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“Where can I find some fun, educational, summer activities for my kids?”

We’ve got you covered.

The “summer slump” is a dangerous reality, and supports the notion that learning outside the classroom is so essential. Organizations like the Harlem Children Zone have recently placed an emphasis on helping families to provide a safe and educational environment for babies and toddlers. Their goal is to prevent any child from falling behind before they are even in the classroom. These same efforts should be made to prevent kids from falling behind during summer vacation.

Kids need opportunities to scoop up knowledge and practice their skills so they remember how to activate their minds when they get back inside the classroom. But parents don’t need to enroll their kids in fancy academic programs. Engagement and learning can occur on the living room couch, at the playground, or walking down the street to grab a slice of pizza.

So here are some ways to keep the wheels greased:

1. Story Telling
Parents can easily adapt Heather Wolpert-Gawron’s thoughtful story-telling lesson plan for the home. Sit down with a child and ask him or her to tell you a story about something that occurred that day. This activity will give kids a chance to reflect, organize their thoughts, and present. If you share a story first it might give them a better idea of how to form a narrative with facts about their day.

Practice literacy skills all over town!

At the end of the school year, it can sometimes be tough to keep your students in their seats. They gaze out the window, as if the mere act of looking hard enough will make summer materialize faster. So why fight the call of the outdoors? Send your students on a scavenger hunt around your town or city! They’ll practice their language arts skills all over town, and see for themselves that you really can “use this in real life.”

With younger students, the whole class can walk around and do a few activities together. For older kids, the scavenger hunt makes a great homework assignment–ask students to pick 1 or 2 activities! School already out? Save it for September–this is a great way to start off the year.

The Scavenger Hunt!

1. Grammar Challenge: Find three signs with incorrect spelling or grammar. Photograph yourself with them. Explain how you would correct those signs. Also explain the impacts and confusions that this incorrect signage could cause in the world.

2. Analyze Advertisement: Find three interesting advertisements on a billboard or bus. Photograph yourself with them. Analyze all of the ways in which it is trying to convince you to do/buy what it is advertising. After you do that, explain whether or not you are convinced.

3. Educational Eavesdropping: Listen to at least 3 conversations on the bus. Transcribe (copy down) the conversations to the best of your ability. Describe what you learned about the people and their personalities/lives, and how you learned it. Do you think you know a lot about them?

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