We went to Barnes and Noble tonight with our five kids because I wanted to pick up a few books for their DEAR time. (DEAR stands for “Drop Everything and Read” and it is our fancy way of saying, “This is the time you spend reading for pleasure.”) My kids who read; read voraciously and the others seem equally interested in books. I have a theory on how we were so successful at that, but I’ll save it for another post. I digress.
There before me were several book shelves of workbooks. Surrounding me were parents talking about how their kids must get workbooks to work on academic skills over the summer. I admit it: I was eavesdropping. But I am perplexed by this phenomenon of ‘getting ahead’ by kids doing work books.
Workbooks aren’t bad per se. It’s true they keep your kids from watching too much television, and they can keep your kids occupied but I’m going to let you in on a little secret: you can do better. Yes, even research backs up this wild claim that you can do much better at helping your kids out academically than can a workbook. I won’t bore you with the nitty gritty except to say that if you have elementary aged kids. . .skip the workbooks (or at least lighten the load) and do these academically enriching activities instead.
1. Go to the zoo. . .
or the Hall of Science, the Botanical Garden, Children’s Museum or anything else. Reading comprehension improves ten fold the more rich experiences kids have. So take a few days off and make a point to go see some sites.
2. Curl up with a good book. . .
Most local libraries have summer reading programs. Make sure and sign up. Or try Book Adventure . Or better yet do both. Take books on road trips. Read books instead of watching television. (We actually make our readers read in order to earn television watching priveleges). Also, make a point to read out loud to your kids. Even 8th graders are not too young to benefit from being read to.
3. Sit down to dinner together.
About 5 years ago, a study was done to see which factors most heavily influenced academic success. One consistent factor that seemed to be true irregardless of socioeconomic status was family dinner time. The bottom line is that kids who spend time talking to adults learn to express themselves more clearly and have a better understanding of the world around them.
4. Get out the board games. . .I
Kids learn just as well, if not better, by playing than they do by repetitive book work.
5. Go outside and play. . .
Here’s the deal. . .the more your kids exercise, the more oxygen they have going through their brains. The more oxygen they have going through the brains–the more clearly they think. Playing also reduces hyperactivity (duh–isn’t that common sense?) The AAP says that kids should play at least one hour per day–so try to make that happen during the summer.
Sneaky fun in for academic success,
The Sneaky Mama
The Sneaky Mama 
Rebekah said
Found your blog through Anita’s blogtipping…
as a former teacher, I completely agree! Someone just today asked me if teacher’s were required to send home work (meaning worksheets) for the summer. I said, “They just send home all the extra worksheets they have lying around.”
Kids do lose about 4% of the knowledge during the summer. I think the ideas you posted are far better than any worksheet book or packet. But worksheets are better than nothing, or TV, right, but kids don’t like them as much!
thesneakymama said
I used to teach too! I agree with you 100%. A worksheet is much better than the television. . .but gosh there are so many better options than worksheets! We actually homeschool year round with shorter more frequent breaks becuase I hate to see my kids completely lose what I’ve taught them. In any case, thanks for your comment! And yeah for Anita’s blogtipping! 😉