Help your child learn during family vacations
Keeping young minds active through the summer is a real challenge. Yet, studies show that children who remain active learners outside the classroom are more prepared to return to school in the fall.
Careful planning and commitment can turn your children’s vacation into an exciting learning experience. Here are some summer activities to try on your next trip:
Get organized before you leave
- Find interesting places to visit locally and outside the city. Get your children involved in planning trips.
- Fill a sturdy bag with supplies including pads of paper, pencils, pens, erasers, felt markers, a ruler, reading materials, tape, scissors and maps of the entire area to be travelled.
- Buy your children notepads to keep a diary or a journal of their activities while on vacation.
- For car trips, bring books on tape to play in the car.
Make reading part of your child’s vacation
- Vacations can offer a great opportunity for parents and children to read together. Take time every day for the whole family to read by themselves or together. Even 10 or 15 minutes is fine.
- On car trips, ask your children to read the signs and check the different speed limits.
- Play the alphabet game on road trips. Start with "A" and look for that letter on road signs, billboards, license plates, or buildings. When you find an "A", move on to "B" and so on through the alphabet.
- Collect reading materials from the trip, including newspapers, travel bureau brochures and menus.
Encourage summer writing
- Record each day’s events in a journal, including a description of the place, postcards or personal drawings, an evaluation of the event, and specimens – sand, plants, seeds, theatre ticket stubs.
- Help your children write lists of things they hope to do on the trip.
- Compile a list of names and addresses of friends and relatives to take on your trip. Encourage your children to write letters and postcards to them.
- Write at least one letter to your children during the summer. Ask your children to write back.
- Many hotels and restaurants have customer satisfaction cards. Enlist your children’s help in filling them out.
Sharpen math skills on trips
- Help your children figure out the travel time required, the cost, and the best time to make the trip.
- At the gas station, ask your children how much gas you need and the cost per litre.
- Ask your child to watch the speedometer readings and notice how fast or slow the car is going.
- Have your children estimate the distances between cities and check the estimates on a road map.
- Have your children count the number of red, blue or white cars they see on the trip or the number of restaurants with green, black or white roofs.
- Play card games to help your children learn how to add and subtract or categorize cards by finding matching suits.
- Give your children spending money for the trip. Allow them to use their math skills to manage their own money during the trip.
- In a restaurant, have your children find menu items that cost less than $3 or more than $5. Help your children estimate the total bill and the amount of change you will get back.
Help your children learn about history
- Visit historical sites along the way and save the information brochures.
- Visit places in the city that relate to something your children studied during the school year, such as a museum, a zoo or a local wildlife habitat.
Help your children with geography
- Gather bus and subway route maps and schedules to a special place in your area – the zoo, a museum, a baseball stadium. Help your child be the navigator for the trip.
- Help your children plan your route and write directions to your destination.
- While driving on the highway, ask your children to spot out-of-town license plates to see how many provinces or US states they can find. Have your children find the provinces or states on a map. Talk about what the place has that’s different from where you live.
When you get home
- Check out library books and videos to reinforce new learning from your trip.
- Encourage children to take their journals to school to share with the class in the fall.
Of course, one of the most important parts of a summer vacation is time spent with your children. Helping your children enjoy activities that stimulate the mind will teach them to appreciate life and lifelong learning.
