March 1, 2009
Discovering the Art of Discovery in the Summer
Mark Heller's Monthly Column: March 2009
Category: Academy Headlines | Community News Headlines
Tags: Monthly Column
Parents often ask school administrators for recommendations about summer activities for their children. While the answer varies based on the particular child in question, here are a few general suggestions about how to make the summer enjoyable, memorable, productive, and eye-opening for your child. Stay Active! In general, it absolutely is best for your child to stay active, both physically and mentally through most of the summer. Some down time can be very positive but, again, it truly does depend on the individual child and her/his needs. Creating a set of summer experiences at home (or “Camp Mom”) can work well, especially for young children, but it is not an option for most working families. Fortunately, the older your child gets, the more options there are to find great summer experiences. Most summer day camps have programs for 3-year-olds and up. Many will also have before- and after-care options that will work well to accommodate work schedules. There are also many low-cost programs that are run by your county recreation department, the public library, or your local YMCA, YWCA, and Boys’ and Girls’ Club. Summer programs run by local independent schools are a great option, as they welcome children for summer no matter where they attend school. Check out this magazine and the local newspapers to find these programs. Summer Day Camps Good summer day camp programs offer a range of activities that are sure to engage many different types of learners. There should be academic refreshers and enrichment opportunities as well as athletic, recreational, and artistic activities that families can choose from. Some programs even offer tastes of what sleep-away camp provides: canoeing, fishing, archery, etc. Though you may live in the city or the suburbs, an old-fashioned, idyllic summer experience may be right around the corner at many of the great day camps that exist in the Tampa Bay area. Math Facts and Mental Math Though much of the learning and growing that takes place in summer ought to focus on non-school-related activities, teachers rightly note that academic losses can occur if students entirely ignore reading and math in the summer. I am a big proponent of memorizing math facts and of mental math activities throughout the year, summer included. Knowing math facts without having to go through mental gyrations (just like knowing “sight words” in reading) is a very valuable skill that will bring great benefits throughout a student’s life, both in school and long after graduation. Mental math activities can easily be practiced on vacation, especially in the car. Calculating rate, time, and distance problems that have real-world applications in real time can be a powerful experience for many youngsters. (Our hotel is 300 miles away. What time will we get there if we average 60 miles per hour? What if we average 50 miles per hour?) A word of caution here: while I love engaging in this kind of problem-solving, not every member of my family is as enthusiastically on board. You certainly don’t want to frighten your child off by being over-zealous. Trust me. (Parenting can be a humbling endeavor.) Read! Reading in the summer is crucial. What youngsters read is not nearly as important as that they read. Especially for reluctant readers (including many boys), interest level is key. When they can choose what they read beyond what your school requires as summer reading, let them. Do not let “I’m not going to read” be an acceptable choice. Whether comic books or graphic novels, books or magazines about sports or even about video games, the act of reading is of enormous benefit to children. It is a habit well worth forming. One of the best ways to help children develop that habit is to model the behavior yourself. Quiet reading time every day is an activity that will bring a great deal to all members of the family. Even better, try to read some things together or in common (articles, stories, or chapter books) and then discuss them as a family. Summer is a great time to start this family tradition! Teens Summer presents incredible opportunities for teenagers. Most teens have some sort of transformational experience in the summer at least once during high school. This happens so frequently because the clear and perhaps even inflexible routines and expectations set by the normal school calendar and, especially, by normal school friends are up-ended in the summer. Once your teen is spirited away from those often rigid expectations, she/he becomes free to discover a great deal about her/himself and the world. Great experiences abound in travel opportunities (especially home-stays abroad through organizations like AFS or People to People), academic programs (like summer school for credit, Oxbridge, or the Junior States of America summer school at Georgetown, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, and Northwestern), or special-interest camps (music, theater, math, cheerleading, etc.). A great source to find these experiences is petersons.com. Two other important opportunities for teen summers are worth special mention: Summers can be magical times of learning and growth for children and adolescents. Strive to treat each summer as your family’s canvas and create works of art that convey both beauty and meaning that are particular to your family’s tastes. And have a great voyage of discovery along the way!
