Summer in Dallas is the best, with something to do almost every day of the week. Sunny skies (usually), museums, play areas, and days filled with swimming and children trying to stay up until it’s dark every night of the week! Even though summer is a fun time of year for both kids and adults, when the midday heat hits most of us come back inside for a little rest and relaxation. By the end of summer we all start to feel as if our kids’ brains have started to go to mush at least a little bit. So, during the time our family hangs around the house this summer, I have a few tactics I use to let the kids enjoy plenty of free time while not forgetting everything they learned before school let out. After all, I’m not just their mother I’m also their teacher, and the last thing I want to do is spend weeks reviewing math facts and basic information when September rolls around. Here are five great ways to keep your kids’ summer educational fun:
1. Participate in Reading Challenges. Barnes & Noble, 1/2 Price Books and all of the local Dallas area libraries have fantastic summer reading programs for 2015. I don’t stress over how “long” my kids read everyday as I feel this reinforces a belief of reading being a chore, which is something I do NOT want to teach them. Instead, I focus on finding things that catch their attention and make them want to pick up reading when I’m not around. Some of my girls love books about bugs and the Guinness Book of World Records, while another one strictly like graphic novels about video games. Truly, however, the most impactful thing I’ve done to encourage my children to read is simply to set aside a bit of time during the middle of each day for myself to read. Seeing that reading is something I value even as an adult has had a huge impact on them.
2. Dreambox Learning. Dreambox is an adaptive math program available on your computer AND on your smart phones through their app. It is a subscription plan but it well worth it in my opinion. Kids play games, earn tokens to use in their arcade, and parents can keep track of their progress in relation to their grade level. Because it’s adapative it even learns your children’s weaknesses and reintroduces those concepts for practice until they have been mastered. This is something we use year round, but is our only math program during the summer months. Monthly subscriptions to DreamBox Learning are $12.95.
3. Little Passports. Imagine your child getting a package in the mail each month from their friends Sophia and Sam. Sophia and Sam tell them all about a location or two they’ve been (whether it’s within the United States or the world) and include a booklet with facts and fun activities. My kids love getting mail that is addressed to them and they LOVE the stickers and activities. Your kids will call this “fun”. We Moms will call this “sneaky geography”. Monthly subscriptions to Little Passports are $12.95 per month and include a little tikes version, a U.S. version and a World version.
4. Reading Apps. Epic! and Reading Rainbow are two of my favorite reading apps for my kids. Both offer books that your child can either read to themselves or read aloud, but if I had to give one of them the edge it would definitely be Epic!. Epic! has a better interface for multiple kids’ profiles and has a much better selection of books for all ages. There are books not only for my 4 year old (that I can either read to her or have the app read to her) but also books for older children at higher reading levels that suit my 9 year old wonderfully. For my 6 year old who is still learning how to read there are plenty of books she can practice reading to me on (and saving me bi-weekly trips to the library with 4 kids in tow). Epic! also keeps track of how many books they’ve read, how long they’ve spent reading, and whether or not they’re just “flipping” or actually spending enough time on each page to be considered “reading.” Both are available on PC, iOS and Android for $9.99 per month.
5. Reading Aloud. This article by the NY Times is just one of many that sums up all of the reading studies: reading aloud to your kids is important at ANY age. This summer, for instance, we are reading The Secret Garden AND Gregor the Overlander aloud to our kids. We sit outside in the evening with the citronella candles lit (go away mosquitoes!!) and read a chapter or two of whatever book we are reading aloud at the time. They beg for more, but I’m tired and it’s bedtime, so I tuck them into bed knowing that for that particular night I have successfully fanned the flames of the desire to read.
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None of these posts have been sponsored, and all are things that my family has paid for ourselves and utilized extensively over the last several years.
