Three ways to keep your child learning this summer

My son has been out of school for a few weeks now, and won’t return to school until late August, but we’re trying hard to stay ahead of the summer slide – when the kids start to forget everything they worked hard to learn the previous school year. Our school was great and sent a few things home to help us out, but we’re also trying to take a little more initiative to keep him learning. (I mean, my husband does work for our school system and I work for a university. It’s only natural to teach him during the summer.) 

Require reading. When we took our road trip a few weeks ago, I made sure we had books aplenty in the car. Driving home, our son REALLY wanted to play on his Nintendo DS, and we told him he had to read a certain amount of minutes to earn Nintendo time. He read an entire book, and when we told him he could stop, he refused. It was such a great feeling. 

Create a game with math. I know it sounds a little odd, but I’ve been teaching my son about basic fractions – with running. We’ve been working through the Marathon Kids program (I’ve mentioned them once with their Walk and Talk program), and when we run, he now understands that four quarters makes one whole mile. We work with addition and subtraction with money, and he thinks foreign money (Canadian money) is a lot of fun to play with.  

Online tutoring. Does your child need a little extra boost? SmileTutor offers online tutoring for various budgets. They have part-time and full-time tutors, and even have school teachers who are part of the program. 

What are you working on this summer? What books would you recommend for a rising first grader (who is on a 2nd and 3rd grade reading level.)