How Should I Help My Kid Over The Summer?

A common question around this time of year is, "what should I do over the summer to help my child?"
I would like to share some options that you may like to use.

• Parent Resource: Please take a moment to read this resource How To Help Your Child Love Reading Over The Summer. It was shared with me from Beth Moore who has been a literacy coach for our school for a number of years. It offers suggestions for how to help your child to enjoy reading over the summer!
• Classroom Blog: Our classroom blog can be used as a way to navigate various websites that relate to math, reading, etc. What is nice about this, is that the students are very familiar with our blog and how to access various programs and games.

Wednesdays at Summit Street School:

• Summit Street Learning Center will be open this summer on Wednesday mornings from 7:30 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. Students and adults are invited to exchange their summer reading books.

• Please visit the library on Wednesdays, starting June 26th  and ending August 21st.

Writing Ideas: Writing can be tricky to think of ideas for. This blog is co-written by Beth Moore. It offers writing suggestions that may spark your interest. Please see suggestions below:

• Create a toolkit (notebook, pens, sticky notes).

• Design a space (special corner in their room with pillows and a clipboard or a beach towel and water bottle for outdoor writing).

• Write cards, letters, and lists.

• Take field trips (walk the neighborhood, visit the library, local museums, or parks). Reflect on those outings by drawing and/or writing.

• Tell stories to your child and with your child. You can record their stories by writing them down, using a voice recording, or by saving them on SoundCloud.

• As your child tells stories, help structure the stories with a beginning, middle and end format. Telling stories is an important precursor to writing stories. Your interest will encourage your child to add details!

• Does your child thrive on a challenge? Color in the squares of the WRITE BINGO board for additional prompts and writing inspiration. (Younger children might like this version (also found at https://goo.gl/MP7J9K )and older children could enjoy this one (also found at https://goo.gl/nT3Gvl ).

• Check out Sharing Our Notebooks, a site by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, for many ideas on summer notebook writing.

• Encourage your child to write a review for all the great reading being done this summer! Sites like The Spaghetti Book Club allow students to submit book reviews!

• Get appy! Try some apps that allow your child to draw with his/her finger or a stylus, record audio and draw. Some favorites include Pixie, Explain Everything, and Notability.

• Tell and retell stories of favorite summer moments with your child. Make a scrapbook of special photographs and memorabilia from the summer. Encourage your child to write about favorite moments and add them to the scrapbook.

More ideas on how to help your child grow as a writer can be found here.