.edmodo.com info@edmodo.com www.ll4schools.co.uk 020 8764 2663.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Getting Ready for Summer Break
Getting Ready for Summer Break
1. Prepare Kids – Prepare children for the summer break while they are still in school. Classrooms often have a countdown to summer, but including one in the home also is helpful. Discuss summer break with children including when they will return to school and what they will do over the break. Read books about vacation, summer, and school breaks.
2. Make Cards – If children are concerned about not seeing their friends and teacher, have them create cards for everyone. The cards can have memories from the school year or a simple message, “Have a nice summer. See you in August.” Cards are a great way for children to share their feelings and learn about giving.
3. Don’t Forget School – Arrange summer play dates with classmates before school ends so children know they will see their friends soon. Use the class picture as a way to discuss and remember classmates, or make a book about the past year, “Bobby’s Year in First Grade.”
4. Maintain Structure – The school day provides a significant amount of structure for children. A transition from a full day of planned activities to one with little structure can be very difficult for children. Have a routine so children have consistency in their lives. Set times for waking up, going to bed, eating, and other activities so children know what to expect during the day. If children have a routine with different activities on different days of the week such as swimming lessons Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and library time on Tuesdays, make a calendar showing these activities with words or pictures so children see the day’s activities. Some children may benefit from a very structured schedule. If children use a picture schedule at school, ask their teacher how to implement it at home. Besides including structured activities, remember a schedule can include periods of choice and free play while still providing support and structure.
5. Keep Activities Handy – Keep materials for art activities (paper, paints, buttons, glue, magazines)handy. Art activities develop fine motor skills and encourage creativity. Cooking lunch or snacks is a fun activity for children and it encourages reading, basic math (fractions, counting), and turn taking.
6. Start Summer-Long Responsibilities – Give children activities for the summer. Gardening activities such as a small plot in the family garden or an indoor herb garden are a great opportunity for children to watch plants grow, care for them, and see the fruits of their labor. If children are not interested in gardening, give them responsibilities with the family pet (brushing, feeding, walking) or another household activity. These activities can be expanded upon by reading about the topic or attending events involving the topic such as a local flower show or dog show.
7. Ask the Teacher – If you have concerns about a child’s transition from school to summer, ask their teacher for suggestions. The teacher may have specific ideas for your child’s needs or they may know about community activities your child would enjoy. They also can provide ways to help your son or daughter prepare for the next school year.
1. Prepare Kids – Prepare children for the summer break while they are still in school. Classrooms often have a countdown to summer, but including one in the home also is helpful. Discuss summer break with children including when they will return to school and what they will do over the break. Read books about vacation, summer, and school breaks.
2. Make Cards – If children are concerned about not seeing their friends and teacher, have them create cards for everyone. The cards can have memories from the school year or a simple message, “Have a nice summer. See you in August.” Cards are a great way for children to share their feelings and learn about giving.
3. Don’t Forget School – Arrange summer play dates with classmates before school ends so children know they will see their friends soon. Use the class picture as a way to discuss and remember classmates, or make a book about the past year, “Bobby’s Year in First Grade.”
4. Maintain Structure – The school day provides a significant amount of structure for children. A transition from a full day of planned activities to one with little structure can be very difficult for children. Have a routine so children have consistency in their lives. Set times for waking up, going to bed, eating, and other activities so children know what to expect during the day. If children have a routine with different activities on different days of the week such as swimming lessons Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and library time on Tuesdays, make a calendar showing these activities with words or pictures so children see the day’s activities. Some children may benefit from a very structured schedule. If children use a picture schedule at school, ask their teacher how to implement it at home. Besides including structured activities, remember a schedule can include periods of choice and free play while still providing support and structure.
5. Keep Activities Handy – Keep materials for art activities (paper, paints, buttons, glue, magazines)handy. Art activities develop fine motor skills and encourage creativity. Cooking lunch or snacks is a fun activity for children and it encourages reading, basic math (fractions, counting), and turn taking.
6. Start Summer-Long Responsibilities – Give children activities for the summer. Gardening activities such as a small plot in the family garden or an indoor herb garden are a great opportunity for children to watch plants grow, care for them, and see the fruits of their labor. If children are not interested in gardening, give them responsibilities with the family pet (brushing, feeding, walking) or another household activity. These activities can be expanded upon by reading about the topic or attending events involving the topic such as a local flower show or dog show.
7. Ask the Teacher – If you have concerns about a child’s transition from school to summer, ask their teacher for suggestions. The teacher may have specific ideas for your child’s needs or they may know about community activities your child would enjoy. They also can provide ways to help your son or daughter prepare for the next school year.
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