Fun Tips for Keeping Your Kids Learning This Summer

Students across Oregon are probably more excited about summer break this year given all the chaos they just experienced during COVID-19. Educators at the online public school, Oregon Connections Academy (ORCA) are celebrating National Summer Learning Week July 12-16th, and they’re asking families to keep the learning alive the next several weeks to help children avoid the “summer slide.” The National Summer Learning Association started Summer Learning Week to raise awareness about closing the achievement gap and helping students get ready for the next school year.

“Even before the pandemic, the education community has been concerned about students losing some of the academic gains from the previous school year during the summer months,” said Oregon Connections Academy Principal Miranda Pickner. “The pandemic may have compounded ‘unfinished’ learning for many students, depending on how you went to school, but it’s not lost and there are ways parents can help children complete some of that learning.”

Oregon Connections Academy is a full-time virtual public charter school that delivers a high-quality educational experience to students in grades K-12 statewide. This unique tuition-free school was built for the online environment and is sponsored by the Prairie City School District.

Oregon Connections Academy has created a list of fun-filled Summer Learning DIY Theme Weeks for families to use that contain crafts, field trips, activities and more.

“At our online school, we know learning happens everywhere, every day for students,” explained Pickner. “I hope families can integrate learning into some fun hands-on summer activities and projects they may not always have time for during the busy school year.”

If you are interested in doing some of these activities with your family, consider planning them

a week ahead of schedule to help things run smoother. Each theme includes a few suggestions for the week, but families are good at coming up with their own ideas as well. The best part will be the bonding experiences with your child and the memories you’ll create together.

Entrepreneur Week

Financial literacy develops from a young age, helping students with math, character, and life skills, as well as a sense of entrepreneurship.

Lemonade stand. This is a great week for your child to set up that tried-and-true lemonade stand. They’ll learn math skills for buying supplies, calculating how much to charge, measuring ingredients for the drinks, counting money and keeping records of profits and expenses. The national Lemonade Day organization has lots of helpful information (lemonadeday.org).

Older students can be entrepreneurs by arranging a neighborhood car wash, hosting a garage sale or by getting a summer job.

Operation Piggy Bank. Money is a tangible and fun way for students to explore math. Work with your child to make a piggy bank so they can track their finances. Teens can probably move up a level by opening a checking and/or savings account.

Learning code inspires entrepreneurship. Encouraging kids to learn computational thinking empowers students to fail and try again, boosting self-confidence, allowing them to work on other entrepreneurial skills. Several free coding programs are available for your family’s entrepreneur week (code.org, coderkids.com, codeacademy.com).

Food Week

During food week, kids will learn a lot about the items that land on their plate, including how they were grown, prepared and more.

Farm to fork. A trip to a local farm helps kids understand that fruits and vegetables don’t magically appear in the grocery store. Try taking your child to the U-pick section to harvest blueberries or marionberries, an Oregon favorite. They might also enjoy selecting apples or tomatoes at the farm. When you get home with the fresh bounty, ask your students to help make a pie or jam to demonstrate how to use these delicious fruits and vegetables (4-h.org is a great resource)

Grow your food. A great family activity for food week is cultivating a garden at home. Ask your student to research the veggies they want to grow and visit a local nursery to find the right seeds – pole beans and cucumbers should grow fast during this part of the summer. A garden is truly an outdoor classroom. Think of the math involved in plotting out the garden and the biology students absorb watching the fruits of their labor grow.

Kid chef. The highlight of the week could be letting your child take over the kitchen, from meal planning to clean-up, with your help when necessary. Make sure they write up a grocery list, go shopping for ingredients and stick to a budget. Your child will enjoy cooking, and maybe you’ll have a new chef to help with meal preparation!

Game Week

Games are an effective and entertaining method for children to achieve strong bodies and strong brains throughout the summer. Research shows when kids increase their physical activity, it improves their academic performance.

Take it outside. Fresh air stimulates both the mind and body, so encourage your child to organize games with friends like basketball or tag. You can also help your student set up an obstacle course or learn a new sport.

Summer Olympic Games. With the Tokyo Games coming up, ask your child to pick one of the Olympic sports they’re interested in following. Have them research the origins of the game, or any stand-out athletes competing from various countries.

Exercise the brain. Family game nights are a valuable way to enhance math and logic skills. Consider using games that utilize math techniques such as counting and categorizing. Yahtzee, Monopoly and Dominos are a few recommended by experts. Your child might even be interested in hosting their own tournament with friends.

People and Places Week

During People and Places Week you can enrich your child’s learning in history, writing and more by making a list of some of the cultural events happening in your area this summer.

Discover diversity in Oregon. There are many informative resources to help students learn about the state’s diverse populations from the past to the present. The Oregon Historical Society’s award-winning History Hub was specifically designed with hands-on interactive activities for children to explore our rich history.

The exhibit “Racing to Change: Oregon’s Civil Rights Years'' focuses on the efforts of the state’s black communities to bring about social and political reforms. Your child can see the exhibit this summer at the Museum of Natural and Culture History in Eugene where organizers have added elements of the civil rights movement in that area. The exhibit, created by the non-profit Oregon Black Pioneers, is available online at oregonblackpioneers.org.

Tamástslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton is featuring a special exhibit to help visitors experience the storied past, dynamic present and bright future of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Tribes.

Tour your town. Check with your local Chamber of Commerce for brochures about your community. Then have your child select interesting spots to visit, investigate sites ahead of time and write about them after returning from the trip.

Write about interesting people. Summer is a good time to reach out to talk with interesting people like a local police officer, firefighter or mayor. During COVID-19 many students became more tech-savvy so they may consider using a digital recorder or camera to record their interview. The research and writing skills encompassed in this project will produce benefits in the future for your student.

Space Week

Space Week will likely be a favorite summer learning series around your house. As a parent you’ll discover Space Science covers engineering, math and many other academic areas.

Celestial homework. Ask your student to check out NASA’s website before they start staring

at the sky. Your child should use the special NASA tracker to see if the International Space Station is going to pass over your area soon (spotthestation.nasa.gov). Since NASA only sends crews to the surface once in a blue moon, lots of preparation is underway for next year’s moon mission (nasa.gov/moon). It will also help to pick up a star guide for your student at the library or download a stargazing app on a tablet or smartphone.

Backyard astronomer. Your stargazer is ready to pitch a tent in the backyard and explore the galaxy, with a telescope or binoculars. Not only will your child see prominent stars and planets, but a couple of meteor showers will pop up in the coming weeks. Your student might want to keep a cosmic journal to log their observations.

Chalk constellations. Kids have loads of fun mapping out constellations on the sidewalk with small rocks representing the stars and colored chalk connecting the stones. To preserve Space Week fun, take photos of the sidewalk space art for a scrapbook that your student can add notes to later.

Storybook Week

Reading is part of any theme week but when it’s center stage one week you can emphasize the ways books can be fun and how literacy is a priority in your family.

Library visits. Taking trips to the library will help your child see the wide selection of books to choose from. Many libraries are open again offering summer reading activities for kids.

Family bookworms. Researchers believe spending time reading together as a family has a significant impact on preventing the summer learning gap. Support that love of reading by taking turns reading a chapter book with your child, or for teens start a new book together.

Literacy variety. Just about any reading is valuable, even comic books, novels and e-books.

If you have old magazines, let your child cut out pictures, then using a glue stick and paper they can arrange the images into a "story," picture-book style. What fun they’ll have “reading” you the story they created. While reading to kids is recommended, audiobooks can also engage them, so let your child plug in on their device or listen as a family in the car.

*Looking for other summer theme week ideas? The National Summer Learning Association has a list full of wonderful suggestions available at this link summerlearning.org/summer-learning-week/theme-days-and-resources/

For more information about Oregon Connections Academy please call (800) 382-6010 or visit www.OregonConnectionsAcademy.com