Our children will lose about 20-30% of the lessons they learned during the school year. Over the summer break it is up to us as parents to step-up and make sure that information is retained and gained. For younger children I have found a multitude of websites, worksheets, and workbooks to keep them engaged and learning. This requires for us as parents to engage as well, using these sites a lesson/learning plan is done for us. Personally in order to determine what I would study with Anissa I looked over her report card for the year and saw where her strengths and weaknesses are and begin to look for website and worksheets to help. I’m also a huge fan of Hooked On Phonics we use it throughout the school year to help her reading and comprehension.

Summer break is an opportunity for kids to relax, have fun, and explore without having to prepare the next day for school. Here are a few tips to help you make summer learning not feel like school:

1. There will have to be some form of structure but nothing like school. A school day is 5-6 hours, you can make summer learning 2-3 hours giving them the opportunity to still enjoy their summertime fun.
2. Find your inner teacher. My teacher friends find creative ways to find themes for their classroom throughout the year. We need to create this space at home. Create an area specifically for their studying. If you don’t feel creative check out a few pins here to help you create this space.
3. Find sites that will help you create lesson/learning plans: DIY Camps

What do we do with teens (older children) for the summer? Before the last day of school I was sent a reading assignment for Jamiel. Summer reading is expected, but how do I get him to think, to study, to not lose those fact finding, paper writing skills we worked on during the school year? Thanks to another Hot Mom, Tawanna A. I have something for them to do as well. Let’s face it teens are not going to find getting an assignment from their parent as fun, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take to ensure my son retains his skill set needed for the next academic years of his life. The suggestions was to have your teen write a paper on a trending topic or social issue going on in today’s society. There’s a plethora of available topics. Below you will find a few you may want to consider:

1. Consent: No means No! Define what consent means to them in reference to dating. Why is consent important? What do your state laws say regarding consent?
2. Mental Health: Still Taboo? Are celebrities bringing mental health awareness to the forefront or a trending topic for the time? How can we as a community support mental health awareness?
3. Social Media: Is it really social? Is social media making people less social in the physical? Are people setting others up for failure by faking their lives on social media

Those are a few topics I came up with, there are so many more. The point is to engage and keep the learning going. How can you help your child gain knowledge and let them know it’s a power?