Stop Summer Learning Loss: What It Looks Like, Sounds Like And Feels Like -Part 3 of 3

This is the third post of a three-part miniseries to prepare you for helping your child with summer skill practice.  The first post helped you make a list of skills that your child should practice (click here).  The second post emphasized the need for a planned schedule -how many days per week, what part of the day, how much time (click here).  This is the final post of the miniseries which will help you make skill practice an enjoyable time for both you and your child.

You can make a huge difference in the way skill practice is perceived (and received) by your child. 

Here are three ways you can make summer skill practice enjoyable for your child and perhaps give him reason to change his perceptions.

Seeing is believing.  If doesn't look like fun…it could be painful.  Ok, here's an extreme analogy but work with me here.  Think of all the time you put into preparing for your child's birthday party.  Birthdays are fun to begin with, but we still put time into making them special.  Why shouldn't we invest in preparing for our child's time spent on summer skill practice?  For most children, summer skill practice is not something they want to do.  So why don't we put much, if any, effort into trying to make the time more interesting, even exciting and something they begin to look forward to?  (Wouldn't that be amazing!) 

It's worth preparing for your child's summer skill practice so it will look interesting...fun: 

• Know what materials will be needed…and wanted? 
• Think about the different places where your child can do the skill practice.  Let's start with the "Where". 

Where is the best place for your child to focus on skill practice?  It's all about location, location, location!  This depends on the child.  Working together outdoors might be productive and enjoyable for some children while it will be too distracting and a waste of time for other children.  If indoors, what room is most likely to be the best place for your child to focus on summer skill practice, get it done and move on. 

Can you switch up locations as an incentive?  Make it an "if-then" offer:  "If you do your skill practice for 10 minutes today without wasting time, tomorrow we will do your skill practice outside," or "at the park and then play."  (Keep an eye on the weather forecast so you don't make a promise you can't deliver on.)  Again, the options should depend on what your child can do while remaining focused on the summer skill practice and experience success.   Offer options and challenges for switching locations, but don't include places where it will be impossible for your child to focus on the practice. 

What materials will be needed?  Worksheets and internet resources can provide practice during times when your child works alone or when you are within close proximity -like meal prep.  You can review completed work immediately or plan to revisit completed work with your child at another time. 

Immediate feedback is most meaningful, but no matter when you decide to review your child's work, schedule it so it isn't forgotten and so your child can expect it.  Remember, if you don't schedule it, it's likely not going to happen!

There are free and paid printable resources available online at sites like www.SuperTeacherWorksheets.com and www.TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For online interactive sites, check www.MobyMax.com , www.Raz-kids.com, and www.ReflexMath.com.

The co-op approach has you working side-by-side with your child.  Worksheets and internet resources can also provide a focus for your work together.  Working together is a good way to strengthen skills that your child can't do independently.  You are present to monitor progress and review when mistakes are made. 

If you are present while your child is working online within a system that adjusts the content according to your child's answers, resist the urge to correct your child's work.  Allow the program's algorithm to provide feedback.  Otherwise, the system will adjust to what appears to be your child's accuracy and progress, but instead it is actually your assistance that will cause the system to prematurely advance your child's practice level.

In the case of being with your child while they work online, you are there to encourage and notice what your child needs to spend more time practicing.  Then, some of your off-line time can be spent on the same skills.

Add a flare of fun.  Make summer skill practice special by giving your child fun supplies (seasonally themed supplies: colored marker or colored paper; seasonally themed activities: word problems about summer activities -especially those your child enjoys).  Spread them out over time, don't give all the special materials at once. . 

Consider the ambience to make summer skill practice LOOK fun!  Is there something you can add to the designated work area that will make the ambience more inviting and fun for your child?  Two possibilities are seasonal decorations (consider making them with your child) and special music playing in the background -maybe instrumental rather than music with vocals.  Again, don't add everything at once, do one change at a time. 

Ambience elements can be presented to your child as acknowledgements of her super effort on a difficult skill or accomplishing a work habit (like staying powerfully focused for a short practice session).  Present these elements as bonuses, emphasizing that if they become a distraction, then the changes will have to be removed.  What a great experience for youngsters to lean into -learning how to make their work enjoyable.

Printer paper can be used to make signs with phrases of encouragement.  Frame the signs in inexpensive frames from the dollar store to display in the work area.  Change out the signs on a weekly or monthly basis.  Do a summer countdown, showing how many weeks of summer skill practice remain before your family vacation or before school begins.  Think beyond the obvious!

Make the area interesting, decorated for the purpose and personalized for your child.

Show your child you appreciate their effort and cooperation.  If your session is only a short amount of time, like 10 minutes, acknowledge successful completion of the session with something enjoyable you can do together.  If the sessions are longer than 15 minutes, plan breaks between types of skills -math, reading, writing, etc.  Make their time spent on summer skill practice a lively time,use resources like BrainPop or BrainPopJR as a commercial break, a YouTube animal live Cam or give them a dance break (you too).  But be careful, don't let the commercial break become the focus of the session (two minutes and movin' on).

Whatever approach you take, make it lively and fun.  Part of the fun will be that your child is spending time with you during the summer skill practice sessions.  Even if your child is working independently, find ways to "interrupt" with encouragement that might seem spontaneous to your child but it is planned by you. 

Behind the scenes, you are preparing for the sessions to make them interactive and interesting...making the sessions fun for your child.  Keep in mind the differences between what you think is fun and what your child thinks is fun.

What does your child's skill practice sound like?  You know your child best.  Will he be most efficient with skill practice taking place in a quiet area or will he be distracted by isolation?  Choose a location where your child has the level of quietness that he needs in order to focus and get the job done.  If there are too many distracting sounds, it will be impossible for him to have a successful and enjoyable time.

You know how your child will react to the idea of spending time on summer skill practice.  So plan on it!  Plan ahead on what types of comments you can make to encourage and support.  Interactions between the two of you should sound pleasant, cooperative and inviting. 

Don't forget about humor!  See the skill practice through her eyes. Making funny comments about your expectations can help keep the mood light,  "This is Daddy's idea of summer fun!" "It's torture tiiiiime!"  

Be even more prepared by thinking ahead to the type of positive comments you want to say during summer skill practice.  Even if your child is working independently in another room, can you make a guest appearance to share how much you admire her for the focused work she is accomplishing?  Stop in for that drive-by hug.  Tell him you are on his team and cheering for him to do strong work.

If you know your child is going to resist the idea of summer skill practice, think about even the smallest behaviors you expect to be able to praise her for: sitting properly on the chair, holding her pencil correctly or writing her name on the paper…anything to jumpstart the flow of praises. 

If your child will be extremely unappreciative of summer skill practice, prepare to acknowledge it, identify it and label it with words, "I know this is not how you'd like to spend the next 10 minutes.  You don't like school work and you are disappointed that you can't do something else right now.  I'm setting the timer so we both know when you've successfully completed your time."  Then, start the session immediately and let the flood gates of your praise open wide!  (Notice, success is time completed for this situation, rather than accuracy.)  

What will the practice session feel like?  Time spent on summer skill practice can be a source of positivity and fun!  YES IT CAN! 

Change the way you and your child think about skill practice.  Give them reasons to like it.  Create moments of being together doing something that can have long term benefits beyond just the skills being practiced.  Consider it as teamwork, you're in it together. 

Talk about how the summer skill practice your child does now will help make the next school year "easier". It's not necessarily a motivator for all children to be told that their effort now will make them more "prepared" for the future.  But, "easier" is more motivating to some. 

Tell stories of when you were in school and the things you disliked about doing school work at home, especially if you did school work during the summer.  Tell about new things you are learning now -related to your hobbies, work or home life so your child can see that even adults continue to learn.

Be careful not to turn the session into a conversation.  The time for summer skill practice should not be consumed with dialogue.  

You will probably have to identify for your child that it's time for skill practice.  Approach them with a hug rather than a dreaded announcement.  Give them a peace-offering, write a note "It's time!" and hand it to your child with a glass of their favorite drink or healthy snack.  Find any way possible to begin the session on a positive note rather than the same-old declaration, "It's time for homework!"

 Not all of your ideas will work, but some of them will make summer skill practice sessions more fun for your child.  Don't give up!

Let's make s'more teachable moments, together!

Ron