Keep Your Kids Sharp with Summer Tutoring
Well families, we did it! We all survived another school year (cue mental rounds of applause and gratuitous pats on our own backs); and now glorious summer, with its warmer days and longer nights, is calling to our families for some well-deserved rest and relaxation. It’s time to reconnect with our kiddos, and enjoy some much-needed family activities together. Whether that’s taking a proper family vacation [check out these top family vacation spots ranked by U.S. News] or enjoying a “stay-cation” at home, summer is the best time for recharging our bodies and minds. That doesn’t mean that we should let all of the hard work our kids put into this past school year go by the way side. There are plenty of ways to keep your kids’ brains active during the summer months!
Avoiding the Summer “Brain Drain”
While many children can’t wait for school to end and summer to start, come early July they often find themselves wishing for something to do. Indeed, the season can be a time of boredom, filled with long hours of unimaginative video game playing and television watching. This lapse in learning can have a negative impact on students’ mental capacity. One research study collected by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Summer Learning shows that children typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they did on the same tests taken at the beginning of summer vacation. A different study claims that, on average, students lose 2.6 months of grade-level equivalency in mathematical computation skills before going back to school in August or September.
What about Summer School?
Local and state budgets are stretched so much that schools are rarely in a position to be able to fund remedial programs, and students who once depended on summer school for enrichment classes may find themselves out of luck. This has lead parents to consider alternative ways of keeping their kids intellectually stimulated over the summer. Here are a few ideas for parents who want to stop the summer backslide:
- Gear Up on Learning Materials such as books, games, flash cards, art supplies and writing materials. Commit to working, reading and playing with your child. Learn a new game – this can be outdoors or indoors. Think chess, checkers or even go fish for younger kids. The point is to introduce them to new concepts, strategies, and rules, all of which keeps their minds stimulated!
- Take up a foreign language – learning a new language together is a great summer family activity! It can be as simple as finding a dictionary of words in your language of choice, and committing to memorize certain vocabulary throughout the summer. Or you can take lessons as a family, such as the foreign language tutoring services offered by Club Z! From hola to au revoir, learning a foreign language can be stimulating and fun!
- Take Your Child on “Field Trips” in Your Community. Get outside and look for learning opportunities. Ask younger children to sound out the names of street signs. Ask older children to find 5 different species of flower and then research their names when you get home. Opportunities for learning are everywhere in your neighborhood! Not to mention, visits to the library, museum, parks and even the beach can provide a host of learning opportunities.
- Keep a journal – the journal can be topic specific (i.e. a dream journal, a journal detailing your children’s summer activities, or a journal writing short stories or poems) or it can be a run-of-the-mill-anything-I-want-to-write-about journal. The choice can be theirs! You can take your kids to a bookstore or even a general or convenience store to pick up an inexpensive spiral bound notebook and let them decorate the cover however they see fit.
- Sharpen those math skills – math skills in particular have a tendency to weaken over summer without practice. So help your kids stay on their math game by making it fun! Quiz them while you’re driving in the car and offer a reward (whoever wins picks dinner for the night) for whoever provides the most correct answers. Give older children a chance to flex time-telling and subtraction skills asking them to solve math problems such as, “we’ll arrive at our destination around 5:30 pm (for example) and it is currently 5:15 pm, so many minutes of drive time do we have left?” Or let younger children help you with baking or cooking – there are ample opportunities to build their math skills through measurement, counting, and estimating.
- Consider a Summer Enrichment Program. Summer enrichment programs, such as the Summer Reading Camps offered by Club Z! Tutoring, will provide positive reinforcement to help build confidence and meet the needs of students who have a history of struggling in school.
These are only a few of the things you can do to incorporate learning into your summer activities. Be creative and look for opportunities to make it FUN!
Summer SAT Test Prep and ACT Test Prep
Summer is also an ideal time to start preparing for the SAT and ACT! Here are 5 tips for students to start NOW to get a jump on these important college entrance exams.
- Know your test dates. Whether you plan to take the SAT, ACT, or both (which is our recommendation, by the way!) you’ll need to know when each test is offered so you can plan your study plan accordingly. You’ll want to have at least 4-6 weeks prior to a test date to implement a solid study plan.
- Figure out your strengths and weaknesses for the test. Is there a subject area you need to brush up on before the test? Do you generally struggle with test anxiety? Knowing what your potential problem areas are prior to the test gives you ample opportunity to work on improving those skills before the big day. If you’re unsure, taking a FREE diagnostic test like the one offered by Club Z! and Z Prep! could really help.
- Think ahead. Start looking at colleges. Start thinking about possible majors or areas of study. Start thinking about scholarships and grant opportunities. A good score on the SAT or ACT can help improve your chances of getting into the school or major of your choice, and even qualifying for financial aid. Club Z! offers expert college admissions consulting for students needing help with selecting schools, identifying a major, writing the personal essay, completing the college application, securing financial aid and more!
- Practice, practice, practice. Even if you’ve never seen a SAT or ACT test before, you can familiarize yourself with the layout, test questions, formatting, pacing, etc. by taking a practice test. Practice tests can be downloaded for free from the College Board web site, or the ACT Student web site.
- Don’t delay. Waiting until the last minute to register for a test, or even figure out which test to take, can add undue pressure and stress on an already potentially-stressful situation. Proper planning gives you peace of mind that you’ll do well on the test day. Pressed for time this summer? Check out the online summer SAT and ACT test prep classes offered by Club Z! All sessions are recorded in HD for easy playback and review. And sessions are flexible enough to accommodate any busy summer schedule!
Summer Tutoring = Head Start on the School Year Ahead
Whether you’re worried about your child’s grades, or you just don’t want her to become a TV-worshiping zombie this summer, you should consider keeping education at the forefront of your summer tutoring plans. With the right program and tutor, summer tutoring CAN be a fun and enjoyable experience! At first, your son or daughter may balk at the idea, but once they get their first-quarter grades in October, they’ll be thanking you. Summer tutoring with an in-home tutor can:
- Rebuild self-esteem that was battered by bad grades during the previous school year.
- Close the achievement gap by helping students catch up and get ahead before the start of the new school year.
- Reinforce skills for children with learning disabilities who might otherwise lose skills from a 2-3 month separation from formal learning.
- Provide money-saving enrichment and accelerated learning opportunities outside of traditional daycare.
- Enable students to master benchmarks necessary for passing state reading, writing and math standardized tests.
- Allow kids to explore and develop the skill areas they find interesting, such as art, music and foreign languages.
To find a summer tutor near you, call Club Z! at 800-434-2582 today.