Getting the summer holiday balance!

The summer holidays are nearly upon us and for your kids that’s a break from school.  For some, that is freedom! An opportunity to choose what they want to do with less time constraints and guidance.  For some, this is a bit of a nightmare.  No structure, no instruction and no stability.  Most will sit somewhere in the middle: happy to be in control, but occasionally bored and demotivated.

This is a perfect opportunity to dive into areas of life that bring your child joy and that should ideally be the focus of the holidays.  This blog is about getting the balance right so your child feels rested and recharged, but also ready for September and a new year group.

Last month’s blog was all about organised activities that you could do during the break.  This month is about ways to keep your children ticking over academically (albeit a bit stealthily sometimes) so that your child is ready and up for September and the next academic year.

Firstly, you know your child. You might be able to be blatantly academic with them or you might have to be a bit sneaky  🙂 Here are some suggestions.

📚There are plenty of books published these days that will practise skills with your child.  CGP have revision style books for all ages and subjects, but if you go to WHSmith you will find a whole section to lure you in.  If you have a child who loves working through these types of books, then this is the place to start.  You can ask them to do a page or two a day and be reassured that they are moving forward academically without too much input from you.

These texts can smack of school though and you may have a child who will outright refuse to have anything to do with them.  So here’s some alternative ideas.

📚Use the opportunity to write a diary, like the Wimpy Kid over the summer, making it as funny or ridiculous as they like or for younger readers, The Bug Series are great to mimic and are also funny.  Or imagine that they are building their own treehouse and what amazing things they would add, as in the 13 Storey Treehouse series. Picking their favourite book and suggesting a mimic of it in their own time is often a winner

✉️Postcards are often a quick writing activity that children don’t mind doing.  One a week to a relative, their teacher, a TV or sports personality – pretty much anyone (you don’t have to send them all), can keep their hand in so it doesn’t seize up over the holidays. If they are a model maker, instructions or descriptions like a gallery could be your way forward.

🚗Use car journeys for games or recall.  Dates, times tables, I Spy (with increasing difficulty such as starting with colours, then objects), periodic table, making up words from numberplate letters, starting a new word with the last letter of given word etc. etc.

📚If more formal work is what your child needs, then Oak National Academy is a good place to visit.  There are lessons for all subjects within subjects, for all age groups.  This is very schooly as is written and presented by teachers.  Alternatively, YouTube have a tonne of educational material.

We are also running Summer Boosters this summer – a programme designed to bridge the gap between July and September.  These work especially well for children worried about September, possibly with a school change thrown in; children who would otherwise do next to nothing in the holidays; children who are high flyers and they are concerned that they may miss their targets.

With all that said and done, the best and most powerful thing you can do is to model the behaviours and actions you would want your child to see.  Read and write, laugh and be curious, throw yourself into a project or just have fun when you are not working.  They are always watching and absorbing!

I hope you have a fabulous summer! All the very best for a good one.

SUE

Owner of Red Bird Tutoring