Summer in Vancouver: Four Ways to Keep Kids Learning
It’s summer in Vancouver and the kids are out of school! Alongside the giant cheer from the children you might be able to hear some worried sighs from parents and educators. What will happen to all their hard-earned progress in school when kids stop practicing their skills this summer?
Thankfully, summer in Vancouver is perfect for keeping kids learning, but summer learning might look a little different from classroom learning. Here are four ideas to help you keep kids learning and having fun all summer long.
Pick a Project
Child-led projects are a fun way to watch a kid’s fascinations grow into a broad web of knowledge. Start with something your kid loves: maybe it’s spiders, or pirates, or dinosaurs, or Little House on the Prairie. Go with it. Together, learn everything you can about the topic and how that topic relates to other things. Use costumes, drawings, letters, imaginary play, graphs, library books, photography and real world exploration to explore and deepen your child’s interests.
Summer Science
There is no better way to learn about the natural world and the laws of science than by getting out into the real world. A trip to the beach turns into a learning experience when you bring a shore life field guide along with you. Spend hours peering into a tide pool, digging up clams, examining seaweed or building structures out of driftwood. Learn how levers and fulcrums work by making one. Learning we do with our hands and bodies is memorable in a very powerful way.
Learning on the Road
Going on holiday this summer? Traveling to new places and meeting new people is a learning experience whether you’re young or old. You can help by providing a blank scrapbook, a glue stick and a folder of printed photos for kids to make a travel scrapbook when they get home. Older kids can practice labeling photos with names and places, while preschoolers and kindergarteners will be happy to cut, glue, stick and decorate to their heart’s content.
Mastering Math
One area that teachers and parents worry about most is math. Summer in Vancouver isn’t a fun time to sit at the kitchen table with math worksheets, but it’s a great time to put math facts into action. Look for opportunities to practice applying math in the real world. Estimate the size of your family van, then measure it with a ruler or tape measure. How many raspberries are in a pint? If everyone wants two popsicles, how many do we need? How many kilometers should we drive each day to get to grandma’s house in three days? The possibilities are endless, and usually more interesting than textbook math.
Bonus Summer in Vancouver Suggestion Courtesy the VSB
The VSB connected us with some resources for online learning. The internet offers a wide range of fantastic and free resources for just about every type of learner. Some of the most popular games that encourage creativity for younger children include drawing game SketchUp, building online with Lego Digital Designer or creating a digital flip book with FlipSnack. If you find yourself stuck inside on a rainy day this summer in Vancouver, you may want to check those sites out.
Summer in Vancouver is a good time to learn on the go, and it’s also a good time to let off the pressure a little. Kids do need some time to relax and just be kids, to ride bikes on the sidewalk all afternoon and play dress-up with the kid next door. Whether your child is exploring the limits of gravity while building sand castles or digging deep into the intricacies of the Rainbow Fairies and their role in Fairyland, they really are learning all the time.
