How to Find the Best Educational Summer Activities for Your Child

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Just because school is out for the summer does not mean learning has to stop for your student.

As schools across the country prepare for the long summer break, parents are looking for different ways to keep their children in learning mode. In order to avoid the lag that typically happens between the day schools closes its doors for the summer and reopens in the fall, parents can start looking for different educational summer activities that allow their children to keep their brains active. Over the summer months, Best in Class Education Center, a leading supplemental education franchise, suggests the following ways for parents to motivate and encourage learning in a rewarding and enjoyable way.

Build Vocabulary with a Summer Word Jar
It’s important to build and improve your child’s vocabulary while they are away from school to make sure they are ready to go back to school in the fall. Fill a jar with pieces of paper that have a different vocabulary word on each one. Make some more challenging than others and place them in the jar. Each day, your child can pick a word out of the jar for them to learn and practice. Encourage your child to use the word throughout the week with their friends and family. We recommend at the end of the week doing a mini vocabulary exam to see how well your child is learning each word. Children love this because they look forward to picking a new word out of the jar each day.

Create a Summer Reading List
Before school is out and your child is in summer mode, have them help you create a list of five to ten books that they would like to read over the summer. Set goals for how many books they can read and come up with prizes for each. For instance, completing one book wins a visit to the local museum, while three books wins a cooking class with a couple of friends. Choose activities and prizes that would create a memorable experience for your child while also being fun and educational.

Keep a Journal
Have your child sit down for 10-15 minutes a day to journal about their thoughts and what they liked most about each day. If your child doesn’t have a strong vocabulary, ask them to draw pictures about their daily experiences. Either way, it’s great to have them use their creativity to explain their experiences, and writing is a great way to boost their vocabulary and improve their handwriting as well.

Create a Summer Scrapbook
Encourage your child to save postcards, tickets from museums, the zoo, shows, pictures and brochures from activities you did over the summer. They can use all the mementos they saved to make a scrapbook. Children love crafts, and it’ll be a nice memory book down the line or a perfect show and tell item for when they are back at school.

Get Them Engaged in the Community
No matter what age your child is, it’s important to get them involved and giving back to your local community. Encourage them to donate their time and expertise by volunteering to clean neighborhood parks or tutor kids in reading and math. Help them research local charities to find one to which they’d like to donate time or money towards.

Best in Class centers offer a variety of summer camp programs to engage children in learning and staying sharp over the summer while having fun. The summer program combines various areas of focus from math, English, health & nutrition, arts & crafts, science, social studies, games, drama & theatre and other various activities.

For more information about Best in Class services for your child or about current franchising opportunities, visit www.bestinclasseducation.com or call toll free at 1-888-683-8108.