Reply to Learning tools you will use with your kids this summer to help them get ready for the next grade?

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Learning tools you will use with your kids this summer to help them get ready for the next grade?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Rising 1st grader and preschooler. We will go to the pool. We will use sidewalk chalk. We will bake cookies. We will read books to each other. We will sing songs. We will dig for worms.

All of these are learning tools. Or did you mean drill-and-kill worksheets and/or edu-tainment electronics? We will not be doing any of those.[/quote]

I highly recommend "The Good School," by Peg Tyre.  All children lose skills during the summer.  The average is one month's worth of learning.  For math, it's 2.6 months of learning that is forgotten.  And that's for middle class and higher, who come from families who have the time and opportunity to do things like dig for worms and read together.   It's much worse for kids from lower SES households or those with other challenges.

Another point I found interesting was the history of a summer break over the years.   I always thought it was due to kids' having to help out on rural family farms, and that is true to some extent.  But some of it was so urban kids could get out of the city (Pre-AC days) to their summer homes.  None of it is due to what best promotes learning and retention.

Reading with your kids is probably enough to retain literacy skills.   But some "drill and kill" is likely necessary for math skills.   [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics