PARENT TALK

Research findings in education and ways to help your child - Volume 2001-2

SUMMER BRIDGE ACTIVITIES

The summer months can drag students down. Their inactivity over two to three months literally drains away the reading, writing, and computation skills that they had gained in the spring of the year. If parents and daycare providers ignore school skills, studies show that children actually regress over the summer months, sometimes with drastic declines.

USE IT OR LOSE IT.

Ask any athlete or musician. If they take a vacation and don't practice for a couple of weeks, they lose their sharpness. Then they have to train for weeks to get back to the level where they can play as they did before. For the same reason children lose their school skills in the summer vacation months. That's especially true of reading and writing and other basic skills. If they don't read and write regularly over the summer, they start the new school year far behind where they were at the end of the previous year.

The loss of skill over the summer is such a serious problem that educators have a term for preventing it. They call it Bridging. Instead of letting kids slide into a ravine of inactivity, you need to build a bridge of activities that will link the work of one year with the next.

In this bulletin you will find specific examples of how you can develop bridge activities for your children - fun activities that also serve the purpose of maintaining their skills. Here are a few easy ones to get your children started:

- Make a weekly trip to the library for at least one book.
- Write a weekly letter to a relative or friend.
- Keep a weekly expense record on spending the allowance or grocery money.

Write and Everything Else Follows

Most people think first of reading because reading is central to all learning. But this summer, why don't you make writing the focal point of bridge activities? Through writing your children can bring all the other important skills into play. They have to write about something, don't they? When they write a letter to Grandma, they can write about the book they are reading or what they are learning about frogs at summer camp.

GET GRANDPARENTS INTO THE ACT. Ask your children to write a weekly letter to their grandparents. Grandparents have a natural interest in and pride of their grandchildren. Most of them will respond to letters from grandchildren - either in writing or with a telephone call. For your children the letters to grandparents can act as a means for summarizing their weekly activities and what they are learning week-by-week. Prompt the grandparents to ask for these letters and, of course, to respond to them.

For younger children set up a pattern that they can follow so they know how to get started. -You may wish to set this pattern for your children:

Dear Grandma,
1) This is the most interesting thing I did this week.
2) 1 learned these things.
3) What did you learn this week?
Love, Sammy

This pattern not only focuses attention on learning, but it also requests a similar response from Grandma or Grandpa. The same pattern could be used in writing to a friend or any other relative.

WRITING OPENS THE DOOR TO SPELLING, VOCABULARY, AND GRAMMAR. Unless your children ask for help in spelling and grammar when writing their letters, don't focus the letter-writing exercise on those elements. Just encourage your children to write and to enjoy their communication. If they have questions, help them, of course.

VOCABULARY. Writing, however, points to the need for a vocabulary that enables one to express ideas clearly. To be clear, a writer also has to spell accurately or the reader will stumble over the message and will make fun of the writer. No one wants that. The same is true for grammar. In keeping with the theme of writing regular letters, therefore, you have a natural opening to ask your child to keep spelling, grammar, and vocabulary skills sharp. Thirty minutes, three times a week will do wonders in maintaining interest and sharpness in these writing skills.

SPELLING. Build spelling practice into your weekly routine. Here are a few hints on how to make spelling interesting for your children:

- Give them a stack of 3x5 cards. As they write, ask them to put troublesome words on a card. Each week you can review those words with them. If they are using e-mail to write their letters, they may prefer to keep those troublesome words in a separate file on the computer.

- On an old rolodex file have your children make their own spelling and vocabulary dictionary. Each special word can be placed in alphabetical order with a definition that was appropriate for the letter in which it was written. Vocabulary building can also follow this rolodex file approach.

- Use a spelling workbook. Most spelling activity books are organized to provide independent activity for students in fifteen minute bursts. Therefore, they make easy-to-administer activities several days a week, if that is the kind of work your child needs.

- Grammar handbook. If you or your child's teacher have identified specific grammatical rules that would benefit your child's work, assign regular exercises in a grammar activity book.

- Circle and correct. As you read your child's letters and compositions, simply circle the words, phrases, or sentences that are not clear or that contain errors. Ask your child to correct the problem. If he does, congratulate him. If he does not, direct him to the solution.

4 Easy Steps to a Summer Bridge Program

Summer bridge activities for your children need not be complex, but you do need a simple plan because you want the activities to work. Take these easy steps and you will have a plan for success:

1. Set a schedule.
2. Reserve a space for summer bridge activities.
3. Have books and materials to guide you and your children.
4. Build incentives into your program.

Let's take a look at each of these steps. You may want to paste this sheet on your bulletin board or refrigerator for daily reference.

STEP 1. Set a schedule.

Children and adults function more effectively with structure-structure in time and in routines. For example, you should designate a daily time for learning because then everyone knows that time has been reserved. Usually an hour a day is sufficient time for summer maintenance of skills. You may want to split that time into two thirty-minute periods. Here is a sample schedule that one parent set for a child going into the fourth grade. Daily work time: 9:00 to 9:45 a.m., 8:00 to 8:20 p.m. 9:00 Write a letter to grandparents or to a friend. Review letter for unclear sentences. Change as needed. Stamp and mail. 8:00p.m. Discuss the rest of the week. Plan ideas for next week's letter. Introduce theme unit for next two weeks. TUES. 9:00 am. Spelling activities from Spelling Worktext. Review work and put special, personal words into spelling notebook. 8:00 p.m. Two-minute spelling drill. Discuss a book or resources for theme unit work. WED. 9:00 a.m. Spelling activities from Spelling Worktext. Work on vocabulary for the theme unit. Write personal purpose or learning outcome for theme unit. 8:00 p.m. Gather resources for the theme unit. Go to library. THURS. 9:00 a.m. Finish week's spelling with creative writing. Make notes on information for theme unit. 8:00 p.m. Five minute spelling review. Do quick experiment for theme unit. FRI. 9:00 a.m. Journal writing. Encourage use of new vocabulary and special spelling words for the week. Read book or search the Internet for theme unit information. 8:00 p.m. No bridge work on Friday night unless child asks for it.

This week-long plan was used as a general structure for all the weeks of the summer, except family vacation weeks. It is organized so a daycare provider can direct the morning session, and the working parents can have a discussion or review in the evening, a discussion that makes them an integral part of ongoing activities.

Why are they able to do all that? Because they laid out a plan, and based it on the principle that writing will be the central vehicle through which other skills and knowledge will be practiced. For further information, see Stretching Young Minds in the Summertime, Family Learning Association, 1999.

STEP 2. Reserve a space for summer bridge work.

Part of the psychology of developing good work habits is to have a place where work is performed. Children go to school where the environment is organized for school work. You may go to a store or an office where you know that work is expected of you. The same is true for children. When they sit at a certain table or desk, they understand that it is time to do their summer "bridge work."

A work space for school-type work requires a table for writing, perhaps a computer, paper, pencils, dictionary, similar books, and materials that make the statement: "When you sit here, you work on bridge activities." The library, for instance, may substitute for a work space at home or at a daycare facility. But don't expect your children to concentrate on reading and writing while they are sitting in front of the TV or when the rest of the house is rocking with the noise and loud beat of Rock-n-roll. Those are not work environments.

Your children cannot succeed in school work (or any work, for that matter) unless they can focus and have a place where they can read and work in peace.

STEP 3. Collect learning materials.

You and your children need books and materials to guide summer learning. For your own sanity, select materials that actually help organize the time and create learning expectations.

A writing journal, for example, can direct your children to write about certain topics and share the writing with others. A journal published by ERIC and the Family Learning Association, called My Galaxy, encourages children to ask grandparents, and other family members to write about events in their lives. The journal becomes a vehicle for interacting with people who are important to the child.

A spelling activity book can direct a child's spelling and writing activities for independent learning. Look again at the sample schedule in Step 1. The parent who made up that schedule used a spelling activity book three times a week for quick morning activities. These included the learning of spelling patterns, and practice writing sentences and stories. In the evening review period, the parents would then review spelling and writing.

A math game can involve-children in solving simple math problems as they work their way through the game. Book stores and discount stores have numerous games that help review computation skills, math facts, and problem solving.

Any game that requires the players to think about problems or vocabulary or where to find information fits nicely into summer bridge work. Think of the currently popular "Who wants to be a millionaire." When the players at home do not know an answer, they have an opportunity to turn to dictionaries, the Internet, and other references to learn more about the correct answer.

Grammar activity books are usually divided into short exercises that focus on some aspect of English grammar and usage. If your child needs to review grammar rules, you may want to schedule work in a grammar book a couple of times a week. As is true with all of these separate skill practice activities, help your children see that their practice will show up in a real-life communication. That's the value of making writing the focus of this summer's bridge work-you can point out places in their letters, summaries, and compositions where they are putting spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and similar knowledge into an actual message.

STEP 4. Build incentives into your summer bridge program.

Naturally you will praise your children for their effort in learning. It is even more productive to build incentives, such as the following:

- As soon as a letter to Grandma is finished, put a stamp on it and mail it. Don't let it sit around.
- Post drawings or short responses to a book on a bulletin board or refrigerator.
- When your child finishes a particularly difficult task, play a board game or offer a treat.
- Upon completion of a theme unit or long learning task, go to the library or to a bookstore for a fun read.
- Always complete a learning task before playing because your child then learns that playtime and work time have distinct purposes. That's the reason that summer bridge work is best scheduled early in the day. A short review period at the end of the day enables you to show your interest and to communicate your love. It also enables you to adjust the bridge activities as you see the need.

Adjust for child's age

Certainly, each of these steps needs to be adjusted to the age and development of your children. Please remember, too, that summer bridge activities are not meant to be a punishment or to replace a summer school catchup program, summer bridge lessons are designed to maintain the skills your children achieved and to help them move with confidence into the work of the next school year.

Usually about one hour a day is sufficient to remind children and to keep them thinking across the summer vacation months. If a day care provider is involved in helping you with these bridge activities, it is especially important that you use books and workbooks that lay out clear lessons for daily work. Use books that are different from the ones that your children used during the school year.

PARENTS BUILD ATTITUDES

A significant aspect of your summer plan is to build attitudes that have long-term benefits for your children. For example:

- Practice is necessary for success.
- Having a plan or purpose clarifies work.
- Working hard briefly over time brings many rewards.

Showing your children the benefits of time management and having a focus while working may be the two most important work habits that you can communicate to them. Though these ideas do not come easily to elementary school children, the concepts gradually sink in if you are persistent and build these ideas into your incentives. You will do wonders for your children during these summer activities if you remember to

- Start on time; finish on time.
- Make a list of tasks and check them off as completed.
- Praise progress and reward the child who understands the purpose of tasks.
- Ask regularly: "What's important to learn today?"

If you prefer video demonstrations of strategies for reading comprehension, book talks, spelling, writing, or working with theme units, call ERIC's help line and ask for a list or a description of those that are available. These videos were developed specifically for parents who want to help their children 1-800-759-4723.

Help Children Visualize the Outcome

Young children usually need help in seeing the intended result of what you want them to do. It isn't because they are stupid. They just have not had enough experience to see in their mind's eye what the outcome looks like.

In this bulletin we have suggested that you use writing activities as the focus for this summer's bridge program. Letters, summaries, stories, reports on theme unit learning, and similar outcomes are typical products. Other skills, such as spelling, grammar, phonics, and so on, are running alongside the major writing products. It is helpful, therefore, for you to have models or visual outlines of what you want your children to produce as major outcomes. You can see a sample below. What does one look for in order to proofread a paper?

These forms are reprinted from "Improving Your Child's Writing Skills" with permission of the Family Learning Association. The book contains numerous examples of children's writing and gives instructional activities for teaching various types of elementary school compositions.

STEP 3. Collect learning materials.

Chapter books, that is, books divided into chapters where each chapter opens and closes a new event, could easily serve as daily reading exercises. In the evening review, then, parents could ask for a quick summary of what is happening. That way parent and child have a common story to discuss and to refer to. For primary grade children, some may need the help of read-along voices. You may want to explore short stories in audio books for that purpose. See a description of audio books in another part of this bulletin. Written summaries of these chapters could become letters to grandparents, keeping them abreast of what your child is reading.

You might encourage an active participation of grandparents by sending them a copy of a book of letters from grandparents to grandchildren, for example, With Love, Grandma, Family Learning Association, 2000.

Theme learning could be a way for you to organize bridge learning for an entire month, even an entire summer. Think for a moment about the theme: "Erosion takes many forms." You could spend as little as one week, or several weeks, reading, learning vocabulary, learning science and social studies, writing and making a presentation on erosion. Theme guide books are available in libraries, bookstores and supermarkets. Theme units prepared by the Family Learning Association are described on the Association's web site: wvw. kidscanlearn. com or you can call for information at 1-800-759-4723.

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