Brain Food through the Summer
June 18, 2009 > 4 Comments
Summer is here, the time most of us look forward to a break from schooling. While we enjoy a less demanding schedule through the summer, we still do what some would call “summer school”. However, I hope I am successfully teaching my children that learning is a life-long and fun process and that we should never “take a break” from learning.
For the last 3 years our family has used Dr. Arthur Robinson’s Curriculum. Dr. Robinson writes:
It is much better if the brain does not have a 48 hour break every five days. After such a long vacation, it takes a while to resume optimum work, so part of the first new work day may be lost as well. I think that many students effectively reduce their work week to four days if they are allowed a two day vacation every five days. In other words, the extra day of break actually costs two days. This reduces their effective study week to four days – a loss of 1/3 in education.
I’ve often heard teachers complain that Mondays are always a retraining period, as well as the first six weeks once school has started back in the fall.
To that end, I always have activities or curriculum for the children to work on through the summer. For the 3 younger children (7, 7, 10) I purchased Total Math workbooks, that along with writing assignments and reading will hopefully keep their minds sharp. My oldest however will be continuing his work in Saxon Pre-Algebra.
The summer schedule is not strict, and often I save their “school-work” for when the baby is napping or when it’s too hot and no one wants to go outside. If we plan an outing or trip I don’t stress that school didn’t get done.
I also use the summertime to let them use fun, colorful, consumable workbooks. It makes it more enjoyable for the children and shakes our regularly schedule program up a bit.
This is just one way I try to satisfy our children’s thirst for knowledge. For more great ideas please visit my friend Joy at Five J’s for Thirsty Thursday.
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June 18th, 2009 @ 3:50 am
I always have the best of intentions over the summer, but it never fails that we have at least 6 weeks of totally off time. I think it’s me that needs the break more than anyone.
June 18th, 2009 @ 4:11 am
Great post! I like the idea of using some fun workbooks for the kids over the summer. My little ones especially love to complete worksheets. I may have to implement that one soon! I am finding that I really enjoy a short summer break to plan out next year – it really helps me get more excited about the coming school year and that excitement passes on to the kids!
June 18th, 2009 @ 1:42 pm
We school through summer, too, but lightly. I enjoy using the time for more of the fun, hands on stuff that we run out of time for during the year. I enjoy not having to spend the whole month of September reviewing everything that I already taught them the year before!
Great quote from Robinson — SO TRUE!
June 19th, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
THe last few years I have been doing workbooks with them, but I hadn’t gotten any yet this year. I was thinking of just making pages up for them or finding on the web.