Productive Summer Fun

Want to help your children enjoy a productive summer? Spend time learning together. Following are a variety of ideas to add to your own.

• Organize “learning stations.” Have an older child spend some time each day helping a younger child. The “tutoring” child could teach or review the alphabet, numbers, phonics, multiplication facts, or geographical names.

• Feature “alphabet” days. For younger children, spend a couple of days teaching each letter. For instance, on “A” days, eat foods beginning with A, learn about “A” animals and countries, and go on a field trip to “A” destinations. With 26 possibilities, this idea provides a host of summer fun.

• Read together. Visit your public library and discover age-appropriate books to read aloud with your children. Participate in summer youth programs offered there.

• Schedule quiet time. Help children become more independent by establishing a quiet hour each afternoon. The child spends the time alone in a nearby room, choosing his or her own activities, such as reading, writing, scrapbooking, doing puzzles or workbooks, or completing projects such as crocheting or organizing a drawer.

• Encourage correspondence. Help your children write letters to family and friends. The handwriting practice is good, the process of addressing and stamping an envelope develops a new skill, and the rewards are great as return mail arrives.

Marilynne Linford, Utah