How to Keep Your Kids Sharp When School's Out

School's out. No more teachers, no more books.

If you don't follow these simple steps, your kids could lose a lot of what they've learned and have to play catch up in September.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Word puzzles, other "brain" games, and scratch paper
• The ability to creatively turn daily activities into learning experiences

1. The first important step is to choose activities that make learning fun so your kids won't even suspect you're doing a bit of home schooling to keep them sharp.
   
   Encourage a bit of friendly competition by suggesting your children use scratch paper to complete as many of the word puzzles in the daily newspaper as they can and post a chart on the refrigerator with the day's winner. Keep a supply of inexpensive dollar store toys as the prize or let the winner choose what's for dinner/dessert.

2. Turn simple activities like grocery shopping into a learning adventure.
   
   Give each child a portion of the grocery list with instructions to compare the generic product price with the name brand. Remind them to watch for sale prices and the value of coupon savings. Encourage them to do the math to determine how much the coupon will be worth if the store doubles or triples face value.
   
   The child who saves the most "wins" (a toy, the privilege of deciding which video to rent, etc.)

3. Lots of children have trouble learning fractions. Make learning fun by demonstrating the practical value of fractions in terms of doubling a batch of home-baked chocolate chip cookies.
   
   Let your children take turns determining how much of each ingredient should be added. Make sure you check the math before each ingredient is measured to ensure the recipe turns out right.

4. Transform reluctant readers into confident ones by letting them pick out their own books at the library.
   
   Encourage them to read aloud to younger siblings, to you while you're folding laundry ... or even to the dog!

Tips & Warnings

• Explore free and low cost educational opportunities at your local art museum, zoo, science center, etc.
• Check to see if there are free tours of local dairies, candy factories, etc.
• Turn off the TV for at least an hour each night and bring out old fashioned board games like Monopoly, Scrabble, etc.
• Consider teaming up with a neighbor to either take turns providing educational adventures for each other's children or to save gas by going together for activities that aren't close by.
• Remember to concentrate on fun learning activities so your children get a vacation from what feels like SCHOOL!

[Susannerose]

on 8/3/2009 Appreciate your takig time to comment.

[jfjones]

on 8/3/2009 I really like this article, especially number 2. Good advice. Thanks!

[Susannerose]

on 6/8/2009 Your twins are lucky to have you to take them on nature adventures! Thanks for taking time to comment and share your wonderful tip!

[putooi]

on 6/8/2009 Great tips! Also, look for nature trails as they usually have markers along the paths that talk about the vegetation and/or wildlife found in the area. My 8 year-old twin boys love to read those markers and take pictures of the vegetation that they find to see if they can locate the same ones mentioned on the markers.