The last few weeks of the school year are special. Students may be completing exams, getting ready to change schools,and beginning to relax more in class as the summer approaches. Learning may look as if it is slowing down or even not happening at all. Students can become restless, even somewhat lost, as the start to loose the regular rhythm of school life that has determined the structure of their day. for most of the year.
It is a difficult time for teachers too. There are end of year meetings to plan for next year, teachers may be leaving and there are the report cards to write and send out. All this on top of the out of school activities and visits that take place as the weather improves and the year’s work gets completed.
These changes can make life difficult for parents who are trying to keep to their normal schedule and who may not be directly involved in these summer preparations. So here are some tips on how to handle this time of endings and new beginnings that your school aged child is experiencing right now.
1. Try to join in the excitement of the upcoming summer.
You might be looking forward to a couple of weeks vacation but your child is looking forward to much more than that. He or she sees an endless summer spread out in front of them, a summer that is ripe with possibilities, places to go and things to see. Try to see the summer through your child’s eyes even if, for you, it means trying to find childcare or summer camps to send your child to. Understanding how and why your child is excited about the holidays will give you a much better grounding for the inevitable conversations and disagreements that summer can bring.
2. Don’t worry about ‘learning loss’
Yes, sure, kids ‘forget’ stuff they have learned the year before but they don’t forget a lot and they normally forget the stuff that is not worth remembering anyway. Most teachers can get kids back on track within the first few days or weeks of he new school year. Learning doesn’t stop because your child is out of school, it just changes from formal school-type learning to informal (and possible more important!) out-of school type learning. Just make sure that your child is not stuck in front of the TV screen all day and that he or she has time to spend with friends and family doing fun stuff and all will be well.
Oh, you might also want to encourage some reading for fun, perhaps you can each rad the same book and have your own mini book club as a way of encouraging reading and language development?
3. Keep a calendar in view
For children the summer seems endless, then suddenly it is all over. Having a calendar hanging around where it could be seen and used to note important dates such as trips, visits, back to school planning etc. helps your child, and you, get a handle on how much time is left to do things and maybe even plan so that the end of summer panic does not happen. No guarantee that it will work, but at least you tried!
4. Set some basic guidelines.
I am sure that you have heard this before but it is worth repeating. You have things to do, your daily routine is probably not changing as much as that of your child, so you all need to be clear about who is responsible for what. For instance, who will clear the dishwasher now that there are more dishes to clean? How will bedtime change and when will exceptions be allowed? How is the house going to be used? Which space is just for you and which space is just for your child? All this enforced togetherness can be difficult without a bolt hole for use in emotional emergencies. Talk about what rules or guidelines need to be in place, and be ready to accept dome that your child suggests.
5. Relax!
Your child will be relaxing, in fact he or she might be so relaxed that they spend most of the day doing nothing much at all.. and how annoying is that!
Here you are, working all the hours of the day and possibly the night, to put bread on the table……… Well I am sure you know how it gos, every schoolchild does as they have probably heard it, or similar versions, spoken many, many times.
Relax, it is the summer and if you have set some mutually agreed upon ground rules, trust your child to have the responsibility to live up to them.
If your child fails to live up to the rules you need to discover how to help him or her take responsibility for their actions.
Dr. Patricia Porter is an educational consultant who specializes in working with parents who are concerned about their child’s education and want to know how they can help your child learn in the most efficient, effective ways possible.
If you are interested in knowing more download her free ‘Parent Starter Kit’ at http://www.leading2learning.com.
